Captain Sigurdur K. Gudmundson: lecturer and traveller

              Figure
CAPTAIN SIGURDUR K. GUDMUNDSON 
Lecturer and Traveller




SIGURDUR K. GUDMUNDSON 
Illustrated Lecture Back from Siberia



Few, if any, white men have experienced the adventures, braved the evil forces of nature and mankind, accomplished the seemingly impossible in the face of almost certain death, still such has been the lot of Captain Sigurdur K. Gudmundson, who in 1920 was lured into Northeastern Siberia by answering in the name of humanity a call of distress from the Soviet government.  After delivering supplies and giving aid to the starving population Captain Gudmundson's vessel the 
Polar Bear
 and cargo was seized by the Soviet government.  Determined to have justice, the intrepid Captain accompanied by one Sailor went to Yakuskt, seat of the Soviet council.  A midwinter trip of 2200 miles across the Arctic wilderness of Northeastern Siberia, using dogs and horses, but mostly reindeers.  The first American citizen that ever traversed Verkyhansky district, geographically known as the coldest place on earth, where the thermometer registered as low as 96° below zero.  A country where existing maps are drawn from tales of Cossacks.  Political and criminal convicts existing there in exile.  Passing through a section of country where there are FIVE primative races of people, distinct in their origin, customs and habits of living; other districts depopulated by the ravages of typhoid fever where silent evidence spoke of extreme starvation.



Figure

Polar Bear in the Ice



Determined to die rather than be disarmed, the Captain and his Sailor defied the Red Council and lived to tell the blood curdling tales of a thousand thrills, returning to their vessel to find it wrecked by ice, then repaired another abandoned vessel on which the Captain and his crew reached America with a $100,000 cargo.  At the end of his lecture he will don the fur clothes worn on this memorable trip.



Personal contact and close observation can alone discribe the terrible suffering of the prolitarian within the Soviet government.




Captain Gudmundson is an Icelander by birth, naturalized American citizen.  He has just enough accent in his speech to make his thrilling recital of stirring adventure intensely realistic.




From Hon. Stephen J. Chadwick, former Judge of Supreme Court, State of Washington:



Mr. S. K. Gudmundson, Wenatchee, Washington.




Dear Captain Gudmundson:




When you told me at the Elk's Club in Wenatchee of your experiences and I induced you, when you were later in Seattle, to talk to the bar association out of which requests came to talk before the Members Council of the Chamber of Commerce, the College Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs and the Faculty Club of the University, I little thought of what the interest and enthusiasm with which your remarks were received would lead to.  I have talked with many people who have heard you with the Ellison-White people, and I have not heard a single criticism or unfavorable comment.  Your story is one of gripping interest and told in a compelling way.  The remarkable thing about it all is that you seem to have the faculty of holding the interest of the college professor as well as the ordinary, every-day business man.


Figure


Captain in Siberian Regalia





Life and Resources Within the Arctic Circle



An authentic and dramatic description, based on 22 years of personal experience and observation within and around the Arctic Circle of America and Asia:  Such as five distinct races of people living within the Arctic Circle of different industries.  The roaming animals living on the drifting ice flows of the Arctic ocean.




The various animal life on the Arctic tundra lands and mountain sides.  The different form of life in the Arctic ocean, from the largest living mammal of today, to the teaming millions of minature fish, unmeasurable wealth of undeveloped mineral resources, such as gold, silver, lead, iron, mica, lakes of mineral oil, etc.





THIS IS WHAT THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON SAYS ABOUT HIM



University of Washington:  —I would like to hear you give that lecture before the Boy Scouts and any organization of young American manhood, because I think it is most stimulating from the standpoint of vigorous manhood that I have ever heard.




David C. Hall, M. D.
 President Faculty Club.



Figure


Captain Buying a Pile of 3000 Fox Skins from Soviet Government



University of Washington
:  —Captain Gudmundson's recital of his experiences in Northern Siberia was one of the most interesting occasions I have experienced in the Pacific Northwest.  We have only known in a vague way the condition in that country in the past.  The most remarkable upheaval in Russian government, were simply startling.  I believe in him giving these experiences in lecture form.  I certainly wish for him abundant success.



(Note:  The greatest historian of the northwest.)




Edmond S. Meany.




University of Washington
:  —I am very glad to commend the extremely interesting lecture recently given by Captain S. K. Gudmundson, before the Faculty club of the University of Washington.  I have never listened to a more fascinating talk, and as I told my family when I went home 
It was as good as Treasure Island.



Frederick M. Padelford.




University of Washington
:  —I want to thank you and your committee for giving me the opportunity to hear Captain S. K. Gudmundson at the Faculty club.  I think he has a message that is profoundly interesting and he delivered it very well.  He has certainly had some marvelous experiences that would try the souls of most men and he has given us a picture of what Russia now means to itself and the world; that should have the widest possible hearing.



W. E. Henry,
 Librarian.


Figure

Captain's Dog-team in Chooktchy King Camp


University of Washington
:  —I am one of those who greatly appreciated and enjoyed the talk of Captain Gudmundson and the impression I got from the man himself was all to the good.  I also approved and agreed with what he had to say not only of the Bolshevik but also regarding our tardy entrance into the war, etc.  Such things are good for the radicals and German sympathizers to have to listen to and they certainly do the rest of us no harm.



G. Mc. P. Smith.




University of Washington
:  —I would say that Captain S. K. Gudmundson's subject matter as well as the delivery by the lecturer were both well done.  As to value as lecture material, I should most certainly say that experiences in such an unknown locality ought to appeal to an average thoughtful audience.  So little has been written about Siberia that most people associate it only with exiles and extreme climatic conditions, while the manner in which the people live has however not been mentioned to any great extent.



Harold W. Nightingale.




Seattle, Wash.
—I did hear Captain Sigurdur K. Gudmundson at the Kiwanis club some months ago.  I must say I was very much interested and impressed with the story of his experiences.  I wish that many



of our young people might hear him tell that story.  It would impress upon them the value of those sterling qualities of the man who meets danger frankly and unafraid and who keeps the interest of his country and of men uppermost in his mind.  I shall long remember his most interesting story.


H. T. Lewis.
 Dean University of Washington. December 4th, 1925




Scottish Rite Bodies, Wenatchee, Wash.
—The lecture delivered by Mr. Gudmundson is one which every American, young or old, should hear, especially at this time when there is a threatening menace by those who would instill the Bolshevikistic idea into the minds of our boys and girls.



There is no uncertain sound in his unveiling the schemes of this enemy of our great land of liberty.




Charles W. Finlayson,
 Secretary.



American Legion, Wenatchee, Wash.,
 strongly recommends Captain Gudmundson's lecture on Siberia.  It gives a picture of conditions as they actually exist today under the Soviet Regime and brings home to us very vividly just what we could expect in our own United States if we would listen to theories put forth by certain elements in this country.
  Fred J. Sharkey, Commander, Wenatchee Post No. 10, American Legion.




San Marcos, Texas, Captain Sigurdur K. Gudmundson, care Ellison-White Chautauqua.
—Your lecture is going like a million dollars.  Congratulations.




M. E. Paget.
 Seven day circuit manager.



Medford, Oregon.
—I believe tremendously in your message and was perfectly delighted at your faculty in getting it over to your audience.  It was most thrilling and stirring indeed to anyone, picturing as it did your own adventures and experiences in that little known land of the Arctic Siberia.




Aubrey G. Smith,
 Supt. Medford Schools.



Paso Robles, Calif.
—Those who heard Captain Sigurdur K. Gudmundson lecture 
Back from Siberia
 will without question give him the honor of being America's most useful citizen in fighting the dangerous hand of Bolshevikism, which is aching for a power even in this enlightened land of ours.  The captain is the man who can show America the condition of affairs where Bolshevikism rules.



M. Moe.
 Chairman of Chautauqua Committee.




OUR INTREPID CAPTAIN OF THE FAR NORTH



We are thrilled in reading of Amundsen and his attempted trip to the North Pole.  But for intrepidity, Amundsen, or Perry, or Stefansson have nothing on Wenatchee's captain of the far north, S. K. Gudmundson, who lectured Thursday night in Wenatchee.  His recital of the trip from the northern shores of Siberia to the capital of the Bolsheviks in mid-winter and while the entire region was torn by war parties of the 
Red
 and the 
White
 armies in Russia is the most thrilling tale ever heard in this community.




Gudmundson has lived through a cross-section of Bolshevik history—a period in our own time which is a virtual page from the history of the Dark Ages.  He defies the communist to face him with any excuse for the fate of Russia.


Wenatchee Daily World.




I can most heartily endorse Captain Gudmundson's lecture.  He has a message that should be heard by every American.  Man, woman and child, as well as by all communists and radicals, red or pink.




O. G. Wood,
 Supt. Twisp Public Schools.




You have been wonderfully helpful.  You have done great lecture work.  I maintain that you have the most valuable lecture upon the platform today.  Because you have seen Bolshevism with its red teeth and sharpened claws, with its pretense at caring for the people and at the same time destroying them.  You are doing great good in a generation fraught with danger.




E. J. POWELL,
 Circuit Mgr. Ass. Chautauquas of America.