Norwegians from city, town, village, and countryside, yes, from all over the North and Central West, celebrated today at a banquet given by the Norse colony here in Chicago in honor of Dr. [Fridtjof] Nansen. Many a Viking drinking horn was drained in good old Norse style in Nansen's honor.

As early as six o'clock the Auditorium was filled by an expectant throng waiting for a sight of the great explorer. More than two hundred representative men and women attended the banquet in his honor. The banquet hall on the ninth floor of the Auditorium was filled by an expectant crowd.

Amid thundering applause, Nansen arrived about 7 P.M. Banker H.A. Haugen, 2 being the toastmaster for the evening, bade the old seafarer welcome and escorted him to his seat of honor at the table.

Mr. John Anderson bade Nansen welcome with the following words:

"Fellow Countrymen:

"We are assembled here tonight to do honor to a countryman whose name is now well-known to all enlightened nations, and whose fame has spread over the civilized world. Abler tongues than mine will express to him our warmest greetings.

"On behalf of the committee of arrangements it gives me great pleasure to extend a hearty welcome to our distinguished friends from beyond our borders and to hope they will enjoy their visit among us. I also take the privilege of thanking our American friends for honoring us with their presence tonight. I will now call upon one who is too well-known 3to most of you to need any introduction from me--Mr. H.A. Haugen, who will act as toastmaster of the evening."

Mr. Haugen then introduced the editor of the Skandinaven, Mr. Nicolay Grevstad, whose speech was as follows:

"Hail and welcome, brave son of Norway! Welcome to Chicago, the heart of America, the second Norwegian city in the world! Welcome to this great northwest, where hundreds of thousands of people of your own blood have found new and happy homes!

"We Norwegians of Leif's Vineland, are proud of our status and dignity as citizens of the great American republic, and we yield to none, native or foreign born, in love for the Stars and Stripes. Yet we take as much pride in the Norwegian name as do our kinsmen across the sea, and we vie with them in honoring you because the glamour of your heroism 4and wondrous voyage has gladdened the heart and lit up the furrowed features of dear old mother Norway.

"She sent her sturdy sons upon their dangerous mission. They were piloted by her hopes and inspired by their love for her. Their strange craft was a symbol of Norway herself as it disappeared on the horizon. Norway was always uppermost in their thoughts. What they did, they did for Norway. Their imagination was charmed by a symbolic spell; the fate of the fatherland was in their hands--wrapped up in their success; thus the 'Fram' [Nansen's ship] was Norway, surrounded by perils but indestructible in her strength. And when their good ship had reached a Norwegian harbor, unharmed and even unscathed, and all were safe home again, a wave of exulting enthusiasm burst upon the land. For the 'Fram' was Norway's ship of state that after a perilous voyage was now anchored in the safe harbor of its future destiny.

"Norway may well be proud of such sons. Well may her bosom swell with 5joy because their great task has been so nobly fulfilled and because the glory of it is her own. The whole civilized world pays homage to her as the mother of the greatest of Arctic heroes. He disappeared from civilization amid misgivings. He reappeared with the veil of Ultima Thule, with the secrets of an icebound world as his trophy. From the empire of eternal ice and darkness he wrested a larger territory than has been won by the combined efforts of all Arctic explorers of the last two hundred years, and he planted Norway's red, white and blue at 86.14 to mark the new boundary line of the known world.

"If she is poor in marts and money, Norway sits in the council of the great nations because she is rich in great men. Behold! While nations are brooding over problems put to them by one of her sons, that silent old man with the lion head, that profound philosopher and preacher of the drama, a youthful hero sprung from her loins, suddenly leaps out of the Arctic seas flashing his solution of the frozen riddles upon a startled world. And rising from her seat, Norway takes one of these sons-- 6the greatest among living writers--by one hand, while leading by the other the greatest among the men of action of today; and stepping in front of all nations, she says with the pride of a Roman mother: 'These are my boys.'

"The story of the Nansen expedition reads like a fairy tale from the crystal palaces of the ice king, glowing in the ever-changing hues of the midnight sun or the northern lights, but hidden far beyond a forbidding fog-land where the dreaded frost giants rule. It has been an inspiration to our compromising, machine-made, dollar-branded civilization. We have all felt the touch of its magnetic thrill. It has ennobled our purposes, quickened our best impulses, and raised the standard of our aims.

"In the glorious success of this most wonderful of all Arctic voyages we recognize the triumph of the highest type of manhood enlisted in the service of mankind. Was there ever a finer display of moral and 7physical courage? Nansen finds his plans rejected by nearly all Arctic authorities. His theory of the polar current is frowned upon; his idea of building an ice-proof ship and of drifting across the polar sea is ridiculed; the whole project is condemned as unworthy of serious consideration, as boyish folly, as sheer madness.

"But he does not swerve in his faith. He is more firmly resolved than ever to stake his life upon his theory. And there are hundreds of men who dare to believe in this one youth against all the veteran explorers of the world, and who plead for the privilege of committing their lives in his hands.

"Such an unerring self-confidence and such power to inspire faith in others are endowments of true greatness. It is a born leader of men that is revealed to us at the very threshold of the daring undertaking, surrounded by followers as brave as himself.

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"Nor do they falter when they are face to face with the perils of the frozen North. The black pall of the Arctic night cannot repress the buoyancy of their spirits, nor does the roaring and thundering of the pack ice strike them with terror. As their marvelous 'Fram' deftly eludes the embraces and easily resists the tremendous pressure of the ice, they grow almost reckless in their complete abandon of fear. Life on board the 'Fram', as pictured by Nansen, reads like a great saga of some ancient viking. It is the old viking spirit that would jest at danger and laugh at death; it is that spirit that fills these men and nerves them to their task. Come what may, they know there is but one way and that is fram--[that is] forward.

"The stage of history has presented no scene more lofty or heroic than those enacted in the ice desert by Nansen and his men. Look at them as they are assembled beside the 'Fram' on that memorable day of parting! Two of them are to make a dash for the Pole, while the others will remain with the ship. The last farewells have been exchanged. There 9are a few drops in the eyes of these sturdy men; shadows of sadness flit across their weather-beaten features: and in the parting grasps of their strong hands there is a tremor of restrained emotion. Chief and men alike are moved and touched at the sundering of so many close ties of trials and triumphs. But there is no doubt in their hearts. Those who leave are as confident as ever that the 'Fram' will make her way out of the ice and reach Norway in safety, and those remaining on board never doubt that their chief and his companion will find their way back to civilization. Inspiring courage, sublime faith of friend in friend!

"And as our eyes follow these two wanderers trudging and toiling across the broken ice fields, words to express our admiration of their matchless courage, their perseverance, and their power of endurance fail us.

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"Heroes of other times and climes crowd upon our memories and pass in review before us as we look, and a most imposing sight it is. But these lone pathfinders of the polar regions, climbing ice hills in blinding snowstorms and with the grip of the polar cold upon their limbs, in a grim determination to do or die, to test the power of man's endurance to the very limit. Ah! A nobler and grander scene was never witnessed, a more thrilling, heroic, and inspiring picture was never flashed upon the screen of history--never!

"Such deeds are immortal. They cannot die. In the heavens of history the heroism of our modern Fridtjof Nansen will shine for all time to come as a radiant polar star of sacrifice and unselfish devotion to a noble cause.

"Youthful victor of the icy battlefields, your rich conquest for science belongs to mankind, the inspiring example of your grand courage to the youth of all lands, your fame to Norway. We, your brothers of this land 11of the brave, love and admire you as the ideal type of Norse manhood, and thank you for the luster you have shed upon the Norwegian name. May long life and happiness be your portion! And may our common mother, Norway, rear many sons who, like you, will crown her with wreaths of imperishable glory!"

Nansen then spoke for about thirty minutes, thanking the Norwegian people for their grand reception in his honor.

The toastmaster then introduced the well-known banker, Paul O. Stensland, who spoke as follows:

"Mr. Toastmaster and Gentlemen:

"You have been listening to such eloquence that it is not without fear and distrust of my own ability that I tackle the subject laid before me, to wit: 'The "Fram" and Her Crew.'

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"The 'Fram' first. Many a North Pole-bound craft went forward and onward as bravely and daringly as did the 'Fram'. She, however, got farther upward toward the Pole, I mean, than any of the rest and, curiously enough, she came back as safe and sound as if she had never left at all. Now confining ourselves to her success so far as it was secured by human efforts alone, how do we account for it? It is true that the boat was built and fitted out according to the plans and instructions of the master spirit, Dr. Nansen himself. It is also true that these plans were made with such a foresight and insight into every detail as to arouse the admiration of the world. This is the factor accounting for the way the 'Fram' stood her test when and while in the deathly clasp and grasp of the ice demons. Yet when we speak of her safe return and successful voyage upon the whole, there is one more factor, and a prominent one too, to be considered. That is the captain of the ship and her crew. The captain--well to go a little back in time--I think it safe to say that pious Aeneas of old had not a more trustworthy friend in his 'fidus Achates' than Fridtjof Nansen in Captain Sverdrup. And were Mr. Sverdrup 13here himself, I am sure he would not wish to be extolled to a dizzier altitude or parallel than that of the three thousand celebrities of Troy. The crew comes next. The waves of the ocean have closed upon and roared their funeral hymns over thousands of sailors as brave and daring as the men of Captain Sverdrup; yet on the other hand, or from another point of view, I think I dare say that seldom, if ever, has the world seen such a company as the one on board the 'Fram'. What a unit of hearts and souls! What a loyalty and faithfulness to duty! What discipline! Obedience, formal and external, may be enforced; true discipline cannot, for true discipline is the voluntary, cheerful command of self; and of those on board the 'Fram' everybody was fit to be a commander, because everyone knew how to obey. Lieutenant Johansen shared the ghastly perils of the chief, Dr. Nansen himself, during their superhuman sufferings and wanderings across the endless icebound fields of the polar sea, and History has entered his name among her never-to-be-forgotten heroes. History! Yes, there, there on the roll of undying fame ought the world to read the name of every one of those modest, silent 14vikings who manned the 'Fram'. But History has little room; if she had more, she, like man, would forget. Yes, friend, how many among us here can recall and mention the several names of that noble crew? We would if we could, and therewith let us comfort ourselves, while raising our glasses in honor of 'Fram' and her Crew!"

The following representative people were present at the banquet: H.G. Haugan, Milwaukee; Halle Steensland, Madison; H.L. Anderson, Chicago; C.N. Haugan, Iowa; Dr. Axel J. Boyesen, Chicago; Emil Bjorn, Chicago; Carl Nielsen [Dane], Chicago; Niels Juul [Dane], Chicago; Franz A. Lundstrand [Swede], Chicago; Mayor Carter Harrison, Chicago; Colonel K.C. Pardee, New York; A. Boyesen [Dane], Chicago; Ezra C. Fahrney, Chicago; Dr. Peters Kuriko [German], Chicago; C. Hamstrom [Swede], Chicago; Henry L. Hertz [Dane], Chicago; John L. Lindgren [Swede], Chicago; Paul O. Stensland, Chicago; R. E. Edwards [Dane], Chicago; H.A. Haugan, O.N. Haugan, Chicago; Professor Rasmus B. Anderson [Dane], Chicago; Robert Lindblom [Swede], Chicago; Senator Knute Nelson, F.H. Gade [Dane], Chicago; Dr. Christian Fenger [Dane], Chicago; Nicolay Grevstad, Chicago; Ole Stensland, Chicago.