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 THE GIFT OF 
 
 MAY TREAT MORRISON 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 ALEXANDER F MORRISON
 
 The Holland of To-day 
 
 library of tbc Great "Uncrlfc 
 Vio. 3
 
 LIBRARY OF THE GREAT WORLD 
 
 COMPRISING ORIGINAL VOLUMES OF 
 
 IMatorg, JBfoarapbg, Science, Gravel, Etc. 
 
 In cloth and morocco, with frontispiece. Published 
 
 for subscribers at 30 cents in cloth, and 
 
 4j cents in morocco. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 A. VAN DOREN HONEYMAN 
 
 BOOKS ISSUED. 
 
 THE AZTECS. By The Editor. 
 
 REINDEER-LAND. By The Editor. 
 
 THE HOLLAND OF TO-DAY. By J. A Mets. 
 
 SOME SUCCEEDING VOLUMES: 
 
 HOW THE WORLD WAS MADE. By Wm. H. 
 
 Larrabee, LL. D. 
 THE PERUVIANS. By Arthur Howard Noll. 
 IN SUABIA-LAND. By Miss Laura Maxwell. 
 THE ROOF-COUNTRY (Thibet). 
 Etc., Etc., Etc. 
 [Order of publication of volumes not certain.]
 
 / I risniii //.//.I
 
 Xibrars of tbe <5reat THIlorlo 
 
 The 
 Holland of To-day 
 
 BY 
 
 J. A. METS 
 
 Author of "Naval Heroes of Holland ' 
 
 fclainflelfc, "Hew Jersey 
 f>onetnan &. Company 
 
 1905
 
 THE CHAPTKRS. 
 
 I. Thk Country 5 
 
 II. THK I'KOi'l.K AND THKlk CUSTOMS . . ..37 
 
 III. Outdoor Amusements 62 
 
 IV. Births, Marriages and Funerals... 71 
 V. Reeigious and Secueak Feast Days. ~]u 
 
 VI. A kt. Science and Education Hu 
 
 Copyright, nx.;, by 
 
 Ho.NKYMAN V COMI'ANY 
 
 Published Mav i, iw;
 
 " Holland is a conquest made by man over the Sea ; . . . 
 it exists because the Hollanders .preserve it ;. it. will vanish 
 whenever the Hollanders shall. abandon it.'", 
 
 D*E AMIC1S. 
 
 Sthe 
 
 HOLLAND OF TO-DAY 
 
 o 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 The Country 
 
 The Name. It is usual to apply the name Hol- 
 land to what is now the kingdom of the Nether- 
 lands, which consists of thirteen provinces, and 
 over which one of the noblest queens that ever 
 reigned is the constitutional ruler, the good Wil- 
 helmina. Since the death of the everywhere 
 revered Victoria, she is held in greater honor and 
 esteem than any other present European ruler. 
 
 The name Holland, however, properly belongs 
 only to one of the largest political divisions of the 
 whole country, namely, to the provinces of North 
 and South Holland. These formerly were one, 
 and constituted the powerful section of that name, 
 when it was ruled by the independent Counts of 
 Holland. Yet this name, and its more correct
 
 6 THE HOLLAND 
 
 geographical designation, "The Low Countries," 
 virtually mean the same thing; at least such has 
 been the common acceptation. It is usually said 
 to have been derived from the fact that much of 
 the land lies below the water-level, and so was re- 
 garded as hoi, the Dutch for hollow ; and there- 
 fore this descriptive name, "Holland," was given 
 to the country. It ie very doubtful, however, if 
 the early inhabitants we r e sufficiently acquainted 
 with che natural features of the country to be 
 aware that some parts of it lay so low, and gave 
 it this name for that reason. There was another 
 fact they did know, as it was constantly before 
 them. This was that the land was everywhere 
 thickly wooded. Now, as the earliest settlers of 
 whom we have knowledge came from Germany, 
 and as these had the word holt, meaning wood, it 
 is supposed by some that they naturally called 
 their new, very thickly wooded home, "Holtland" 
 (woodiand), and that in the process of time the 
 t dropped out and the name became Holland. But 
 "Holtland," (woodland) would now be an utter 
 misnomer, as a forest, or very extended tract of 
 woodland, is not to be found. 
 
 The name Holland is seldom applied to the 
 entire country, except in England and the United 
 States. In France it is called "Les Pays-Bas ;" 
 in Germany, "die Niederlanden," each being the 
 exact equivalent of a term used in England, 
 and sometimes met with among us, "The Low 
 Countries." In this latter term we have at once 
 a comprehensive and fitting name, and also the 
 exact translation of the word "Netherlands."
 
 OF TO-DAY 7 
 
 Natural Features. The entire surface of the 
 land is low, excepting in the east bordering 
 on Germany. There it lies in many cases lower 
 than the surface of the ocean. Here and there are 
 elevations, indeed, dignified as "hills," and some- 
 times even as "mountains," but this is to be taken 
 rather as a stretch of Dutch imagination than as 
 actual fact. Even the so-called hills in the prov- 
 ince of Guelderland and Overyssel would scarcely 
 be regarded as more than hillocks by those accus- 
 tomed to the soaring peaks of other lands. The 
 higher places in the sections bordering on the 
 North Sea, or the great rivers, are only elevations 
 thrown up by the original inhabitants as places of 
 refuge in times of inundations. Such are utilized 
 now as pleasure resorts, and frequently go by 
 some fanciful name, e. g., the "Kinderberg," (the 
 Children's Mountain), cither because the chil- 
 dren resort thither in summer for rollicking pic- 
 nics, or that the name has survived from the times 
 when a safe refuge was found for them from the 
 all-devouring waters, while the elders went to 
 save their scanty goods after first battling with 
 the overwhelming tide. 
 
 If one should lay side by side two maps of the 
 Netherlands, one of the country as it was found 
 by the Batavians or Catti, who first settled the 
 islands about the mouths of the river Maas (or 
 Meuse),not far from the present greatcommercial 
 city of Rotterdam (provided such a map could be 
 found), and the other that of the present King- 
 dom, he would scarcely recognize the country as 
 the same. On the old map he would not find that
 
 8 THE HOLLAND 
 
 great arm of the North Sea, called the Zuyder 
 Zee ; but, where the new map shows that tempes- 
 tuous body of water, he would find on the old a 
 thickly wooded country, cut by a river or estuary, 
 at the lower end of which would be the ancient 
 lake Flevo. All this wooded land the ocean swal- 
 lowed up, or carried down to its great deeps, 
 when, in 1170, the Zuyder Zee was formed and 
 the North Sea attempted to get back its own. At 
 one time old Ocean had doubtless covered a great 
 part of the land, and Neptune had swayed his un- 
 restrained sceptre where now are richly cultivated 
 fields. Some day, not far in the future, the ener- 
 getic, tireless Hollanders will rob him again of 
 that vast inland sea. And then a new map will 
 again have to be made on which there shall be no 
 longer the Zuyder Zee. 
 
 Present Physical Features. In many respects 
 the Netherlands differs from all other countries in 
 physical features. As already intimated, the sur- 
 face generally is level, the line of vision being 
 scarcely broken by an elevation worthy of being 
 dignified as a hill. So one will not find there 
 that charm of scenery which is the effect of the va- 
 riety afforded by hill and dale, by cool, shady for- 
 ests and waterfalls. 
 
 Yet, though flat, it is far from monotonous. The 
 monotony is everywhere relieved, one may say 
 eliminated, by the many trees that, often in dou- 
 ble rows, skirt ever)' highway and canal. These 
 seldom, if ever, run in direct, unbroken lines. In 
 whatever direction the eye turns, the horizon is 
 bounded by a line of noble lindens, elms, or beech-
 
 OF TO-DAY 9 
 
 es, that gracefully curve this way and that, making 
 an endless line of beauty. Frequently the trees 
 rise in equal symmetry and meet at the top, mak- 
 ing in summer an overarching avenue of brilliant 
 green, through and under which, afoot or in some 
 vehicle, one can pursue his delightful way from 
 town to town. As looked at from a distance, you 
 may see, rising out of those thick masses of green, 
 some slender steeple, or high, red-tiled roof, that 
 forms a fine contrast to this emerald enfolding. 
 To the stranger these bits of exquisite beauty, 
 that meet his eye every now and then, are a cause 
 for constant surprise. He supposed the Low 
 Countries to be a land of sand and marshes, utter- 
 ly devoid of romantic beauty; unworthy of the 
 brush of a master painter or the pen of an inspired 
 poet. Yet more exquisite pictures it would be 
 difficult to find in any land than those to be seen 
 on a bright day in spring or summer from the 
 deck of the boat on the canal cut through the is- 
 land of Walcheren to shorten the distance be- 
 tween Rotterdam and Flushing. 
 
 Supposing you are at the village of Souburg, 
 looking north ; at a distance of two miles or more 
 rises a high mass of foliage of the deepest green, 
 above which project four architectural forms of 
 varied and contrasting style. The most conspicu- 
 ous is that of the high steeple of the New Church 
 of Middelburg, rising to a height of four hundred 
 feet, and well called "The Long John ;" its great 
 height terminating in a handsome, imperial crown. 
 At a short distance from this appears the beauti- 
 ful, though much smaller, tower of the City Hall,
 
 io THE HOLLAND 
 
 which again is followed by that of the so-called 
 Choir-Church, while a little farther on looms up 
 the handsome dome of the East Church. Each 
 tower, steeple, or dome, differs from the rest in 
 shape and form, and yet, with the undulating 
 green above which they rise, strikes the eye with 
 an effect like that produced upon the ear by some 
 wondrous chord in music. 
 
 Or, take a walk on some sunny morning along 
 the long dyke leading from Delfthaven to Rotter- 
 dam. Until you reach the environs of the great 
 commercial town there is nothing to attract the 
 eye but fat meadows filled with large, big-ud- 
 dered Frisian cattle, and well-tilled fields bearing 
 large crops of heavy-headed grain. All common 
 enough, and, when looked at for mile after mile, 
 somewhat monotonous. But the dyke has been 
 passed over, and the tall steeples of Holland's bus- 
 iest mart have long since been in plain view, when 
 suddenly, as by a magician's wand, there bursts 
 upon the eye as lovely a bit of scenery as was 
 ever looked upon. A charming strip of clear, un- 
 polluted water (it is perhaps the old city moat) 
 winding in gentle curves, whose surface the sun 
 is penciling in lines of gold, giving a brighter shim- 
 mer as it is cut by softly gliding white swans and 
 ducks; an artistic bridge overarching it with a 
 single span ; on each side of the water a double 
 line of fine trees, behind and through which 
 glimpses are here and there given of handsome 
 modern dwellings. Bits of similar exquisite beauty 
 are found in the environs of nearly every city, 
 where the ramparts have been razed and the old
 
 OF TO-DAY ii 
 
 curving moats are lined with winding boulevards, 
 bordered with noble trees. 
 
 Or sit down restfully some August after- 
 noon, at about five o'clock, on one of the settees on 
 the sea-boulevard, the old sea-wall at Flushing. 
 The sun is casting all the full splendor of his 
 glory upon the North Sea, making a wide path of 
 gold. A fishing smack, with its odd, shapeless 
 form and dark, tan-colored sails, is just setting 
 out for the place where the best haul can be 
 made. It is as ungainly an object as ever was 
 fashioned by the hand of man. But it nears that 
 golden path, and already it is being haloed by that 
 exquisite light. And now it enters into the full 
 glory, and steers right along and through that 
 liquid gold ; a thing transformed, a creation of 
 beauty from masttop to keel. After this comes a 
 brig sailing along that same sublime way; this, 
 too, is changed as by a miracle in all its spars and 
 sails and rigging into an immense masterpiece of 
 the most skilful worker in the purest of metals. 
 A scene that is well worth going many miles to 
 see, and one which the sunny climes of Italy could 
 scarce surpass. The cloud effects are also fre- 
 quently exceedingly fine, and have been fitly de- 
 scribed and enthusiastically celebrated in Hav- 
 ard's Through the Heart of Holland. 
 
 The climate is similar to that of England and 
 the Middle States of the Union. There are, ow- 
 ing to the proximity of the sea and the numerous 
 rivers, frequent rains and fogs, though the latter 
 are neither so frequent nor so dense as those of 
 London. The winters are more severe than those
 
 12 THE HOLLAND 
 
 of Great Britain, though there have been years 
 when there was scarcely enough ice to give oppor- 
 tunity for the great national sport of skating. 
 This was the case particularly in the years from 
 1847 to 1850. One of the severest winters ever 
 known was that of 1465, when the Meuse was 
 frozen solid, at which time Duke Arnold of Guel- 
 derland was treacherously seized by his brother 
 Adolf, and carried across the ice to the castle of 
 Buren and imprisoned. This event led to the in- 
 corporation of the Great Duchy of Guelderland, 
 with the already extensive dominions of Burgun- 
 dy. Then there was the severe winter of 1740, 
 when the whole Zuyder Zee was frozen over, so 
 that people not only skated on its surface from 
 one point to another in all directions, but heavily 
 laden wagons were led over in perfect safety. 
 
 The winter most memorable in the history of 
 the Netherlands, however, was that of i794-'95, 
 when the solidly frozen rivers gave easy access to 
 the French legions under Pichegru into the heart 
 of the country. This led to the final downfall of 
 the Republic. The author recalls one, somewhere 
 in the 'forties, when the mouth of the Scheldt was 
 frozen over from shore to shore, a distance of 
 nearly four miles, and when the ice floes lay piled 
 up by the tide to the height of some twenty feet. 
 
 But when winter has done its worst it lets up 
 and gives way to spring, instead of, as frequently 
 with us, January "lingering in the lap of May." 
 There, at least, the quotation is always appropri- 
 ate: 
 
 "Hail, gentle Spring, ethereal mildness come!"
 
 OF TO-DAY 13 
 
 Then the gentle touch of the genial sun and the 
 soft breath of the zephyrs caress shrub and tree 
 and plant again, and soon the air is laden with the 
 fragrance of the hawthorn and lilac; and is mel- 
 odious the whole live-long day with the song of 
 the lark, and through the night with the music of 
 the nightingale. The goldfinch again tries to 
 pass itself off for a canary, and the golden-billed 
 blackbird trills with liquid notes, and the saucy 
 magpie, on lawn or road, stares you out of counte- 
 nance. Then, too, the Dutch boys and girls go 
 forth to gather the May-bugs, either by shaking 
 them by hundreds out of the trees, or by digging 
 them out of the ground. These bugs, by the way, 
 are larger and handsomer than our own June- 
 bugs, being flatter in the back and glossier; more 
 like our grape-bugs. They afford much sport to 
 the young folks, either by being made to fly with 
 a thread fastened to one of the legs, or by being 
 harnessed in teams of four to a wagon made out 
 of a large carrot, cut lengthwise, from which the 
 core has been removed, while cross-sections of the 
 larger end of the carrot are made to do duty as 
 wheels. 
 
 The summers are never so hot as in our Middle 
 States, the thermometer seldom going much above 
 80 degrees. What they call an intolerably hot 
 day, to us would seem quite moderate. Their 
 falls, however, lack the gorgeousness of ours. Na- 
 ture does not array itself in that splendor of 
 foliage which lends such a charm here to the dying 
 season. 
 
 First Settlers. When and by whom this land
 
 H THE HOLLAND 
 
 of forests, marshes, ponds and rivers was first set- 
 tled it is impossible now to tell. That the time 
 must have been centuries before our era is proved 
 by many objects of which not a trace can be found 
 among the known first settlers; such as the dol- 
 mens, or cromlechs, in the province of Drente. 
 These are immense structures of massive, hewn 
 stones, sometimes set in a circle, the like of which 
 are found in several sections of England, and else- 
 where in Europe, Asia and America, and supposed 
 to be of Celtic or Druidic origin. Stone weapons 
 and stone household utensils have also been found 
 there; also altars dedicated to certain gods un- 
 known among the early German tribes. Among 
 the latter are the curious stone-altars dedicated 
 to the goddess Nehellenia, preserved in the mu- 
 seum at Middelburg. These altars were dug up 
 in recent years near the shores of the island of 
 Walcheren, and were found beneath the sand, 
 lying face down ; from which fact, and from their 
 great number, the supposition has arisen that, af- 
 ter the completion of the sacrifices, the altars were 
 thrown into the sea as an additional token of 
 homage to the goddess. What became of these 
 earliest inhabitants, whether they migrated or 
 were absorbed by or amalgamated with the sub- 
 sequent settlers, we know not. 
 
 We can only go back, in historic times, to the 
 Batavians, a German tribe, who, with the Catti, 
 settled the islands about the Mcuse, the Rhine 
 and the Scheldt. The time of their incoming is 
 obscure. The earliest mention of them is in the 
 account given of their employment by Caesar in
 
 OF TO-DAY 15 
 
 the Roman legions, when Caesar made an alliance 
 with them, and found in them some of his bra- 
 vest troops. He even took some of them for his 
 body-guard. As horsemen and swimmers they had 
 not their equals among the Romans, or any others 
 of their allies. Their chief implements of war 
 were the spear, bow and arrow, axes and shields ; 
 their use of the sword they learned from the Ro- 
 mans. They built their dwellings mainly upon 
 heights, thrown up for the purpose, as a protec- 
 tion against the frequent inroads of the sea and 
 rivers. These heights were called vliedbergen, 
 (hills of refuge). Some of these, as mentioned 
 before, still exist, though now called by more fan- 
 ciful names. 
 
 The connection of the Batavi with the Romans 
 was of great benefit to these early Netherlanders, 
 since from them they imbibed much that made 
 them more civilized ; while in following the con- 
 quering legions to Rome and Greece they brought 
 back from those lands of luxury something of 
 their arts and knowledge, and were better fitted 
 to become the founders of a nation, whose fame 
 in war, art, science and literature has become 
 world-wide. 
 
 But with the Roman virtues and civilization 
 these early Hollanders also learned the vices to 
 which the Roman soldiery gave free rein when at 
 rest from war in camp or stronghold. Those vices 
 and virtues w T ere the seeds from which much of 
 the national character developed. 
 
 The last time the name of the Batavi appears in 
 the country's history is when the Emperor Ha-
 
 1 6 THE HOLLAND 
 
 drian visited the Low Countries and established a 
 sort of frontier town, calling it Forum Hadriani, 
 which, later, bore the name of "Voorburg," (lit- 
 erally Frontier Castle). At the feasts given on 
 this occasion mention is made of one Soranus, as 
 the best archer among all the German tribes. Af- 
 ter him the name of the brave founders of the 
 Dutch nation the Batavi never occurs again, 
 till revived for a brief time by Napoleon I., who 
 created the Batavian Republic. It has survived 
 for the past century, however, and is likely to 
 live on for centuries to come, in Batavia, the 
 capital of the Dutch East Indies, ''the Queen of 
 the East;" and it has been reproduced in the lit- 
 tle city of the same name in the state of New 
 York, and in other towns in America. 
 
 The Floods of Holland. The suffixes "dam" 
 and "dyke," attached to so many names of Dutch 
 cities and towns, form, as it were, an epitome of 
 the country's history, suggestive of the age-long, 
 heroic struggles on the part of this people with 
 sea and stream ; and to him that "hath ears to 
 hear" they are eloquent with the ever-repeated 
 epic, telling the story of the relentless battle with 
 the raging waters, and mournful with that "re- 
 quiem o'er the dead" that wave and storm are for- 
 ever singing for the thousands who have perished 
 beneath the floods. 
 
 The story of the many floods from which Hol- 
 land has suffered, with its accounts of wide-sweep- 
 ing devastation, miraculous escapes and preserva- 
 tions, heroic self-sacrifice and rescue, would make 
 a long narrative, full of dramatic interest. We
 
 OF TO-DAY 17 
 
 can only note some salient points in the list of 
 these disasters. 
 
 In four centuries, from the Twelfth to the Six- 
 teenth, there were no less than twenty of these 
 calamitous floods, besides innumerable lesser ones, 
 engulfing thousands of men, women and children, 
 countless herds of cattle and horses, and making 
 a desert waste where before had been rich farms 
 and prosperous towns. In 11 70 the North Sea 
 made that tremendous break which created the 
 greater part of the present Zuyder Zee, at which 
 time sea-fish were caught in the streets of 
 Utrecht. In 1421 a storm from the northwest sent 
 the waters of the German ocean careering over 
 the land at the same time that it backed up those 
 of the rivers, and the two resistless forces, com- 
 bined, swallowed up seventy-two towns, villages 
 and hamlets, with all they contained ; only fifty of 
 them rose again at the recession of the waters. 
 The calamity at this time was made still greater 
 not only by the utter destitution of the immediate 
 sufferers, but by the general poverty, the country 
 having been well-nigh completely stripped by long 
 continued, civil wars, so that there was no money 
 to succor the victims. This was called the "St. 
 Elizabeth Flood," from the date on which it hap- 
 pened, November 9, being dedicated to that saint 
 in the old Roman Calendar. 
 
 Even in the past century three very destructive 
 floods have occurred; that of 1825, which devas- 
 tated four provinces; of 1855, which laid waste 
 nearly all of the provinces of Guelderland and 
 Utrecht, and a great part of North Brabant,
 
 1 8 THE HOLLAND 
 
 caused by the overflowing of the Rhine ; and that 
 of the early spring of 1861, when the late King 
 William III. gained the hearts of his people by his 
 visits to the devastated districts and his benevolent 
 alleviation of suffering. Well may De Amicis 
 say: "It is plain that miracles of courage, con- 
 stancy and industry must have been accomplished 
 by the Hollanders, first in creating and after- 
 wards in preserving such a country. The enemy 
 from which they had to rescue it was triple: the 
 sea, the lakes, the rivers. They drained the lakes, 
 drove back the sea, and imprisoned the rivers." 
 
 The Dunes. Before we pass to the methods 
 employed by the people for this drainage, let us 
 glance at one of the means that Nature herself 
 has employed to stem the onrush of the tempest- 
 driven waves toward its prey; at the ramparts 
 which the sea itself has thrown up against its own 
 assaults. These are the dunes, the prominent nat- 
 ural feature along the entire coast. They are 
 sandhills of greater or lesser height formed by the 
 sea itself, making its own waves the carriers, pil- 
 ing them in irregular heaps on the shore, and 
 pounding them almost into solidity by the billows 
 that seem sent only to carry back to its 
 depths what it had grudgingly given. Some of 
 these dunes make quite lofty hills, especially those 
 along the coast of the more northerly provinces, 
 affording from their tops fine views of the far- 
 sweeping, many-voiced sea. In the neighborhood 
 of The Hague, where some of these high 
 sandy elevations are found, they are called 
 kykduinen, (observation dunes).
 
 OF TO-DAY 19 
 
 These dunes are often covered by a coarse kind 
 of wiry grass, either growing naturally or planted 
 by the shore-workers for the purpose of prevent- 
 ing the gales from blowing away these guardians 
 of the inland. When this grass is young, the 
 strong, fibrous roots thrown out by it over the 
 sand, like so many nervous fingers clutching the 
 unstable mass, resemble somewhat the star-like 
 form of young cranberry plants. Its tough, 
 woody, sharp-edged stalks form the abode of 
 countless little bugs, the size of ladybugs, of 
 every variety of color, whose highly burnished, 
 glossy wings reflect the rays of the sun and fill the 
 space around with iridescent hues; a very paradise 
 for some entomologist. These beautiful crea- 
 tures the boys and girls gather by bottlesful. 
 
 A singular method is employed on the 
 island of Walcheren to prevent the spread in- 
 land of the dunes by the force of the terrific gales. 
 This is the planting of a forest of small trees, 
 whose branches become twisted and interwoven 
 so closely around and above that they almost hide 
 the sun. It extends for a distance of miles along 
 the inner side of the dunes, forming a continuous 
 arbor, and is intersected by paths that make ro- 
 mantic lovers' walks for the peasant lads and lass- 
 es. The whole is called by the appropriate name, 
 "The Mantel," which is the equivalent for our 
 word "curtain." 
 
 Let us imagine ourselves in a company of 
 healthy, stout, rosy-cheeked Dutch boys and girls, 
 and share their fun in plunging, or rolling, down 
 one of the dunes on the seaside, in a spot where
 
 20 THE HOLLAND 
 
 none of the wiry grass would hurt face or eyes. 
 Suddenly we come down from the yielding sand 
 and strike the beach, which, of course, we 
 imagine will give a soft stopping-place. But, in- 
 stead, we find it hard enough to give us a sud- 
 den jar, to our own painful chargrin, but to the 
 great delight of the native youngsters. For Old 
 Neptune has been beating this shore for ages and 
 ages with his ponderous waves, until the beach is 
 as solid as a floor. This firmness is characteris- 
 tic of many of the beaches along the coast, partic- 
 ularly at the bathing-places of Flushing, Dom- 
 burg and Scheveningen. The two places first 
 named are not yet popularized as summer resorts 
 for sea-bathing, but nowhere may one find a bet- 
 ter and more gently sloping beach, or have 
 greater zest in gamboling in the white-capped bil- 
 lows. 
 
 Seaside Resorts. Flushing has come into no- 
 tice as a seaside resort in comparatively recent 
 years, and is not much frequented now by visitors 
 from abroad. But it is sure to become better 
 known since the establishment at this port of a 
 fine line of steamboats to London, making it the 
 shortest route from England to the Continent. It 
 has been made easy of access also by a tram, or 
 electric, line, running direct from Middelburg 
 and Flushing to the beach hotel and cottages. 
 Domburg has an equally fine beach, a handsome 
 hotel and a number of neat summer cottages, and 
 was for some time the favorite seaside resort of 
 Carmen Sylva, the Queen of Roumania. 
 
 Scheveningen, however, has for years been
 
 OF TO-DAY 21 
 
 widely known as one of the finest resorts on any 
 of the European coasts, and is visited each sum- 
 mer by numbers of the rich and great from all 
 parts of the civilized world. The dunes that here 
 skirt the beach are crowned with fine hotels and 
 cottages, many of the latter being found, also, in 
 the part of the town lying nearer the shore, while 
 everything to attract the eye and ear, and to de- 
 plete the purse of the visitor, abounds. 
 
 Bathing Machines. There are at these seaside 
 places two conveniences for the bather that strike 
 the American as peculiar. They are the bathing 
 wagons and the singular chairs arranged along 
 the beach. The former are bathing-booths on 
 wheels, in which the bather can dress and undress 
 at his leisure and in perfect seclusion. When he 
 is ready for the plunge, the bath-wagon is either 
 pulled by a horse, or pushed by attendants, into 
 the water, and, when ready to come out, the same 
 means brings him back to shore. The chairs are 
 made of wicker, or bamboo, and look like old- 
 fashioned cradles with the rockers off. They are 
 set dowm upright at the foot-end, the rounded top 
 serving as a canopy to protect the eyes of the sitter 
 against the sun. 
 
 The Dykes. If the dunes were the only ram- 
 parts this little country had for protection against 
 its ancient foe, the ocean, it would long since have 
 been swallowed up. As said before, again and 
 again the sea has hurled itself upon these shores, 
 and swept away in its yawning vortexes whole 
 sections with their inhabitants, so that from no
 
 22 THE HOLLAND 
 
 coast could the words of Bailey be more fittingly 
 uttered, 
 
 "Of thousands thou both sepulchre and pall, 
 Old Ocean, art ! " 
 
 But whenever the assault had been most violent 
 and the havoc most disheartening, the indomita- 
 ble people would push another of those adaman- 
 tine fingers, the great sea-dykes, into the very face 
 of their foe, as if to say, 'Thus far shalt thou 
 come and no farther.' This work has gone on 
 for centuries and centuries, till to-day every part 
 of the country exposed to the violence of the sea, 
 or the lawlessness of rivers, is lined with these 
 mighty ramparts. 
 
 The first of these defences were built by the 
 Romans, either by surrounding their camps with 
 high earth-walls, if they were near the sea, or 
 along the rivers to keep them within proper boun- 
 daries. After the Romans left, the inhabitants 
 were strangely slow in protecting their property 
 in this way, possibly because their ceaseless con- 
 tests with each other made them pay more atten- 
 tion to warring with human foes than to combat- 
 ting the waters. As their losses from the latter 
 became more severe, they were driven to multiply 
 the barriers. In this the monks sometimes set the 
 example, as in the province of Friesland after the 
 inundations there in the Thirteenth Century. It 
 was in the latter century, and in the following 
 one, that numerous dykes began to be laid across 
 the lowest-lying section, by means of which what 
 before were marsh and bog were changed into
 
 OF TO-DAY 23 
 
 stretches of arable land. The lands so enclosed 
 are called "polders." So, by degrees, that which 
 at first was only a local attempt at protection be- 
 came a universal system of safeguard, by the estab- 
 lishment of what is called the Waterstaat, (Wa- 
 ter Department), which embraces the construction 
 and care of the dykes, canals, polders and sluices ; 
 one of the most important departments of the 
 civil government of the Netherlands. The offi- 
 cials appointed to oversee this work receive a civil 
 engineering education specially adapted to their 
 service, while the laborers employed are also spec- 
 ially trained. The cost of construction and main- 
 tenance of these water-defences is enormous. It 
 has been said that if the dyke protecting Walcher- 
 en, the smallest of the numerous islands formed 
 by the delta of the Scheldt, had been built of solid 
 copper, its cost could not have been greater. 
 
 At the city of Helder, the most northerly point 
 of North Holland, is a massive dyke over six miles 
 in length and extending into the sea for nearly 
 eight hundred feet. Whenever there is the slight- 
 est possibility of the ever-ready foe to make an at- 
 tack upon the land, from the northeastern corner 
 of Groningen to the most southwesterly point of 
 Zeeland, these Cyclopean bastions are erected, and 
 ceaselessly watched by a corps of builders and 
 guards. 
 
 The dykes are built in the most scientific and 
 substantial manner, the granite, or basalt, and 
 timber coming mainly from Norway, as the coun- 
 try itself has none. The massive piles are cu- 
 riously protected against the ravages of a destruc-
 
 24 THE HOLLAND 
 
 tive worm, a borer, supposed to have been intro- 
 duced into this neighborhood by a vessel coming 
 from foreign seas. Into every part of the piles 
 that may be exposed to the attacks of the destruc- 
 tive insect short stout nails are driven ; and these 
 are placed so close along the entire pile that not 
 the smallest spot is left exposed. This same pre- 
 cauiion is employed with all the timbers that are 
 used in the jetties or wharves of the various cities. 
 
 The dykes are provided with sluices, some of 
 great size, for the purpose of letting the water 
 flow out where it has accumulated on the enclosed 
 land, and also, in case of need, to let it flow unre- 
 strained over the adjacent country. Thus water, 
 that so often has been the most destructive enemy 
 of the Netherlands, can be made into the coun- 
 try's most effective ally. This latter has been 
 demonstrated again and again, notably in the de- 
 liverance of the city of Leyden during its famous 
 siege, and in the war with France during the reign 
 of Louis XIV 7 ., when the opening of the sluices 
 by the Dutch put a stop to the farther advance of 
 that king's victorious army. It is believed that 
 in a single day, and at a moment's notice of the 
 approach of a hostile army by land, every foot of 
 the country, except the higher portions of the 
 province of Guelderland, could be submerged un- 
 der water so deep that no army could pass through 
 it. 
 
 The Canals. Another interesting part of the 
 water-system of the Netherlands is found in its 
 canals. They form the connecting links every- 
 where between cities, towns and villages. They
 
 OF TO-DAY 25 
 
 were formerly used for communication between 
 distant points fully as much as the highways, 
 when the canal-boat was the most common con- 
 veyance of passengers and merchandise. As modes 
 of travel, they are now rapidly disappear- 
 ing, however, giving place to the tramway and 
 electric road, while for the transportation of 
 freight the steam railways have made them almost 
 useless. The old-fashioned canal-boat is also giv- 
 ing place (where the canals are still used for pas- 
 senger traffic) to handsome little steamboats, in 
 which a trip among the cultivated fields to some 
 of the quaint interior villages affords no small 
 enjoyment to the sojourner. 
 
 One might go far before seeing the old-fash- 
 ioned, clumsy trckschuyt (literally, draught-boat) 
 pulled by horses, or, as they were said to be in 
 some places, drawn along laboriously by women. 
 This use of women the author has never seen in 
 the Netherlands, and, therefore, if this occurred 
 anywhere, it must have been rare. As to the or- 
 dinary canal-boat drawn by horses or mules, they 
 are much more common in our own country than 
 in this land of canals. 
 
 Some of the smaller canals will doubtless con- 
 tinue to be used for a long time to come, as they 
 are employed for the conveyance to market of the 
 products of the fields and orchards from the 
 truck-farms in the neighborhood of the larger 
 cities. In such case the main canal is intersected at 
 various points by smaller canals, that run in and 
 out among the farms. From there the fresh fruit 
 and vegetables are brought in dories to each con-
 
 26 THE HOLLAND 
 
 necting point with the main canal, and then 
 loaded upon a larger boat. The latter is not 
 pulled by horses, nor propelled by steam, but is 
 pushed along by means of a long pole, the lower 
 end of which is set against a cleat in the bow of 
 the boat, while the larger end rests against the 
 boatman's shoulder. As the steps of the sturdy- 
 Dutchman are vigorous and rapid, the progress 
 is not so slow as one might imagine. 
 
 Every city and village in the Netherlands is in- 
 tersected by canals, some of them running be- 
 tween the rear of two rows of houses, when they 
 give a peculiar and interesting view of backyard 
 life. The only exception to this is The Hague, 
 which, not being intended for a commercial town, 
 had no need of these inlets and outlets for vessels. 
 In some cities these canals (often called gracilis, 
 which may mean canal, or moat), are almost as 
 numerous as the streets. This is the case particu- 
 larly in Amsterdam, which, for this reason has 
 been aptly called "The Venice of the North." 
 There they follow the semi-circular form of the 
 city, making no less than six large semi-circular ca- 
 nals, and two lesser intersecting ones. They are 
 crossed by bridges to the number of three hundred 
 and fifty a bridge for nearly every day in the 
 year. 
 
 Ship Canals. Since 1825, several large ship- 
 canals have been constructed at immense cost for 
 the purpose of giving better access to the sea for 
 the cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The 
 first was the North Holland Canal, which joined 
 Amsterdam to Helder and Nieuwe Diep (the
 
 OF TO-DAY 27 
 
 New Deep) near the northern extremity of the 
 province of North Holland. This gave the city 
 direct access to the ocean, instead of, as before, re- 
 quiring its vessels to he sent by way of the river 
 Y and the shallow, but dangerous, Zuyder Zee. 
 It was fifty-two miles long, and had a width of 
 from one hundred to one hundred and thirty feet, 
 with a depth of over twenty feet. But it failed 
 of its intended purpose to make Amsterdam a 
 large maritime city, and it lost much of its impor- 
 tance when large ocean steamers began to replace 
 sailing vessels. Another was, therefore, con- 
 structed from Amsterdam to Ymuiden, and was 
 called the North Sea Canal. This was opened 
 in 1876. It is only fifteen miles long and of 
 greater depth and width than the former. To 
 construct it, the immense swamp that forms the 
 southwesterly and marshy part of the Zuyder Zee, 
 called the Pampas, had to be closed, while the 
 port of Amsterdam was improved every way, so 
 as to accommodate ships of the largest draft. The 
 Rhine-Merwede Canal was also constructed. It 
 empties directly into the North Sea Canal, and 
 thus gives to the city direct connection with the 
 Rhine. 
 
 The highly profitable results of the construc- 
 tion of the North Sea Canal appeared immedi- 
 ately, when from 243 ships, that passed the great 
 locks at Ymuiden the first year of the opening of 
 the canal, the number leaped to 3376 the next 
 year, while in 1887 it had nearly doubled this 
 number, being then 62 s6 vessels. 
 
 But the increasing size and draft of the ocean
 
 28 THE HOLLAND 
 
 steamers made this North Sea Canal inadequate 
 to the commercial demands of the city, so that 
 another canal had to he constructed. This was 
 opened for traffic in December, 1896, and was 
 deepened again in 1899. It runs almost directly 
 by the side of that opened in 1876, and has the 
 same length, but with a width of one hundred 
 and sixty-five feet, and a depth, at low water, of 
 thirty-two feet, and, at high water, of thirty-eight 
 feet. Vessels are admitted to this at Ymuiden by 
 means of immense locks worked by electricity. 
 These constitute a specimen of engineering inge- 
 nuity and skill that place it among the most nota- 
 ble works of the kind in the world. The Rhine- 
 Merwede Canal, mentioned above, is seventy-two 
 miles long, sixty-six feet wide at the bottom and 
 one hundred and seven feet at the water-line. To 
 construct it a canal was dug to the small river 
 Merwede, which was dredged and deepened, and 
 from thence another canal was constructed to con- 
 nect that river with the Rhine. The cost of all 
 this was again enormous, but is being rapidly re- 
 paid by the immense increase in the commerce of 
 the city. This is shown by the fact that in 1899, 
 by this canal, 2024 vessels entered and 201 1 
 cleared from the port of Amsterdam, the tonnage 
 entering and clearing being respectively 7,004,131 
 and 6,924,934. 
 
 Ditches. Closely allied to and, indeed, imme- 
 diately connected with the canals, are numerous 
 ditches, that are universal in the country dis- 
 tricts, and that divide the fields and farms. A 
 fence, whether of wood or wire, is scarcely to be
 
 OF TO-DAY 29 
 
 seen. Ditches do what is performed by fences 
 with us, and serve both for keeping the cattle 
 from wandering off and for drainage. Sometimes 
 there is an absence of water in these ditches, and 
 the mud and ooze are allowed to accumulate in 
 them ; this strikes the stranger as a serious menace 
 to health. From time to time, however, the muck 
 and mud are dug out and spread over the fields, 
 serving as an excellent fertilizer. 
 
 The Windmills. A feature of the Netherlands 
 even more distinctive than its canals are the wind- 
 mills. At almost every turn their mighty-winged 
 arms are battling with the air, ready to bid defi- 
 ance to a host of Don Quixotes. Some of them 
 are large structures, the upper part being of wood 
 and mounted with a movable cap, in which the 
 immense wings are fixed. The wings revolve 
 with the wind, so that from whatever quarter it 
 blows the mill can do its work. The lower part 
 is usually of brick, and is in immediate connection 
 with the miller's dwelling. Between the upper 
 and lower halves runs a wide gallery around the 
 circumference, from which the miller can reach 
 the wings to adjust the sails. Sometimes small 
 boys get up on this and climb the ladder-like 
 wings, when they are not in motion. This is a 
 perilous adventure, as was proved in the case of a 
 little fellow, once, who had climbed some distance 
 up the wing of one of these tall mills, when 
 the wind sprang up, and the miller, who knew 
 nothing of the lad's being there, started the mill. 
 The poor little "dare-devil" would doubtless have
 
 30 THE HOLLAND 
 
 been hurled to a horrible death, if a chance pass- 
 er-by had not heard his agonized screams and 
 warned the miller to stop the mill. 
 
 These mills are used for a variety of purposes: 
 for grinding grain, sawing wood, crushing stone, 
 pulverizing chemicals, and for the draining of 
 flooded fields, marshes, or lakes. Their use for 
 drainage purposes deserves more than mere men- 
 tion. The places to be drained are first sur- 
 rounded by dykes, and these again by canals, or 
 ditches. Then, from the great force-pump in the 
 mill, the suction pipes are let down into the 
 flooded levels and the water pumped out over the 
 dyke into the canal, which carries it, either direct- 
 ly or by way of some river, to the North Sea. 
 Every gallon so carried off bears with it a hearty 
 farewell from the inhabitants of the district, who 
 thus get rid of the troublesome and destructive 
 element, and gain, in its stead, fertile fields, luxu- 
 riant crops and rich meadows, dotted with their 
 handsome black and white cattle. In this way, 
 during the Seventeenth Century, in less than for- 
 ty years twenty-six different lakes were drained. 
 Early in the Nineteenth Century, 15,000 acres 
 were redeemed in the province of North Holland 
 alone, and in South Holland, from 1800 to 1844, 
 72,500 acres were reclaimed; while from 1500 
 to 1858 in the entire country some 887,500 acres 
 were turned from a watery waste into rich, al- 
 luvial fields. For a number of years the people 
 of South Holland had been singing concerning 
 Haarlem Lake:
 
 OF TO-DAY 31 
 
 "Groote Plas, Groote Plas, 
 
 'K won je leeggemalen -was!" 
 ('Mighty Pond, Mighty Pond, 
 
 Would you were completely drained!") 
 
 In 1852 the popular wish was fully granted, and 
 the waters that had been for centuries a perpetual 
 menace to the nearby cities of Haarlem, Leyden 
 and Amsterdam, were sent back to the sea with 
 the command never to return. The area so 
 drained had a circumference of nearly twenty- 
 seven miles, and the work required thirty-six 
 months for its completion. For this, however, 
 not wind but steam mills were employed. The 
 great gulf of the Zuyder Zee will be the next to 
 be changed into dry and inhabitable land. 
 
 Highways and Streets. The highways are 
 among the most beautiful found in any land. They 
 are paved, usually, with vitrified yellow brick, 
 and are kept in constant repair. Noble, overarch- 
 ing trees line their sides, often in double rows, and 
 are kept trimmed close for a height of twelve feet 
 or more, so as to permit the winds to sweep 
 through them over the road-bed, and prevent the 
 accumulation of mud, or damp, a measure partic- 
 ularly necessary in a land of so much mist and 
 rain. Another charm is added to the roads by 
 far-stretching hedges of hawthorn. When these 
 are in bloom, during the month of May, a drive 
 along these beautiful canopied roads is a delight 
 worth going far to enjoy. 
 
 One of the most charming of these roads is 
 that from The Hague to Scheveningen. Indeed, 
 Schcveningen owes much of its supremacy as such
 
 32 THE HOLLAND 
 
 to this very road. It runs through what appears 
 as a noble forest, the product of the labor of the 
 beloved Father Cats, at one time Secretary of 
 State of the Dutch Republic, and the poet most 
 cherished by the people. When he set out these 
 trees there was nothing but a sandy waste. Now 
 an avenue of fine elms lines the main highway, 
 which is flanked on one side by a tram-line, and 
 it again has at its side a delightful footpath. One 
 who should go exploring in these woods would, 
 if he took the proper direction, (to the right, as 
 one goes to the sea) come upon most agreeable 
 surprises. 
 
 One is a beautiful park, tastefully laid out, with 
 handsome villas or summer residences scattered 
 through it. Perhaps a still greater surprise, how- 
 ever, is in the fact that, while the country every- 
 where seems to be one unbroken level, here one 
 finds elevations and depressions, planted with 
 varied shrubs and flowers, or beautifully green 
 with a soft, velvety sward, while a glassy lake, 
 with many windings, lies between banks of con- 
 siderable height. On the other side of The 
 Hague lies the House in the Woods, where the 
 Hague Peace Tribunal held its first sessions, and 
 in the park of which are the finest beeches to be 
 found in the Netherlands. 
 
 If the highways are commendable, the streets 
 in many cities are abominable. They are often 
 too narrow for two vehicles to pass, a fault com- 
 mon to some streets in other cities in Europe; 
 while the pavement consists of very rough cobble- 
 stones, over which the wheels rattle and the wood-
 
 OF TO-DAY 33 
 
 en shoes clatter. It makes most uncomfortable 
 walking for the foreigner accustomed to the 
 smoother macadam, or asphalt pavement. In this, 
 however, they are no worse than many streets in 
 the city of Brooklyn, which are as badly and 
 roughly paved as any in the Netherlands. In 
 Holland the conditions are made still worse for 
 the footfarer by the utter absence in most cities of 
 sidewalks. It seems as if those who had the lay- 
 ing out of these cities were influenced by the 
 rough experience the nation had in its progress 
 through the centuries, and had thought it fitting 
 that their countrymen should be kept mindful of 
 this, through all coming generations, by their own 
 rough passage along the streets. They have pur- 
 posely misplaced a comma in the quotation, 
 "There is a providence which shapes our ends, 
 rough hew them as we may," and made it read, 
 "There is a providence which shapes our ends 
 rough, hew them as we may." Still in some Hol- 
 land cities asphalt is taking the place of cobble- 
 stones, and these equal the best of such roadways 
 anywhere. 
 
 Whatever the pavement, however, the streets 
 are everywhere kept scrupulously clean. Some 
 day in every week the industrious housewives, or 
 servant-girls, may be seen at a regular hour in the 
 morning a time as unvarying as the march of 
 the planets with water and brooms, (brooms 
 made of twigs), scouring the pavement until 
 every particular cobblestone shines as if polished 
 by hand. Each of the scrubbing contingent takes 
 exactly one-half of the street. The buckets used
 
 34 THE HOLLAND 
 
 are frequently handsome cedar pails, whose hoops 
 of brass shine like burnished gold. 
 
 Agriculture. It would be difficult to find any- 
 where better cultivated and more productive 
 farms than in the Netherlands. The crops are 
 much the same as in America; but the Dutch 
 farmer, like his brother farmer in England, seems 
 to be able to get more from an acre than is com- 
 mon with agriculturists ; and there is not a prod- 
 uct he cultivates, but his industry, care and 
 skill bring it to the utmost perfection. This is 
 due largely to the attention paid by the govern- 
 ment to agriculture, and the careful experiments 
 made and instruction given by skilled specialists. 
 The wheat of Zeeland, at one time, vied with 
 the best of the Polish or Russian red, the two 
 together producing the finest loaves and rolls. 
 
 While the larger fruits, such as apples and 
 pears, do not generally equal the American in va- 
 riety, beauty, or flavor, in the smaller fruits, seen 
 in the markets, or peddled along the streets, one 
 will find finer and more luscious specimens than 
 ever tickled the palate elsewhere. This is partic- 
 ularly true of cherries and raspberries. Of the 
 latter they produce some of enormous size and 
 of a splendid, deep color; while of the former 
 those raised in largest quantities are in the neigh- 
 borhood of Tiel, in the province of Utrecht. 
 
 Floriculture. Great masses of flowers give 
 special beauty to the fields in some parts of the 
 Low Countries, particularly those in the vicinity 
 of Haarlem. Here, from earliest spring to latest 
 fall, the goddess Flora dips her pencil in ever-
 
 OF TO-DAY 35 
 
 varying hues, and decks the fields from horizon 
 to horizon with every charm of her many-colored 
 treasures. Throughout the three seasons, so long 
 as sun, air and soil can combine to sustain growth, 
 the fields are rich with bright hues and odorous 
 with that fragrance which is wedded to beauty. 
 Beginning with the crocus in the spring, it 
 is no sooner gone than the many-colored bells of 
 the clustered hyacinths follow; these to be suc- 
 ceeded by the equally varied tulip, from the purest 
 white to the deepest red-brown, almost black. 
 These again are followed in the order of the sea- 
 son by masses of lilies, geraniums, roses, gladiolas, 
 chrysanthemums and cosmos, the latter the flower 
 that by its delicate foliage and exquisite tints 
 seems to bring consolation for the loss of all the 
 floral wealth that the dying year carries with it 
 to its grave, and the promise of a coming revival 
 of all that the generous sky and soil can produce. 
 In this section, also, flowering shrubs, among 
 which the rhododendron is conspicuous, are raised. 
 Bulbs form no insignificant article among the 
 exports from the Netherlands. Of all flowering 
 plants the tulip-bulb has always been the most 
 valuable to Holland. During the famous tulip 
 craze in the Seventeenth Century, one single bulb 
 was sold for the fabulous sum of $20,000. The 
 story goes that, during the time of that mania, a 
 sailor once almost created a riot in the market- 
 place of Haarlem by taking a tulip-bulb from a 
 stand, and, mistaking it for an onion, deliberately 
 peeling it. He would have gone on with his ex-
 
 36 THE HOLLAND 
 
 pensive lunch, valued at hundreds of florins, if he 
 had not forcibly been made aware of his mistake. 
 
 Some years ago a new tulip was named "Abra- 
 ham Lincoln," and some bulbs of it were pre- 
 sented to members of the Holland Society of 
 New York, who brought them home with them. 
 It is said some of these are now blooming in 
 many American gardens. The central point of 
 this great flower district is the pretty village well 
 named Bloemendaal (flowery vale). 
 
 Peat. As this leading national fuel will be 
 named, a brief account of it may be of inter- 
 est. The peat is the result of the accumu- 
 lation for centuries of fibrous, woody vegetable 
 matter, in bogs and marshes, where it has from 
 time to time settled by its own weight in a suc- 
 cession of accumulating layers, and become more 
 or less solidified. In Holland its greatest deposits 
 are in the province of Drente, where the city of 
 Hoogeveen ("high peat"), forms the centre of the 
 peat district and industry. Its importance as a 
 fuel may be gathered from the fact that in only 
 thirty years time some 3,790,000,000 bushels of 
 peat were dug and shipped, which paid to the 
 government in internal revenue forty-nine million 
 florins, equal to $20,000,000. 
 
 There are two kinds of peat, one lying more or 
 less deep under a layer of moss, the other directly 
 on the surface. In both cases the beds are of 
 varying thickness. In getting at the first kind, the 
 layer of moss is taken off and spread out on some 
 distant part of the peat-field to dry. From this 
 moss a fine fibre is manufactured, which is used
 
 OF TO-DAY 37 
 
 in place of cotton for antiseptic purposes in sur- 
 gery. When the peat is reached, it is found to be 
 in a soft state, is dug out and carried to a level 
 place, where the water is trodden out of it by la- 
 borers, and the mass solidified. For this purpose, 
 small, flat boards are attached to the peat, and the 
 laborers tramp over the whole extent of the mass 
 of peat in regular order, until all the water has 
 been trodden out. In this way that is done at 
 once which Nature has been trying to accom- 
 plish for centuries, but has been thwarted by the 
 continuous accumulations of water in the peat- 
 beds. This operation uj lul laborers is a singu- 
 lar and interesting sight. When the water is all 
 trodden out, the peat is cut by sharp-bladed 
 spades into oblong blocks or bricks of a uniform 
 si/.e, which are put up in piles, somewhat as fresh- 
 ly-made brick is stacked to be dried by the sun and 
 wind. The other kind of peat is found lying close 
 to the surface, and, after being dug out, the water 
 is pressed out of it by machinery. The blacker 
 and finer the peat, the more solidly it can be 
 pressed, which much increases its value. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 The People and Their Customs 
 
 The Dutch People. From the country with 
 its varied objects of interest, let us turn now to 
 the people who inhabit it and their characteristics. 
 
 The Dutch are the descendants of four hardy 
 German tribes, the Batavi, the Catti, the Kanani-
 
 38 THE HOLLAND 
 
 fates and the early Frisians; also of Danes (who 
 remained there, as in England, after repeated pi- 
 ratical attacks upon the coasts) and the Salii. The 
 latter dwelt somewhere in the present provinces 
 of Groningen and Overyssel, whence they went 
 to the conquest of France, and there introduced 
 the Salic Law. Like most European peoples, the 
 Dutch differ in size and complexion, some being 
 tall and fair, others dark and comparatively 
 short. The latter complexion is found most fre- 
 quently among the people of North and South 
 Holland. On the whole they are fine-looking, 
 some of the women being considered beautiful, 
 particularly those of the province of Friesland. 
 The author has in his possession the picture of 
 a four-year old Frisian girl that would take the 
 prize anywhere at a baby show.* 
 
 The enterprise of the people is sufficiently de- 
 monstrated by the great undertaking they have 
 carried out. Foremost among these arc the bar- 
 riers they have erected against their ancient ene- 
 my, the sea, already described, and the vast engi- 
 neering works constructed to facilitate and in- 
 crease their commerce and their communication 
 with other parts of the world. Among the tri- 
 umphs of their engineering enterprise and skill, 
 not the least is the great railroad bridge at Moer- 
 dyk. It covers a length of one and one-half miles, 
 and consists of fourteen immense arches, resting 
 upon granite piers. 
 
 Hollanders took the lead in North Polar expe- 
 ditions, when Barentz and Heemskerk sought a 
 
 It is reproduced as the frontispiece to this volume.
 
 OF TO-DAY 39 
 
 Northeast passage to China and the East Indies. 
 This was in the Sixteenth Century, when the Hol- 
 landers had been forbidden by Spain to sail to 
 those distant parts of the world for the purposes 
 of commerce. They sent their intrepid seamen to 
 every known or unknown sea, some of them cir- 
 cumnavigating the globe, while others, like Schou- 
 ten, Tasman and Van Diemen discovered New 
 Holland, now called Australia, New Zealand, 
 Tasmania and Van Diemen's Land. New York 
 city and state owe their origin to the Hendrik 
 Hudson whom they sent out on his voyage of dis- 
 covery. Wherever their great enemy, Spain, had 
 forbidden them to carry their ships, they boldly 
 struck out, north and south, east and west, and 
 created a commerce that, even before they had 
 been recognized as an independent people, covered 
 every sea with the tri-colored flag, and by the es- 
 tablishment of the East and West Indian com- 
 panies gave them the rich possessions of the East 
 Indian Archipelago, and, for a number of years, 
 made them masters of Brazil. Their commerce 
 to-day takes high rank with that of the most ad- 
 vanced nations. 
 
 Their indomitable courage has been illustrated 
 again and again, from the time that Caesar created 
 his trusted and faithful Ratavian legion, through 
 the almost ceaseless wars that devastated the land 
 during the reign of the several independent 
 Counts, and that were brought upon them by the 
 houses of Burgundy, Bavaria and Austria, which 
 in turn ruled and oppressed them. No people 
 ever showed more persistent heroism than that
 
 40 THE HOLLAND 
 
 shown by the Netherlanders in their life-and- 
 death struggle for civil and religious liberty 
 against the intolerable tyranny of Charles V. and 
 his son Philip II. of Spain, a war lasting for 
 eighty long years, beginning on the twenty-third 
 of May, 1568, and only ending on January 30, 
 1648, when Spain was forced to recognize the in- 
 dependence of the Republic of the Seven Prov- 
 inces. Then the new-born but vigorous nation 
 became a power whose hand and influence were 
 felt by the mightiest kingdoms of Europe. That 
 this characteristic has not been lost in their de- 
 scendants was demonstrated in the past century 
 011 the fields of Quatre Bras and Waterloo, on 
 which latter it was largely owing to the steadfast, 
 unyielding courage of the Dutch troops under the 
 Prince of Orange that Wellington, according to 
 his own testimony, was able finally to defeat the 
 boasted Conqueror of Europe. In still later days, 
 it has been shown again and again in the repeated 
 contests with the treacherous Achinesc on the 
 northwest coast of Sumatra, and, only a couple 
 of years ago, during the war waged by England 
 against the Boers. This trait has enrolled upon 
 the nation's scroll of fame a long list of names 
 second to none possessed by any nation ; names of 
 men who, in military or naval warfare, have 
 gained undying renown wherever their deeds are 
 known. 
 
 Their honesty used to be proverbial. A Dutch 
 merchant's word was considered as good as his 
 bond. Now, alas! as a result of a decadence in 
 public morals, peculation has, at times, been rife.
 
 OF TO-DAY 4 i 
 
 And yet, when gross dishonesty has been practiced, 
 it has often been in consequence of foreign evil ex- 
 ample. This was illustrated by the effect on the 
 people at large after the French Revolution. A 
 more sad, and, to Americans, more humiliating, 
 illustration is found in the fact that embezzlement 
 in the Netherlands is called "Americanizing." 
 There was a time, however, and it is not entirely 
 past, when a Dutchman was faithful to his word 
 even at the peril of his life. Two notable exam- 
 ples of this are the following: 
 
 The first is that of Albrecht Beylinck, who, 
 during a protracted civil war, was in command of 
 the city of Schoonhoven, when it was besieged by 
 an arnw of the opposite party. After a long and 
 obstinate defence, the city was compelled to sur- 
 render on honorable conditions. These were 
 granted, although only with the proviso that the 
 commander of the town should be given up as 
 a prisoner. To this Beylinck himself agreed, 
 while knowing full well that he would lose his 
 life as well as his liberty. When he was taken, 
 he was condemned to be buried alive. Beylinck, 
 too proud to plead with the enemy for grace, or 
 for a change of his cruel sentence, merely asked for 
 postponement of its execution till he could go to 
 Gouda to settle up his affairs. This was granted 
 on the promise that he would return. He went, 
 and, when his affairs at home were arranged, re- 
 turned according to his word, and the sentence 
 was carried out to the letter. 
 
 The other instance is that recalled by a painting 
 in the National Museum at Amsterdam. It tells
 
 42 THE HOLLAND 
 
 the story of the self-sacrifice and fidelity to his 
 pledged word of a Reformed minister, the Rev. 
 Antonius Hambroeck, and is connected with this 
 episode: In 1666, the island of Formosa, then a 
 Dutch posesssion, was attacked by the Chinese. 
 Their commander, whom the historian calls Cox- 
 inga, had made a prisoner of the above named 
 minister, who was chaplain of the Dutch fort 
 Zeelandia on that island; and justly fearing that, 
 from that fort as a starting point, the East India 
 Company might recover possession of the island, 
 he sent the chaplain into the fort with proposals 
 that he hoped would induce its commander, Goy- 
 et, to evacuate the place, making the minister 
 promise to return to the Chinese camp if he were 
 unsuccessful. But the Dutch commander scorn- 
 fully rejected the proposals of the Chinaman, and 
 the minister, though well aware of the fate that 
 awaited him, returned and was beheaded. The 
 painting represents the heroic preacher in the act 
 of bidding his family and comrades farewell as 
 he goes to his doom. 
 
 The Netherlander is generally reserved and 
 punctilious. In the former characteristic, he re- 
 sembles somewhat his island neighbor of England. 
 Though among friends he may carry his heart on 
 his sleeve and often be too confiding, with stran- 
 gers he is apt to hold himself aloof, and does not 
 seem to believe in the too strict application in 
 every way of the Apostolic injunction, "Be not 
 forgetful to entertain strangers." Long and un- 
 profitable experience with persons from other 
 lands has rather fortified than weakened this dis-
 
 OF TO-DAY 43 
 
 position. This characteristic may furnish one 
 reason why Dutchmen are so often described as 
 phlegmatic ; a characterization again and again 
 contradicted both in their multitudinous fights by 
 land and sea and in their public amusements. 
 While not so volatile as their southern neighbors, 
 the Belgians, or as the French, they are as capable 
 of being aroused to patriotic ardor or enthusiasm 
 for art in any of its forms as other peoples. 
 
 Their passions also can break forth with a vio- 
 lence all the greater because generally kept under 
 such restraint ; like some volcanoes, whose erup- 
 tions are the more terrific as the fires within them 
 have had the longer time to prepare for the out- 
 burst. Proofs of this were given when the furi- 
 ous mob at The Hague massacred the brothers De 
 Witt, and when violent feuds have broken out 
 with murderous violence between the soldiers of a 
 garrison and the sailors of some man-of-w T ar on 
 shore-leave. 
 
 The classes above the laboring ranks are very 
 punctilious in regard to social etiquette, carrying 
 this to a ludicrous extreme. The exactions aris- 
 ing from it on the part of those of superior so- 
 cial rank are apt to chafe one who has been ac- 
 customed to move in a freer atmosphere, and in 
 whom Burn's dictum, "A man's a man for a' 
 that," is more fully felt and followed in practice. 
 Their ideas of what is dignified or becoming in 
 the members of certain professions are frequently 
 quite peculiar, and seem to an American amus- 
 ing and contradictory. A minister of the gospel, 
 for instance, or a schoolteacher, who should be
 
 44 THE HOLLAND 
 
 seen rowing or sailing in public, would be likely to 
 be severely criticized and censured by the church 
 or school authorities, while, on the other hand, to 
 visit a public garden and there smoke a cigar, or 
 drink a glass of wine or beer, would not affect his 
 dignity in the least, so far as public opinion goes. 
 
 Dress of the Natives. It is doubtful if in any 
 other civilized country such a variety of costumes 
 may be found as in the Netherlands. That of the 
 city people differs little from our own, resembling 
 much more our American styles than the dress of 
 the better classes in England or Germany. These 
 latter countries, by a sort of tacit revolt against 
 the autocratic control of fashion in Paris, seem 
 to have set up a style of their own, particularly 
 in the dress of the men, so that in a mixed crowd 
 of foreigners of the better class it is quite easy to 
 distinguish an Englishman or a German b} r the 
 shape of his hat, or the cut of his coat. In Hol- 
 land, on the other hand, while not slavishly fol- 
 lowing the dictates of Parisian fashion plates, they 
 have adopted styles which more nearly resemble 
 the cut ordained by the French goddess of fashion. 
 One might easily mistake some of the leading mer- 
 chants and men of affairs there for either French- 
 men or Americans. The same observations apply 
 largely also to the matrons and maidens of Dutch 
 cities. 
 
 There are certain classes even in the cities, how- 
 ever, whose dress wholly differs from that usually 
 seen among us, and, indeed, from that worn any- 
 where in the world. This is the peculiar costume 
 prescribed for the orphans. It seems as if the
 
 OF TO-DAY 45 
 
 managers of such institutions had been actuated 
 by the cruel idea that the unfortunates, who have 
 been left to be brought up by the cold hand of 
 charity, should have their forlorn condition pro- 
 claimed to the public in some emphatic form. Each 
 orphan asylum clothes its charity-inmates in a 
 dress of particular cut, and of different and dis- 
 tinguishing colors, so that by it one can at once 
 see to what asylum the boy or girl belongs. In 
 some cities the dress is parti-colored, one side be- 
 ing dark, the other light. For example, in Amster- 
 dam one may see orphans, who, as you look at 
 one side of them, are dressed in red, while seen on 
 the other side they are in black. With such a 
 dress, it is, of course, impossible for a child to hide 
 in a crowd in order to escape from the rough 
 usage that they may think they surfer in the asy- 
 lum. Mow those who have outgrown their child- 
 hood in those institutions must long for the time 
 when these badges of misfortune can be thrown 
 aside ! 
 
 Apart from these, and the occasional servant- 
 girl who retains the peasant costume of her own 
 section, there is little in the popular dress of the 
 cities that would remind one of being in a strange 
 country. But as soon as one leaves the limits of 
 any city, such reminder meets him on every hand. 
 Xot only has each province a peasant costume pe- 
 culiar to itself, but each district, or department of 
 a province, and each island, distinguishes its peas- 
 antry in this way. This applies especially to the 
 provinces cut up by rivers or by arms of the sea. 
 Zeeland, for instance, is cut up into a number of
 
 46 THE HOLLAND 
 
 islands by the broad arms that form the delta of 
 the Scheldt. Each island of Zeeland has a style 
 of dress entirely its own ; one that is never modi- 
 fied by that prevailing on the other side of its wa- 
 tery boundary. 
 
 The peasant dress in some sections is rich and 
 becoming, particularly that of the women, while 
 in other parts it is grotesque and bizarre. The 
 handsomest and most picturesque styles are most- 
 ly found in the provinces of Friesland and North 
 Holland. In these the precious metals play a con- 
 spicuous part, notably in the adornment of the 
 head ; for the skull of the wearer is covered 
 by a closely fitting cap, or helmet, of either 
 gold or silver, according to the wealth of the 
 wearer. It is entirely plain, and is often an heir- 
 loom that is handed down from generation to gen- 
 eration. It generally wholly hides the hair, al- 
 though in some cases a tress is permitted to 
 hang out on each side. Over this is worn 
 a lace hood, often of exquisite workman- 
 ship, the flaps of which hang gracefully down to 
 the shoulders. When this head-gear frames a 
 beautiful face, it makes as charming a picture as 
 one will find under any sun. 
 
 For a complete contrast to this, one has only 
 to cross the Zuyder Zee to the Island of Marken, 
 where may be seen the most bizarre costumes to 
 be found among civilized men. When the stran- 
 ger looks at the wide puffing breeches of the men, 
 their short jackets, coming almost to the arm pits, 
 and their yellow, square-cut hair, he instinctively 
 asks whether these can belong to the same people
 
 OF TO-DAY 47 
 
 from among whom have come some of the great- 
 est heroes and most skilful magicians with the 
 brush and color that any nation has produced. In 
 still other sections one will find among the peas- 
 ants the knee-breeches and low shoes adorning the 
 sturdy legs of the men, while both breeches and 
 vests are enriched with silver or gold buttons. 
 
 Gold and Silver Dress Ornaments. Often the 
 waistband is covered with a row of silver buttons, 
 the size of large medals, the centre being the larg- 
 est, the others diminishing in size to right and 
 left. They are beautifully engraved or chased. 
 The vest of the rich farmer frequently has a row 
 of gold filagree buttons, as finely wrought as any 
 work that ever came from the deft fingers of a 
 Hindu goldsmith. The author met one of these 
 farmers, a dealer in cattle, in the Zeeland island 
 of Tholen, who, when a guest once at a dinner 
 given by some merchants in London, was seated 
 next to a "great" lady, who so strongly admired 
 his row of splendid buttons that she offered to 
 buy one of them. The Zeeland farmer refused 
 to sell for any consideration; but, with a polite- 
 ness that would hardly have been looked for in 
 one of his class, after he had noticed the fair lady's 
 chagrin and disappointment, he took out his pen- 
 knife and cut off one of the coveted buttons. As 
 he handed it to her with a courteous bow, he said 
 that, while he could not sell one of the articles, he 
 begged the privilege to make a present of it to her, 
 requesting that she would keep it as a souvenir of 
 the occasion. 
 
 One peculiarity about the peasant dress is that
 
 48 THE HOLLAND 
 
 no distinction is made in the style as regards the 
 age of the wearer; father and son, mother and 
 daughter, are dressed exactly alike, the only dif- 
 ference being in the gold or silver ornaments, for 
 which the children are disqualified. 
 
 The ornaments for the head and face differ as 
 much in the various sections as the costume. In 
 some, the women wear an engraved, golden plate, 
 somewhat in shape like a flattened shoehorn, ex- 
 tending over a little more than one-half of the 
 forehead. At the cheeks, by the ears, there pro- 
 jects on each side a twisted ornament, like a partly 
 uncoiled wire spring, usually of fine yellow gold, 
 from which again are suspended other ornaments, 
 often in the shape of the inside of the flower we 
 call "bleeding heart," the end of it being finished 
 with a pearl. In other sections this cheek orna- 
 ment has peculiar, square, flat projections, stand- 
 ing out like the blades of a propeller. The neck- 
 laces are either of carnelian or garnet, there be- 
 ing frequently four rows, held together by beau- 
 tifully wrought clasps, the centre-piece of which 
 is barrel-shaped and of delicate openwork. This 
 kind of neck ornament is worn also by many 
 women in the cities, although there the gold neck- 
 laces are frequently a succession of flat links. Once 
 a young girl kindly removed her necklace for the 
 author to examine. It consisted of a string of 
 one hundred and one finely-cut garnets, strung 
 on silver thread, with a lock of delicate filigree 
 gold in barrel-shape, set with twelve garnets 
 around its greater circumference, which again was
 
 OF TO-DAY 49 
 
 attached to two smaller openwork barrels of gold, 
 that connected the lock with the necklace. 
 
 Two things in the dress of the peasant girls dis- 
 tinguish them from their sisters in the cities, name- 
 ly, the superabundant quantity of heavy skirts, or 
 petticoats, and the very short sleeves. The sleeves 
 usually stop at the elbow, leaving the well- 
 rounded, lower arm bare, and rendering them, by 
 exposure to the weather, as deep in color as the 
 rich-tinted cheeks. 
 
 The hats, both of the male and female portions 
 of the population, make a significant mark by 
 which to distinguish the peasantry of the different 
 provinces. Even different pursuits or occupations 
 are distinguished in some sections by the shape of 
 hat worn by men and women. In some of the 
 northern and southern provinces the stiffly 
 starched, ruffed cap has been a prevailing fashion 
 among the women, some of them having large, 
 flaring sides, while others clasp head and face in 
 a close embrace. The women's hats in some sec- 
 tions are little more than stiff, truncated cones, 
 open at the side which goes over the head, fitting 
 close, and without any projection to protect the 
 face against wind and sun. Others, again, are 
 large, flat bonnets, with wide-spreading rims. The 
 latter are worn by the fish-peddlers in Zeeland, 
 who trip along from town to town with a gait 
 resembling the waddle of ducks, carrying their 
 loads of fish in large baskets suspended from the 
 ends of a yoke carried upon the neck. Under 
 any style of hat, the stiff cap is usually worn, com- 
 pletely hiding the hair, the Dutch peasant women
 
 50 THE HOLLAND 
 
 having apparently been trained for generations to 
 disregard this part of womanly beauty. A young 
 suitor would have a difficult job to surreptitiously 
 cut off a lock of hair from the head of his lady- 
 love. The city girls, however, made up for this 
 lack on the part of their country sisters by culti- 
 vating as fascinating braids, or curls, as ever any- 
 where captivated the hearts of youth of the oppo- 
 site sex. 
 
 Wooden Shoes. If one were to judge from 
 most of the illustrations in our books and maga- 
 zines, the conclusion would be that wooden shoes 
 of the old-fashioned, sharp-pointed pattern were 
 the only articles, besides stockings, worn in Hol- 
 land to protect the feet. They are worn a great 
 deal, to be sure, by laborers in the country dis- 
 tricts, and in the poorer sections of the cities, but, 
 even by these, only or mainly where hard and 
 dirty work has to be done, or when roadways are 
 covered with snow or mud. But there is a wood- 
 en shoe which is worn in winter even by city boys ; 
 this resembles in shape a common, low shoe, is 
 square-toed, painted black, and often carved on 
 its upper front. This, with a lining of fine straw, 
 or hay, makes a most comfortable covering for 
 the feet during the wet fall or in the winter 
 months. 
 
 His wooden shoe frequently serves the Dutch 
 boy as a formidable weapon in the many battles 
 which those of different quarters of a town wage 
 with each other. With this in hand as a club, a 
 boy will rush at another and deal out blows that 
 sometimes result in badly bruised, if not broken,
 
 OF TO-DAY 51 
 
 heads. They have one way of using this that 
 proves both the possible savagery and dexterity 
 of the Dutch urchin ; it is by slipping the heel of 
 the right foot out of the wooden shoe, so that only 
 the toes remain inside, and then, taking a step 
 backward with the left foot, hurling the wooden 
 missile (with a kick) at the head of an opponent. 
 In this they are as expert as a Filippino with his 
 bolo. 
 
 Homes of the People. In the Netherlands, as 
 in every European country, the dwellings of the 
 inhabitants of the city differ from those of the 
 peasantry. In the latter, however, there are not 
 the inconveniences and squalor so often seen in 
 the peasant houses elsewhere in Europe, while not 
 a few of them have interiors that have often 
 furnished a worthy theme for the brush of some 
 artist. The city houses are diverse in style, some 
 of them being quite elegant, even palatial, partic- 
 ularly those of the middle and higher classes. 
 The step-formed gables, so often found in pictures 
 of Dutch houses in our magazines or books of 
 travel, are most numerous in the city of Haarlem. 
 
 The most fantastic style of houses, if style it 
 can be called, is found in Rotterdam and Am- 
 sterdam, and in the older parts, particularly in the 
 last-named city, many of these houses seem to be 
 reeling and leaning in every direction, for all the 
 world like a lot of revelers at a Dutch Kermis. 
 The newer parts of those cities, however, are 
 filled with elegant residences, pleasing to the eye 
 because of their variety of stvle. In the newer
 
 52 THE HOLLAND 
 
 sections of Rotterdam not one monotonous line 
 of buildings is to be found. 
 
 The country residences of the wealthier burgh- 
 ers and of the nobility are also occasionally of a 
 beautiful style of architecture, while some of them 
 are quaint and even grotesque. They are gener- 
 ally built near some river bank, or canal, though 
 often are hidden away from the high-road, or 
 streams, in some spot full of the music of the de- 
 lightful songsters of the ancient woods. 
 
 To each of these summer residences some par- 
 ticular name is given, expressive, perhaps, of the 
 owner's object in seeking a retreat there from the 
 cares of office or labor. These names are some- 
 times quaint and sometimes rather florid ; e. g., 
 "The Pearl," "Quite Content," "Sweet Rest," 
 "Retreat from Care." On the gateways of the 
 country residences of the nobles one usually finds 
 their coats of arms, sculptured or in metal, with 
 the expressive phrases they have chosen as the 
 mottoes for themselves and their families. 
 
 All of these country retreats have more or less 
 extensive gardens and parks, which are artistically 
 laid out and beautifully kept; those belonging to 
 the wealthier classes have their green and hot- 
 houses, in which the finer fruits and exotics are 
 raised, and parks filled with deer, and with birds 
 of gay and splendid plumage, among which pea- 
 cocks and the different varieties of pheasants are 
 conspicuous. The peacock is quite a common bird 
 on most of the farms of Holland. 
 
 Bright Doors and Door-knobs. There is one 
 thing always noticeable about the Dutch city
 
 OF TO-DAY 53 
 
 house of the better class, and that is the lustre of 
 the paint on the front doors and the mirror-like 
 brightness of the door-plates, knobs, knockers and 
 bell-handles. The exquisite gloss of the paint 
 would make most of our painters stare with envy, 
 while the metal work is so constantly polished 
 that it shines like burnished gold. Even where 
 the exterior of the house is lacking in architec- 
 tural beauty, the interior makes up for this lack in 
 its finished elegance. Frequently the paneling of 
 doors and wainscoting, instead of being uniformly 
 rectangular, is ornamentally curved in something 
 akin to the rococo style. The paint within also 
 glistens as if highly varnished ; this effect is pro- 
 duced by the admixture of some ingredient giv- 
 ing the same result as varnish without the danger 
 of cracking. Frequently the mantel-pieces of the 
 rooms are adorned with paintings of scriptural, 
 historical or romantic signification. They are set 
 in the wall, above the mantel of the fireplace, cov- 
 ering the entire space to the ceiling, and are some- 
 times set off with companion-pieces at the sides, 
 or with ornamental scroll-work. 
 
 Dutch Furniture. The furnishing of a Dutch 
 house begins at the outside, and of such the 
 benches at either side of the front door and the 
 peculiar looking-glasses that project from the 
 front windows, constitute the main parts. These 
 little mirrors are hung out from one of the lower 
 front windows, sometimes also from the upper 
 ones, when more than one family occupies a 
 house. They are suspended, at a slight angle, 
 from iron arms that fit in sockets fastened to the
 
 54 THE HOLLAND 
 
 window-frame, one on each side of the window. 
 They are veritable looking-glasses, not for the 
 purpose of looking into, but of looking by means 
 of. They are called by a most appropriate name, 
 spionnen, (spies), for by their means anyone sit- 
 ting behind the lace curtain of the window can 
 spy out all that is passing in the street, either up 
 or down. Sometimes, midway between the two 
 side ones, another spion is so hung as to give to the 
 person inside a view of one calling at the front 
 door, an excellent arrangement to prevent the re- 
 ception of an unwelcome visitor, facilitating the 
 use of the common white lie of "not at home." 
 
 Much of the furniture is of mahogany, so high- 
 ly polished that it shines like a mirror. This is 
 also the case with the metal ware in the different 
 rooms, each article shiningwith a lustre one would 
 scarcely look for in the baser metals. So far at 
 least as outward brilliancy goes, the tidy Dutch 
 housewife has surpassed the efforts of the old al- 
 chemists by changing common metals into the re- 
 semblances of silver and gold. 
 
 Among the things to which her skilful hands 
 give this glitter is a piece of furniture called the 
 doofpot; a covered metal pot used for the keeping 
 of partly burned peat, one of the leading articles 
 of fuel in the Netherlands. This peat, (turf, as 
 it is there called), is sold in oblong blocks, each 
 about the size of two bricks, put one on top of the 
 other. When this is burned through, but not con- 
 sumed, it is taken Out of the fire and put into the 
 doofpot, the tight-fitting cover is put on, and the 
 coal becomes extinguished, to be preserved for
 
 OF TO-DAY 55 
 
 further use. The pot is made of strong sheet-iron, 
 or of copper, with brass handles on the side, the 
 feet and the knob that surmounts the cover being 
 of the same metal. The dead coals preserved in 
 this way are put into the fire again, when needed, 
 and make a slow but constant heat over which to 
 cook anything needing a steady fire without blaze. 
 These revived coals are also used in cold or damp 
 weather in footstoves, another piece of furniture 
 peculiar to the Netherlands, and brought over to 
 America along with the old-fashioned bellows by 
 the early emigrants to our shores. It is a 
 wooden box about ten inches square with an open 
 front and perforated top. Into this is placed a 
 small open earthenware receptacle to hold the 
 coals. It is now 7 used almost exclusively by wom- 
 en at home or in the churches. One may see 
 pyramids of these footstoves piled up in the other- 
 wise unused spaces of many houses of worship 
 which, until recently, were wholly destitute of 
 other heating appliances. Except here and there 
 some very aged man or invalid, the male members 
 of the congregations do not share in this article of 
 comfort. When one remembers that the churches 
 are wholly without carpets, and that the service is 
 frequently of three hours duration, (the sermon 
 requires at least one half of that period) it de- 
 manded no little heroism to sit through it all with 
 the thermometer near the zero-mark. This ap- 
 plies especially to the boys, who are compelled to 
 sit through the entire service by the side of their 
 fathers. Do they ever rebel ? No ; for rebel- 
 lion there usually brings swift retribution. Nev-
 
 56 THE HOLLAND 
 
 ertheless boys, in church or out of it, have a way 
 of outwitting parental watchfulness or evading 
 commands. These comfortable footstoves are 
 looked after by the sexton and his assistants, who 
 are usually some members of his own family, and 
 are furnished to the women at one cent each. 
 
 Peculiar beds are found almost everywhere in 
 the Netherlands. They are made in an alcove, 
 built in between two adjoining rooms, or into the 
 side of the room. If between adjoining rooms, it 
 is usually enclosed by a door on the one side and 
 a partition on the other; otherwise it is curtained 
 off by hangings of chintz, or tapestry. They make 
 on the whole, comfortable bedsteads, so deep that 
 it is next to impossible for a sleeper to fall out of 
 them, even if he should be tossed about by evil 
 dreams. They are found on the lower floors 
 mainly ; the bedsteads on the upper floors being 
 generally like modern ones, but never without a 
 canopy above them, from which curtains are sus- 
 pended, so as to leave the sleeper undisturbed, 
 either by mosquitoes, the glare of the night-lamp, 
 or the too-obtrusive, early sun. The feather-bed 
 cover, so common in Germany, is not used in Hol- 
 land. 
 
 Dutch heating and cooking stoves are in sev- 
 eral respects different from those used in America, 
 although Yankee ingenuity and skill are driving 
 out the home-made article. The ordinary cooking- 
 stove consists of a round, cast-iron firepot, with a 
 long, flat, sheet-iron body set at right angles to it, 
 along the sides of which are fastened iron or brass 
 rods, on which to hang small articles of napery to
 
 OF TO-DAY 57 
 
 dry, and at the same time to prevent the slipping 
 off of the cooking utensils. 
 
 Furnace for Lighting Pipes. One more arti- 
 cle of furniture particularly Dutch should be 
 mentioned. This is the comfoortje, (the little 
 comfort), a name which at once calls up the com- 
 fortable gatherings at the homes and clubs of the 
 sociable smokers. It consists of a small vase, or 
 beaker-shaped vessel, of copper, trimmed with 
 brass into which part of a live coal is put for the 
 lighting of pipes. The pipes in use are the long, 
 straight-stemmed Gouda pipes. After being filled 
 with the delicious, long-cut tobacco imported from 
 the Dutch East Indies, the pipe is turned, bowl 
 down, upon the glowing coal, and lighted with- 
 out the spilling of any part of the precious weed ; 
 then the cover of fine woven wire is put on, and 
 the devotee of the fragrant plant proceeds to en- 
 joy its gentle intoxication. The cheapness of 
 matches and cigars, however, is rapidly sending 
 this comfortable piece of furniture into limbo, al- 
 though there still are clubs where the long- 
 stemmed pipe and the comfoortje are employed. 
 In such clubs, and in some taverns, a rack is kept 
 in which the pipes of the frequenters are laid, each 
 with the name of its owner or his number on it, 
 and each having its own place, to invade which 
 would be an unpardonable offense. 
 
 Dutch Home-Life. A description of the homes 
 of the people of Holland calls for some account 
 of their home-life. It has been said that no other 
 language has an equivalent for the English word 
 "home," except the German, which has the word
 
 58 THE HOLLAND 
 
 heimath. Though the Dutch do not have an 
 equivalent word, the spirit of the word they pos- 
 sess in as great a degree as any other people, so 
 that their less significant term te hitis, means for 
 them fully as much as our word "home." This 
 was finely emphasized once by the Dutch poet 
 Ten Kate, when a guest at a feast in England. 
 He was then asked, after several toasts had been 
 given, and "Home, Sweet Home" had been 
 played, if the Dutch had a phrase equivalent to 
 "Home, Sweet Home." The poet instantly arose, 
 moved his hands through his hair and improvised 
 these lines, (I give a somewhat free rendering of 
 what he said in his native tongue) : 
 
 "Seek for bliss not in the circle 
 Of the wide world's mighty round ; 
 Home alone is the real centre 
 Where true happiness is found." 
 
 The Divine ordainment of the home has no- 
 where been more fully recognized than in Hol- 
 land. The father is still king and priest, ruling 
 the house with strict, but kindly and loving au- 
 thority. Before each principal meal, breakfast, 
 dinner and supper, (besides these there are two 
 other refreshment periods, the coffee-hour in the 
 forenoon and the afternoon tea ; but these are not 
 meals), the head of the house first asks the Divine 
 blessing. This amounts to far more than our 
 customary short grace, being more like the prayer 
 offered at our family worship, of which, indeed, it 
 takes the place. At the close of the meal, the Bi- 
 ble is read ; this is followed again by a prayer of 
 thanksgiving. This Bible reading is not a haphaz-
 
 OF TO-DAY 59 
 
 ard affair, but is consecutive and connective, the 
 historic and prophetic parts being read at break- 
 fast, the Psalms at dinner, and the New Testa- 
 ment in the evening. 
 
 This custom, of course, is current mainly 
 among the stricter religious classes of the Protes- 
 tants, and to those whose occupation permits the 
 following of this order; mechanics, laborers or 
 farmers, even when religious, having no time for 
 such an observance except at the evening meal. 
 The custom is, unfortunately, rapidly on the de- 
 cline, although, even among the most liberal sects, 
 grace at meals is generally observed. 
 
 The strict and yet affectionate nature of Dutch 
 family government may be illustrated by a couple 
 of interesting anecdotes. On a certain occasion 
 Queen Wilhelmina, when a young girl, had some 
 difficulty with her servants about a matter in 
 which she was at fault. Upon investigation her 
 mother, the Queen Regent, finding that her child 
 was to blame, ordered her instantly to bed. As 
 it was long before her usual bedtime, this was the 
 severest punishment that could be inflicted upon 
 her. While lying in bed the little royal witch 
 concocted a scheme of revenge, and at seven the 
 next morning she went to her mother's bedroom, 
 intending to make her realize the royal authority 
 of her daughter. She rapped loudly at the door. 
 To the question. "Who is there?" she replied, 
 "The Queen of Holland," in as authoritative a 
 tone as her voice could command. The reply 
 came instantly, "Why, it is altogether too early 
 for a reception of the queen." Disappointed, but
 
 6o THE HOLLAND 
 
 not entirely baffled, she waited and thought 
 awhile, then rapped again. Now, when again 
 asked who was there, she answered, "Your Wil- 
 helmina," whereupon the mother's voice at once 
 responded, "Oh, for her the door is always open !" 
 
 The son of the author's former pastor and drill- 
 master in the Catechism, the Rev. Charles Ter- 
 nooy Apel, when candidate for a pastorate, had 
 been to a certain town where he preached a very 
 liberal sermon. This was reported to his aunt at 
 Flushing, who was as strictly orthodox as his good 
 father had been, but who was a loving mother to 
 Charles, and had most liberally supported him 
 during his student career. On his return to 
 Flushing she gave her nephew an unusually cold 
 reception. After sitting for some time in any- 
 thing but a comfortable mood, he arose and ex- 
 tended his hand to bid his aunt good-bye, when 
 she smote him with the words, "With such a lib- 
 eral fellow I do not shake hands!" "All right," 
 answered Charles, "but won't you kiss me good- 
 bye then?" "O yes," she cried, "for my Charlie 
 I've always a kiss!" 
 
 The home always has been the centre of family 
 enjoyment. In it music, vocal and instrumen- 
 tal, has a large share, though in the presence of 
 strangers even accomplished performers are apt 
 to be restrained by natural reserve. The leading 
 instrument was formerly the pipe-organ ; it was 
 the usual family instrument, as well as that for 
 public worship. For this in many homes a special 
 room was set apart, the organ standing in a niche 
 built for that purpose, and the room being always
 
 OF TO-DAY 6 1 
 
 designated as "the organ-room." The piano has of 
 late taken the place of the organ, excepting in the 
 churches. Formerly the spinet, or clavier, was 
 used, the instrument whose ghost ought to haunt 
 everyone who libels it by our wretched pronun- 
 ciation of clavc-yer, instead of cla-veer, with the 
 accent on the last syllable. 
 
 The winter is the great period for home enjoy- 
 ment. Then the different circles of young people 
 meet at least once a week at each other's houses 
 in turn, to spend the evening in amusing and 
 mirth-making games. In these games the heads 
 of the house frequently take part. The games 
 played are such as all present can participate in, 
 such as the "Bell and Hammer," "Lotto," etc. 
 Cards are usually prohibited at these gatherings. 
 It is worthy of note that these games are never 
 played without some stake, though always a very 
 insignificant one. For this purpose there are used, 
 instead of chips, the cowrie, a small shell brought 
 in great quantities from the East Indies. The cus- 
 tom does not breed gamblers. 
 
 Watchmen in the Cities. Before the intro- 
 duction of a regular police force in the cities, 
 every town had two kinds of watchmen, the 
 torenicachter (tower-watch), and klepperman, 
 (clapperman). The first took his position at 
 nightfall on one of the high galleries of a steeple, 
 from which he could overlook the city, and give 
 alarm on his horn at the breaking out of a fire. 
 The klepperman, of whom there were as many as 
 the size of the city required, carried a sabre, and 
 also a clapper, or rattle, consisting of a flat board
 
 62 THE HOLLAND 
 
 of resonant wood, through the centre of which 
 the handle was put, with a movable hammer sus- 
 pended from its end. With this the watchman 
 beat a sort of tattoo, at the same time that he 
 cried out the hour. Rat-tat-tat, tat, tat, "One 
 hour has the clock, the clock has one." This cry, 
 so familiar to many generations of Dutchmen, is 
 now hushed in the death that has come to so 
 many old customs through the more effective 
 methods of modern life. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 Outdoor Amusements 
 
 Outdoor Games. The outdoor games of boys 
 and girls are those played with tops, marbles and 
 hoops, and include rope-jumping, kite-flying, boat- 
 ing and swimming. Holland boys excel in the 
 beauty and size of their kites, which are large and 
 are ornamented with pretty figures cut from high- 
 ly-colored glazed paper, while sometimes disks of 
 oiled paper are inserted in the upper part on each 
 side of the central stick through which the sun- 
 light can shine. They long ago had the tailless 
 kite. 
 
 The boys are also fond of pitching marbles, 
 cowries, buttons, broken pieces of slate-pencils, 
 and even pennies, in which they become expert. 
 This game is played in some place where a circu- 
 lar hole, about two inches deep, can be dug in the 
 ground. It is played by two players, each staking 
 an equal number of the articles played, which are
 
 OF TO-DAY 63 
 
 either laid on the inside of the fingers, or held be- 
 tween the thumb and finger, and pitched from a 
 measured distance into the hole. Whatever num- 
 ber of articles used is pitched into the hole be- 
 longs to the pitcher for "keeps." However much 
 the gambling spirit may be aroused by this game 
 in the Dutch boys, little or none of it is left in 
 them when they attain to manhood. Each then 
 seems to be able to apply to himself the apostolic 
 words, "When I became a man, I put away child- 
 ish things." 
 
 There is one game played in summer that could 
 only be played in that land of canals and ditches. 
 When the weather is all right the boys go out in- 
 to the country to leap ditches. For this they have 
 frequently a long pole, called polderstok, which 
 they set at an angle into the ditch, a little more 
 than half-way across, and, taking a firm hold of 
 the upper end, swing themselves over. This not 
 only affords amusing exercise, but is accompanied 
 with some risk, as it happens sometimes that the 
 leaper's weight drives the stick so far into the 
 muddy bottom that it gets stuck there and leaves 
 the boy suspended in mid-air. 
 
 They have had for many years the game of 
 baseball, although this has only recently been mod- 
 eled upon the American plan, which, however, it 
 does not yet equal in scientific and vigorous char- 
 acter. The Frisians are reckoned as the best play- 
 ers, and frequent matches are played by them with 
 teams in other parts of the kingdom and in Bel- 
 gium. Football has also been introduced ; but in 
 this they follow the English rather than the
 
 64 THE HOLLAND 
 
 American method of play. A Netherland Foot- 
 ball Union was organized a few years ago. 
 
 The game of hop-scotch, called by the Dutch 
 hinkebaan, (hopping track), said to have origi- 
 nated among the Phoenicians, is much played. 
 Tennis, also, was known very early, having been 
 introduced by the Roman, Claudius Drusus, who 
 is said to have laid out the first tennis court in the 
 Netherlands, although it was not then played ex- 
 actly as now. This game is called in Dutch 
 kaatscn, and a very common proverb is based up- 
 on it, viz., "The pitcher must expect the ball to 
 be thrown at him also," and may be rendered, as 
 applied to jokers, "He that plays a joke must ex- 
 pect to have a joke played on him." 
 
 One game played by every boy throughout the 
 Netherlands, at Eastertime, is cyertikken, (egg- 
 cracking). A full week before Easter the boys 
 begin to collect eggs and boil them hard, keeping 
 their supply until Easter Monday, when the sport 
 begins. They are usually boiled in coffee to make 
 them brown, or in beet-juice to turn them red. 
 As soon as the boys can get away after breakfast, 
 they sally forth with such a supply of eggs as 
 their pockets will hold, and challenge the first 
 similarly supplied boy to the "ticking." Each one 
 tries to crack the larger end of his opponent's egg 
 with the smaller end of his own. The fun comes 
 in, in this struggle, to get the best of each other. 
 Some little fellows are wide-awake enough to 
 shake their eggs before boiling, which makes the 
 contents settle to the larger part, when this may
 
 OF TO-DAY 65 
 
 become as hard as the smaller end. The cracked 
 egg, of course, goes to the cracker. 
 
 The Dutch, while generally fond of all games, 
 are, as a rule, not much inclined to the more ex- 
 citing sports. There are horse-races, but these 
 are confined mainly to country fairs, where they 
 are indulged in with little skill, but with an 
 abandon that one does not see at English or Amer- 
 ican races. The participants are usually farmers, 
 who put their heavy horses through their paces, 
 but out of it sometimes get considerable speed. 
 
 The craze for yacht-racing has struck Holland 
 with considerable force during late years, and has 
 resulted in the establishment of several yacht 
 clubs. Such races are not confined to craft of a 
 prescribed pattern, but are participated in by any 
 vessels capable of entering into competition. 
 Many very awkward-looking sloops, with their 
 round bows and sterns, and with sideboard in- 
 stead of centerboard, are frequently entered. 
 These sometimes develope a most surprising 
 speed, unwieldy as they look. But the main en- 
 tries are the trim craft usually seen on such oc- 
 casions. The race this year (1905) is to be be- 
 tween the Dutch and Belgian Clubs, sometime 
 between June 1 and September 30. 
 
 Skating in Winter. The universal national 
 sports are those which winter affords, provided 
 it brings a sufficient amount of cold to properly 
 congeal the canals and rivers, and of snow to cov- 
 er streets and roads to a proper depth. The Hol- 
 lander's skill with skates is equalled in few coun- 
 tries and surpassed nowhere. And with good rea-
 
 66 THE HOLLAND 
 
 son, for from childhood he has been accustomed 
 to move about freely on the narrow blades of steel 
 on the slippery ice as readily as he walks the 
 streets of his town ; and winter after winter he 
 has been accustomed to skate on canal, or river, 
 from village to village. 
 
 When the author was a boy there was a curious 
 method of ascertaining the sufficient thickness of 
 the ice. It was practiced by Jewish boys, who 
 would not venture on the ice unless they could 
 see frozen air-bubbles underneath. If these bub- 
 bles were not there, it proved that the ice was still 
 thin and porous enough to allow the bubbles to 
 rise and hang on the undercrust. As the ice 
 thickened these bubbles would be caught and 
 frozen, and give assurance that the ice was thick 
 enough to bear any number of skaters. 
 
 This skill has often stood him in good stead 
 during the wars that his country had to wage, 
 either in bearing despatches, in escaping from the 
 foe, or in waging battles on the ice. A notable 
 proof of its value in the latter case was given 
 during the early years of the revolt against Spain, 
 toward the close of the Sixteenth Century. A 
 fleet of the "Beggars of the Sea," as the patriotic 
 privateers were called, was frozen in near the 
 city of Naarden on the Zuyder Zee. As soon as 
 the Spaniards, who were in possession of Amster- 
 dam, became aware of this they sent a strong 
 force over the ice to capture the fleet. When 
 those on board learned of it a number of the best 
 skaters among the Beggars volunteered to go out 
 to meet the Spaniards. They took along no weap-
 
 OF TO-DAY 67 
 
 ons but swords. On they rushed, while the can- 
 non from the Beggar's ships fired their volleys 
 over the heads of the skaters at the Spaniards. It 
 was a hand-to-hand fight, but one in which the 
 heavily armed foes, who were indifferent skaters, 
 were no match for their swift-footed assailants. 
 In a very short time, the would-be-captors were 
 driven from the field and pursued to within sight 
 of the city they had left a short time before with 
 such exultant hearts and full anticipations. The 
 returning skaters were hailed by the shouts of 
 their comrades. A thaw setting in the next day 
 liberated the fleet. 
 
 Wherever there is any skating, baanvcgcrs 
 (track-sweepers) are found at certain points, who 
 hail the passing skaters for pennies, very much as 
 crossing-sweepers in cities formerly demanded toll 
 from each crosser. The amount expected from 
 each skater is small, to be sure, but the practice at 
 one time became so annoying that the Skating 
 Club of Holland tried to put an end to it by hir- 
 ing its own sweepers at a regular wage. Now, for 
 only twenty-five Dutch cents the season, one can 
 become a member of this society, and have free 
 passage along the entire track without being 
 stopped or annoyed. These useful fellows cease- 
 lessly ply their brooms, and so keep the track 
 clear and smooth, and they earn all they get in 
 whatever way they are paid. When the skaters 
 are all gone at night, holes are cut here and there 
 to flood the surface, so that the frost may furnish 
 a smooth track for the following morning. For 
 the convenience of refreshment of these skaters,
 
 68 THE HOLLAND 
 
 tents are set up, on the ice, in which one can put 
 on the skates by a warm stove and refresh himself 
 with a cup of hot chocolate, aniseed milk, and var- 
 ious kinds of cake. 
 
 The above named Club also has posts set up on 
 the ice to mark the way and to indicate places of 
 danger, and the morning papers of some cities 
 publish what trips can be planned for the day. 
 In some sections, races are arranged for the poor, 
 the prizes consisting of eatables or fuel. The com- 
 petitors for the race are selected from the families 
 to be benefited. If the family has no one able to 
 compete, some young man from the less needy 
 classes will fill the place, and, if successful, will 
 hand over the prize to the party he represents. 
 
 Skating with many is quite a fine art, and there 
 may be seen all sorts of arabesque figures, the 
 writing of names on the ice, etc. Others seek to 
 excel in swiftness; one young man is known to 
 have covered five miles in four minutes. Yet 
 neither of these things offers as fine a sight as to 
 see plain but rosy-cheeked couples, arms linked, in 
 graceful, swinging motions, now to the right, then 
 to the left, gliding swiftly over the glassy field. 
 
 The great danger attending skating on the 
 canals arises from the numerous bridges crossing 
 them. These are often so low that one needs to 
 stoop well to pass under, or, if unobserved, they 
 are likely to send the swift mover suddenly on his 
 back, sometimes to his serious injury. The skill 
 acquired on the ice by some of the peasant women 
 is unique. One sees them balancing a basket, 
 containing eggs or other farm produce, on their
 
 OF TO-DAY 69 
 
 heads, while at the same time they are scudding 
 along fearlessly. 
 
 Sleighing. Next to skating comes that other 
 delightful and universal winter-sport of the Dutch, 
 sleighing. One species of this amusement is un- 
 known to them ; the more exciting and dangerous 
 sport of coasting. There are few hills in Hol- 
 land on which to coast. The sleighs used by the 
 young people are box-sleighs, capable of seating 
 from two to four persons. These are of two 
 kinds, the principal kind being rounded at the front 
 and having a high back, which curves up and 
 backward, somewhat in the form of an inclined 
 question mark (?), by which the one propelling 
 the sleigh pushes it forward. The runners pro- 
 ject behind for some distance, so that, when the 
 pusher has sent his sleigh forward on a run, he 
 can jump on them and let the sleigh glide on for 
 a distance by the momentum given, and, at the 
 same time, give himself a ride. 
 
 In the use of some of the sleighs the warlike dis- 
 position of the nation crops out again. Sometimes, 
 when a number of sleighers from different quar- 
 ters of a city (between whom, by the way, there 
 is usually a feud of long standing) gather on a 
 wide street or market-square, they are apt to butt 
 into each other, and not always by accident. As 
 a protection against injury from this source, some 
 sleighs have their forward part armed with a thick 
 iron bar, terminating in a knob, firmly fastened to 
 an iron band attached to the body of the sleigh, 
 ju^t like the beak of an ancient Greek galley. 
 When a sleigh like this comes into contact with an
 
 70 THE HOLLAND 
 
 opposing one, the effect is apt to be disastrous. 
 It often proves to act as a preventive of hostilities, 
 just as a well-armed nation is most likely to be 
 left at peace by intending foes. 
 
 But the fun is not all of this savage kind, by 
 any means. Great enjoyment lies in a young lad 
 taking a couple, or two couples, if the sleigh be a 
 two-seated one, of his best girls, for a moonlight 
 sleigh-ride. It is very hard work for the lad, but 
 he finds a rich reward in the smiling eyes of his 
 passengers, particularly when he is permitted to 
 collect his fare in "the coin of the universal 
 realm" from their ruby lips. Sometimes the lad 
 has to take his little brothers or sisters out ; in 
 this he never finds much enjoyment. 
 
 Another kind of sleigh used by the young 
 folks of Holland is called the prikslee, which is a 
 strong box-sleigh, with two long handles behind, 
 held together by a cross-piece, and set at a conve- 
 nient angle. This seats one or two persons only, 
 and is mostly used on the ice. It is of simple shape 
 and make, such as any handy man may construct 
 for his children. Sometimes it is quite hand- 
 some and made of more costly material. 
 
 Sleighs drawn by horses, used mostly by the 
 rich, (except those large ones of the farmers in 
 which the whole family can ride to church or 
 market), are often handsome, though of singular 
 forms. They seat one person, and are often in 
 shape like a swan, or some other large bird, the 
 curving neck and projecting head forming the 
 front of the sleigh. The neck of the horse is hung 
 with bells, while another bell swings above his
 
 OF TO-DAY 71 
 
 head, the latter being in an ornamental form, of 
 brass. In this "my lady," wrapped in thick furs, 
 is driven around, while her driver stands on the 
 runners behind, and from there guides the fleet 
 pacer, which, perhaps, gets the larger share of the 
 enjoyment. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 Births, Marriages and Funerals 
 
 Birth of a Child. In many respects the gener- 
 al customs of Hollanders are peculiar to the na- 
 tion, particularly those connected with the three 
 most important events of human life birth, mar- 
 riage and death. Nowhere is the entrance of a 
 new mortal into the world attended with so much 
 ceremony as in the Netherlands. As soon as the 
 child has come into visible being, the public is 
 made aware of the fact, not only by announce- 
 ment in the newspapers, but by public messenger, 
 called the aansprekcr, (the announcer), who goes 
 from house to house among the friends and ac- 
 quaintances of the favored family to carry the 
 news. Every passer-by, who may stop to read, as 
 well as every caller, is kept informed of the moth- 
 er's condition and that of the new arrival by the 
 posting on the door of a daily bulletin. And, lest 
 the peaceful slumbers of the babe might be dis- 
 turbed, the door-bell is carefully muffled, or, if 
 there be a knocker, a cushion is placed under it. 
 
 A personage of almost as great importance in 
 the house as the mother, is the nurse. She is for
 
 72 THE HOLLAND 
 
 the time being the pilot of the domestic ship, the 
 sole autocrat of the establishment. The moment 
 she arrives she at once takes full command, and 
 woe betide the luckless father, or other relative, 
 who would dare to disobey her behests, or dispute 
 her rights. Not even the all-dreaded mother-in- 
 law then dares to wag the tongue, if only in ad- 
 vice. The nurse knows all that ever was, or can 
 be known, about any part of her business ; every 
 possible requirement for the child or mother, sick 
 or well. No one, from the paternal head to the 
 most distant relative or casual acquaintance, who 
 crosses the threshold of such a home, but is made 
 to pay tribute to the autocrat of the nursery, and 
 that not in the small coin of the realm. Woe to 
 the visitor who would either dare to treat her with 
 discourtesy or to forget the customary tip. On 
 the next call, such visitor is likely to be haughtily 
 and utterly ignored, if permitted to enter the sanc- 
 tum at all. 
 
 This custom of tipping the nurse is compensated 
 by another the serving of refreshments to every 
 one who comes to offer congratulations. These 
 consist of coffee, or chocolate, with well-buttered 
 French rolls, which are covered with small but 
 toothsome seed-candies, somewhat like the Scotch 
 sugared caraways called "carvies," (in Holland 
 euphemistically called "little mice"). By the out- 
 side appearance of these candies, the visitor is at 
 once made aware, if unknown before, of the sex 
 of the infant; if it is a girl, by their smoothness; 
 if a boy, by their roughness. In addition to rolls 
 and chocolate, the visitor is served on these occa-
 
 OF TO-DAY 73 
 
 sions with wine or liquor, which is usually a mix- 
 ture resembling our egg-nog, and called by the 
 singular name advokaten barrel, (lawyer's dram), 
 the reason for which we have been unable to dis- 
 cover. Only the more well-to-do on this occa- 
 sion serve wine, and then in the form of what is 
 called kandeel, being a mulled wine, mixed with 
 eggs, sugar and cinnamon. 
 
 Whether the person most directly concerned 
 shares in the pleasure thus given and enjoyed may 
 well be doubted. At all events, when one sees 
 the manner in which the poor little wight is han- 
 dled and its mode of dress during its earliest in- 
 fancy, one would say that everything was being 
 done to make its infantile soul most bitterly regret 
 that it ever made its appearance among mortals. 
 From the moment it sees the light of day it is put 
 into swaddling clothes, and is so completely 
 wrapped up in them, like an Indian papoose, 
 that any movement of arms or legs is made impos- 
 sible. Of that apparently most exquisite delight 
 to the infantile soul, next to that derived from the 
 vigorous exercise of its vocal organs, the stretch- 
 ing and kicking of its little legs, it is wholly de- 
 prived by its unnatural bonds. It may well seem 
 surprising that a people whose infant feet have 
 from time immemorial been thus severely re- 
 strained should ever have become such vigorous 
 kickers against all unlawful restraint and oppres- 
 sion. 
 
 When the Dutch child is released from these 
 trammels and permitted to realize that it possesses 
 powers of locomotion, it still is provided with
 
 74 THE HOLLAND 
 
 extraordinary safeguards against possible harm. 
 That it may not tumble in taking its first steps 
 in the rough path of life, it is provided with a 
 wooden frame on rollers or casters, by which to 
 exercise its locomotive energies; and, lest it then 
 should come to grief by the possible upsetting of 
 the vehicle, it is provided with a cap, with thickly 
 padded and projecting top, appropriately called 
 a falhoed, (falling-hat). 
 
 This ceaseless and punctilious watchfulness for 
 the welfare of the child follows it through all its 
 childhood days, both in the home and in the 
 school. For its amusement in the home, toys the 
 most ingenious and in greatest variety are pro- 
 vided, often the product of the deft hands of the 
 father; while at school the eye is fed and the 
 mind delighted by whatever can relieve the monot- 
 ony of dry study. 
 
 Christening of Children. Long before the 
 school period has been reached, however, another 
 event has taken place, that occupies a most impor- 
 tant place in Dutch home-life. About this centres 
 as great interest as about the child's entrance into 
 life, and it is also accompanied with considerable 
 feasting. The stomach, indeed, is considered such 
 an important part of the human organism 
 throughout Holland, that there is scarcely any 
 enjoyment given to the people but they demand 
 that this part of their system shall be duly re- 
 membered. The christening of the child is an- 
 nounced a week beforehand, the announcement 
 specifying in what church and by what clergyman 
 the rite is to be administered, and then comes the
 
 OF TO-DAY 75 
 
 feast of christening. Though no distinct invita- 
 tion is given, all relatives and friends are made 
 welcome to this feast. The rite is usually admin- 
 istered on a Sunday afternoon. At its conclusion, 
 all retire to the consistory, except the parents, to 
 whom the minister gives a final word of admoni- 
 tion ; which done, all return to the house of the 
 child's parents. Here the feast is spread, and when 
 God's blessing has been invoked by the clergy- 
 men upon both the feast and guests, the nurse 
 brings in the most important personage of the oc- 
 casion, and either herself presents it to each of the 
 guests, or, if a godfather or a godmother be pres- 
 ent, puts the baby into the latter's hands, who in 
 turn passes it from guest to guest. 
 
 It used to be the custom in well-to-do families 
 to lay a photograph of the child by the plate of 
 each guest as a memento, but this is going out of 
 vogue. It goes without saying that the nurse is 
 again pretty well "tipped" on this occasion. 
 
 Marriage Customs. Let us suppose that the 
 child is a boy, and has grown up, and that he is 
 on the point of making a home for himself. The 
 first step, of course, is the finding of a helpmeet. 
 In such case there may come into practice a singu- 
 lar usage, followed at least in one section of the 
 country and carried even to Africa, where it is 
 found among the Boers. This requires that the 
 pair, who seem inclined to marry, shall sit up one 
 night with a candle placed on a stand between 
 them, so as to give them a chance to discover, 
 while this is burning, whether they like each oth- 
 er well enough to become man and wife! If the
 
 76 THE HOLLAND 
 
 candle burns down to the socket before the grave 
 matter is decided, they part, and each is left free 
 to seek some other mate. It seems hardly possible 
 that two young people made of genuine flesh and 
 blood could sit the entire time required by the can- 
 dle to burn out in glum expectancy as to what 
 one or the other might do to break the ice. 
 
 It is required that the banns for a marriage 
 shall be published, and social etiquette is almost 
 equally exacting as to the publication of an en- 
 gagement. Wedding cards are double, the par- 
 ents of both parties joining in the announcement, 
 that of the bride's parents being printed on the 
 one side and that of the groom's parents on the 
 opposite side. 
 
 Marriage is regarded as a civil contract and 
 must be performed by a burgomaster, or his depu- 
 ty, at the court house, or city hall. No other 
 marriage is valid. The civil marriage is almost 
 invariably followed, however, by a religious cere- 
 mony, either in some church, or at the house of 
 the bride's parents. Both are solemn ceremonies, 
 although the marriage performed in a church is 
 the more elaborate. 
 
 Suppose writer and reader are two of the in- 
 vited guests to a wedding to be celebrated in a 
 church. It is 1.30 of the afternoon. We have 
 taken seats commanding a full view of all the par- 
 ticipants in the scene. As the bridal party enters 
 a wedding march is played upon the organ by a 
 skilful performer till the bride and groom are 
 seated in chairs placed for them directly in front 
 of the pulpit. The parents and other attendants
 
 OF TO-DAY 77 
 
 of the parties take their places in pews on either 
 side. When all are seated, the sexton ushers the 
 minister to the pulpit. As soon as he reaches the 
 desk, he gives out a part of the Psalm lxvii, 
 which, accompanied by the organ, is sung by the 
 entire congregation, the bride and groom joining 
 in heartily. At the conclusion, the minister reads 
 some appropriate scriptural selection, which is 
 followed by the singing of two verses from Psalm 
 cxviii. As soon as the sound of this has ceased, 
 the clergyman offers a lengthy but appropriate 
 prayer, after the close of which he delivers a ser- 
 mon of at least thirty minutes duration. Then 
 parents and other attendants rise and stand, and 
 the bride and groom come forward to kneel before 
 the pulpit, while the minister reads the Dutch lit- 
 urgy appropriate to the occasion, and at the con- 
 clusion pronounces the pair man and wife, "so 
 made after the ordinance of God." These then 
 return to their seats, while the others also resume 
 their places. When the service is so far ended, a 
 collection is taken up for the poor, after which 
 another hymn and the benediction finish the 
 whole. As the parties walk out, a wedding hymn 
 is played to the tune of "Home, Sweet Home." 
 
 Funerals. As soon as one dies the public is 
 informed by the aansprckcrs. They usually go in 
 pairs, each taking one side of the street, stopping 
 at every house. They are garbed in a costume con- 
 sisting of a long, swallow-tailed coat, from the 
 collar of which hang down the back two, broad, 
 long bands of black crape, bound with silk; a 
 wide-rimmed, low-crowned hat from which falls
 
 78 THE HOLLAND 
 
 on one side another long crape band ; knee-breech- 
 es with buckles, and low-cut, silver-buckled shoes. 
 The knee-breeches and shoes have recently gone 
 out of fashion in some sections, as has also the 
 former style of hat, this having been replaced by 
 the high, silk hat. As these go from house to 
 house, they proclaim the mournful news in front 
 of the houses in loud tones. Generally at this day 
 the "announcers" distribute cards, which an- 
 nounce the departure of the deceased, the black 
 borders varying in width with the age of the de- 
 parted. These aansprckers also precede the 
 hearse on foot at funerals. After the hearse fol- 
 low carriages containing only women mourners ; 
 the relatives of the other sex walk. 
 
 It is a lugubrious sight to see such a funeral 
 procession, all the male mourners, who are 
 ranged according to age, wearing mourning cloaks, 
 their heads covered with large, low-crowned, but 
 wide-rimmed hats, whose rims go flapping up 
 and down, like the wings of some large black bird. 
 The author recalls an occasion where the young- 
 est boy, save one, looking along the line of mourn- 
 ers at the flapping hats, became suddenly con- 
 vulsed with a different sensation from that called 
 for by the occasion. As he passed, with handker- 
 chief covering his face to conceal his laughter and 
 with shaking shoulders, a woman among the on- 
 lookers was heard to say: "Just see how badly 
 that poor lad feels at the loss of his grandfather." 
 Appearances may be deceptive. 
 
 After the funeral all return to the house for 
 the customary funeral feast ; for whatever the oc-
 
 OF TO-DAY 79 
 
 casion, your genuine Dutchman must cat, drink, 
 or smoke. An occasional abstainer from drink 
 or tobacco may be found, (there have been Dutch- 
 men who never smoked), but the one who would 
 refuse an invitation to cat must be looked for in 
 some future age. 
 
 A funeral service is never held in a church, ex- 
 cept in the case of personages of special promi- 
 nence. The long and sometimes wearisome fu- 
 neral sermons customary in America are unknown 
 in Holland. The service is only the solemn one 
 prescribed by the church liturgy. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 Religious and Secular Feast Days 
 
 The Kermis. Intimately connected with the 
 home-life of Holland are its public feasts, because 
 these have their centre in the home, and in these 
 all the members of the family alike share. The 
 most prominent of these are the Kermis, Santa 
 Claus and Easter, not to mention those connected 
 with the birthdays of the royal family. 
 
 The word Kermis, of late years introduced 
 among us and erroneously spelt "Kirmess," and 
 the feast itself, had a religious origin, though its 
 observance for the last century or more is of any- 
 thing but a religious character. The original word 
 was ''Kerkmis," (Church-mass), and was descrip- 
 tive of the occasion when the service of the mass 
 was performed once a year for all the people of a 
 district. On this occasion, while the main idea
 
 80 THE HOLLAND 
 
 was religious, the people assembled in families in 
 the central town where the church was located, 
 putting up booths for temporary dwelling and for 
 the sale of merchandise. 
 
 The booths were set up in the wide spaces in 
 the neighborhood of the church, and were ranged 
 in regular order, with passages, like streets, be- 
 tween the rows. The same arrangements prevail 
 still. The most frequented of the booths are those 
 which serve whatever may be required for the 
 delectation of the Dutch palate, in which, how- 
 ever, waffles and a kind of doughnut, called in 
 some sections brocdcrtjes, (little brothers), in 
 others poffertjes, (little puffers), are most in de- 
 mand. The waffles are always crisp and appetiz- 
 ing. Throughout the day and far into the night 
 these eating-booths are patronized by a ceaseless 
 succession of young couples, who in separate al- 
 coves enjoy the waffles, or doughnuts, and choco- 
 late. No young man in Holland need lack for a 
 fair partner in his enjoyment of the Kermis. If 
 he should be too bashful to ask some maiden, the 
 damsel will meet him more than half way, and 
 let him know distinctly that she is "ready and 
 willing" to share his pleasure, and not infrequent- 
 ly she hands him her purse, with carte blanche to 
 spend its contents as he wishes for their mutual 
 enjoyment at the fair. 
 
 There are here, also, all sorts of merry-go- 
 rounds, some ingenious ones being boats that quite 
 imitate the motion on rough waves. Of course 
 there are mountebanks and fakirs. Among the 
 latter are the Jewish peddlers of pickles in firkins
 
 OF TO-DAY 8 1 
 
 carried under the arm. These are followed by 
 street gamins, who cry after them, "A cent a lick, 
 two-and-a-half cents a bite," imitating closely the 
 peculiar nasal drawl of the Hebrew vender. 
 
 The village Kermis usually offers the most ex- 
 citement. One scene may be given that may do 
 for all. Along a level road a post is set up, with 
 a hollow metal tube projecting from it, into which 
 a number of rings are put, one of them projecting 
 at the end. At a measured distance on a track the 
 farmers are ranged, mounted on glossy, ribbon- 
 covered horses, with their arched necks and thick 
 fetlocks, the horses evidently being more accus- 
 tomed to draw the plough or loaded wains than 
 to speeding in a race. Each competitor is armed 
 with a lance like those employed in the ancient 
 jousts. At the word of command, the one in the 
 lead starts, yelling like a Comanche Indian ; his 
 horse seems to catch the excitement, and goes at a 
 speed that is unusual for such a heavy draught- 
 animal. At full speed the lance is aimed at the 
 ring; if the rider bears it off at the point of his 
 lance, the spectators split the air with their ac- 
 claim. The one who secures the most rings is the 
 victor, and, carrying away the prize, is borne off 
 by his friends, when all go to celebrate his success. 
 
 Within recent years the utter abandon of Ker- 
 mis revelers has led to the entire abolition of the 
 festival or to a great restriction of it. In most 
 cities it can now be held only for a day, instead of, 
 as formerly, for an entire week. 
 
 Santa Claus Festival. The festival most inti- 
 mately associated with the home-life of Holland is
 
 82 THE HOLLAND 
 
 that celebrated in honor of the national patron- 
 saint. This falls not on the twenty-fifth of De- 
 cember, as with us, but on the sixth of that month, 
 the day also observed as such by the Holland So- 
 ciety of New York. About this the family affec- 
 tions concentrate as about no other feast. As the 
 sixth of December dawns, the saint is hailed with 
 this song: 
 
 " St. Nicholas, good, holy man, 
 Put your best new cassock on ; 
 Ride in this to Amsterdam, 
 From Amsterdam to Spain : 
 Bring us cookies from Cocaign," etc. 
 
 His cassock was supposed to have the power of 
 rendering him invisible, like the "tarnkappe" of 
 Siegfried. 
 
 With this, two pretty legends are connected 
 that were current in the author's childhood. The 
 first of these told this story: A certain man had 
 lost all his property and was reduced to want. 
 After vainly trying everything he could think of 
 to retrieve his fortune, he resolved to sell his three 
 daughters, whose great beauty would, doubtless, 
 bring him a large sum. When the unhappy girls 
 became aware of it, they prayed to St. Nicholas, 
 the protector of maidens, for deliverance. The 
 good Saint heard them, went to the house during 
 the night, and, through a broken window, dropped 
 some money that his own father had left him. On 
 the following night he went again and dropped a 
 purse of gold through the chimney. This put the 
 father on his guard, so that he kept watch during 
 the third night, and caught the Saint as he was in
 
 OF TO-DAY 83 
 
 the act of repeating his gift. Then the father 
 asked, "Saint Nicholas, servant of the Lord, why 
 do you hide your good deeds thus?" But from this 
 time everyone knew that St. Nicholas brought his 
 presents in the night. 
 
 The other legend tells the story of three boys, 
 who lost their way in a dark forest, and at last 
 came upon a house where they asked for a night's 
 lodging. This was granted ; but, while they were 
 quietly sleeping, the wicked owner of the cottage 
 stealthily went to their bed and killed them all, 
 hoping that so he would get the money that he 
 supposed they had about them. But, when he 
 searched their clothes, he found that the poor lads 
 had with them not a thing of value, and so he had 
 murdered them for nothing. Then, to escape de- 
 tection, he cut up the bodies and put the pieces in 
 a tub in the brine with the pigs' meat. The next 
 afternoon the murderer went to market, where 
 St. Nicholas in his Episcopal robes, met him, and 
 asked if he had any salt pork to sell. When the 
 farmer answered, "No," the Saint asked again, 
 "What about the three pigs in your tub?" Upon 
 this the frightened farmer confessed his crime and 
 begged for pardon. The Saint commanded the 
 cruel wretch to conduct him to his house, and, 
 when they reached there, St. Nicholas waved his 
 staff over the tub, upon which the boys were at 
 once restored to life, and, jumping out of the tub, 
 fell on their knees, and poured out their thanks 
 to their deliverer. 
 
 For weeks before the sixth of December ar- 
 rives the talk of old and young is about the dear
 
 84 THE HOLLAND 
 
 old Saint and his day. Every confectioner is busy 
 with the preparations for that day, each seeking 
 to outrival the others. The demands of the Saint's 
 devotees can only be satisfied by that which shall 
 literally and fully gratify the taste, though the 
 artistic form and decoration are not forgotten. 
 Among these products of the confectioner's skill, 
 made especially for this day, are, first, the filled 
 letters. These are made of a delicate crust, pre- 
 pared of the best flour and butter, without the ad- 
 dition of water. This is rolled out thin, filled 
 with a delicious paste made of almonds, sugar and 
 various spices, and formed into the letters of the 
 alphabet. From these are selected the initials of 
 the names of friends to whom they are sent, with 
 the compliments of the season. Another kind of 
 cake made and eaten only at this time is made of 
 a stiff dough, rich and sweet, which is pressed in- 
 to artistically cut wooden forms, whence they 
 come out in all sorts of shapes, of men, animals, 
 vessels, houses, locomotives, etc. 
 
 For weeks, evening after evening, the young 
 people come together in the sitting-room of some 
 confectioner to decorate his artistic creations with 
 gold leaf. Each young man and maiden has a 
 book of gold leaf cut into thin strips, a cup of siz- 
 ing and a camel's hair brush. The piece to be 
 ornamented is first touched with the sizing, 
 wherever the decoration is most appropriate, 
 when the gold is laid on and pressed down gently 
 with a cotton pad. While this is going on, there 
 is all the joking and gay badinage common among 
 familiars, in whom the desire for fun and frolic
 
 OF TO-DAY 85 
 
 is still strong. When the work stops, the work- 
 ers are treated to chocolate and cake, and the re- 
 maining hour before parting is spent in all gaiety, 
 music and song. This goes on until the last even- 
 ing before the morning which is to see the win- 
 dows and the stores of every confectioner filled 
 with these gilded sweets. Then comes the day 
 itself; a day like our Christmas, full of affection- 
 ate looks and words, of tokens of kindness and en- 
 dearment ; a day always too short, whose sweet 
 memories linger wherever the happy participant 
 may afterwards wander, bringing back the dear 
 faces so familiar and so loved in that careless 
 childhood, and drawing many a sigh for the van- 
 ished joys of the Fatherland. 
 
 Other Feast Days. The feasts of Christmas, 
 Easter and Whitsuntide, the last two called in 
 Holland "Paas" and "Pinkster," are celebrated 
 merely as religious festivals. Each of these, as 
 well as New Year's, has two days allotted for its 
 celebration. In the earliest days of the Reforma- 
 tion there was much opposition to the celebration 
 of these holy days, but, in 161 8-' 19, the Synod of 
 Dort, by which the Reformed Church order was 
 regulated, ordained that both the twenty-fifth and 
 twenty-sixth days of December should be relig- 
 iously observed in the churches. For this, the fol- 
 lowing reason was given: "On the 25th we re- 
 member the Christ, who became man for us ; on 
 the 26th we remember Stephen, who for Christ's 
 sake laid aside his humanity. On the former we 
 celebrate the birth of Christ on earth ; on the lat- 
 ter date the birth of Stephen in Heaven." New
 
 86 THE HOLLAND 
 
 Year's clay used to be dedicated to the circumcis- 
 ion of Christ. When this was regularly observed 
 it was ordered that the sermon should have Luke 
 2:21 for its text, and if New Year's happened to 
 fall on a Sunday, the first half of the text was to 
 be used for the morning sermon and the other 
 half for the evening. 
 
 This religious observance of New Year's Day 
 has largely gone out of fashion, and only the cus- 
 tom of calling from house to house and wishing 
 all a Happy New Year remains. This day also 
 has its particular product of the baker's art to cel- 
 ebrate it fitly; a sort of light bun, usually filled 
 with currants, being large in the middle and ter- 
 minating at each end in a small, flattened ball. 
 
 Some Religious Customs. Because of their 
 peculiarity, something should be said about some 
 other religious customs prevailing in the Nether- 
 lands, especially those connected with public wor- 
 ship as observed in the Protestant Churches. 
 
 The church service sometimes lasts from two to 
 three hours. The earlier part is taken up by a 
 preliminary service, led by a reader, usually the 
 principal of some public school. He occupies a 
 desk directly in front of the pulpit, the upper 
 part of which, like that of the preacher's desk, 
 consists of openwork brass. On this lies the 
 great folio Bible. As soon as the first bell calling 
 the worshipers together has died upon the air, 
 he gives out part of a psalm, or hymn, which is 
 taken up and sung by those already present, and 
 is joined in by every new-comer, without the ac- 
 companiment of the organ. At the conclusion,
 
 OF TO-DAY 87 
 
 he reads a chapter from the Bible, which is fol- 
 lowed by the singing of part of another psalm or 
 hymn. This is continued till the time for the reg- 
 ular service arrives, the object being to keep the 
 people in a worshipful mood while they assemble, 
 and to prevent listlessness and whispering. The 
 latter is considered highly indecorous, while the 
 reading of a newspaper in church would be re- 
 garded as sacrilege. 
 
 The singing is congregational, led by the read- 
 er or precentor, and accompanied by the organ, 
 and is often as inspiring as one will hear any- 
 where. Of late, here and there, choirs have been 
 introduced, but only to assist in the congregation- 
 al singing, the people themselves being capable of 
 taking the four parts, owing to the training they 
 have received in the public schools as children. 
 In some of the dissenting churches, it is considered 
 a mark of piety to drag out the notes to inordinate 
 length, the effect of which, upon a cultivated ear, 
 is not pleasant. The sermon, with rare excep- 
 tions, is delivered without any notes, and, so far as 
 its structure goes, is invariably a finished literary 
 production. Some of the preachers are orators of 
 no mean order. 
 
 The main fault an American would find with 
 the discourses is their too great length, extending 
 sometimes to a whole hour. The tedium of this 
 is relieved, however, by the singing of part of a 
 hymn, or psalm, when one-half of the sermon has 
 been given. The hearers often exercise their lib- 
 erty by standing up during the discourse, and fend 
 off drowsiness by yawning. Another singular sight
 
 88 THE HOLLAND 
 
 is to see the men seated in church with their heads 
 covered ; also standing up for prayer, holding their 
 hats before their faces. When the hour for the 
 regular service arrives, the minister, dressed in 
 the Geneva gown and bands, is ushered by the 
 sexton to the foot of the pulpit, where he stands 
 for a moment in prayer before ascending to his 
 lofty position. 
 
 To preserve order and decorum, there is an of- 
 ficial subordinate to the sexton, who carries a 
 long stick, with which, mindful of the Scripture, 
 "Without are dogs," he drives out any stray cur 
 that may enter, and keeps unruly boys in awe. 
 The sexes are kept separate in the churches, and, 
 where there is an asylum of any description, or a 
 garrison, or navyyard, the persons belonging to 
 those institutions have particular seats assigned 
 them in the church. 
 
 Religious Character of People. In this con- 
 nection we may speak of the religious character 
 of the Dutch people. Roughly stated, the popu- 
 lation of the Netherlands is made up of about 
 3,000,000 Protestants and 2,000,000 Catholics 
 all sects receiving a certain stipend from the gov- 
 ernment, except the Baptists, who have consist- 
 ently refused to receive such aid. The old Prot- 
 estants who are strict Calvinists closely resem- 
 ble the old Puritans of England and the Presby- 
 terians and Covenanters of Scotland. They are 
 great readers and students of the Bible, with 
 which they are as familiar as with their ABC, 
 and can quote at any time chapter and verse to 
 substantiate some doctrine or controvert some
 
 OF TO-DAY 89 
 
 heresy. They, too, like their Scotch brethren, 
 dearly love a debate upon some dogmatical point, 
 and are as sharp in this as their fellow-believers 
 described in Butler's Iludibras, who 
 
 "Could distinguish and divide 
 A hair, twixt south and south-west side." 
 
 These also were and are now strict observers of 
 the Sabbath, and enforce in their families at 
 tendance on the services three times during the 
 day, while all amusements, all recreation and the 
 reading of secular books are strictly prohibited. 
 
 This class of the religious community has for 
 some time greatly diminished in numbers, and 
 now constitutes only a small minority. For here, 
 as everywhere, the advancement of more liberal 
 ideas has been productive of a change in the ways 
 and modes of thinking of the people at large. For 
 the latter, one religious service on Sunday is quite 
 sufficient, the rest of the day being spent in recre- 
 ation, not always, it must be confessed, conducive 
 to a stronger moral life. Those who adhere to 
 the old ways and belief are frequently made the 
 objects of opprobrium. But this is a story which 
 in past times has had repetition in every so-called 
 Christian country. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Art, Science and Education 
 
 Art in Holland. Some one has called Holland 
 'The Wonderland of Art." Onlv the merest refer-
 
 90 THE HOLLAND 
 
 ence can here be made, however, to what has been 
 and is being achieved in this or the other higher 
 departments of human activity. 
 
 The country has established a school of art equal 
 in some features, even superior, to the schools of 
 Italy and Spain. De Amicis, that charming Ital- 
 ian writer on Holland, says that there are really 
 but two schools of Art, the Italian and the Dutch, 
 all the others being daughters of one of them. 
 There are few countries that can boast of such a 
 long list of masters, who have made the brush in- 
 scribe their names on the unfading scroll of fame, 
 from Frans Hals, whose portraits seem not the 
 images of his subjects but the living men them- 
 selves, and Rembrandt, that conqueror of light 
 and shade, and Wouverman, the thundering rush 
 of whose horses on the battlefield can almost be 
 heard, to Paul Potter, whose "Bull" could not be 
 bought for a king's ransom, and Van Huysum, of 
 whom all the potentates of Europe begged his 
 marvelous flower-pieces and so on through a suc- 
 cession of names that have vied with the greatest 
 produced anywhere in the past four centuries. 
 
 That this mighty spirit of creative art has not 
 yet departed is demonstrated by another and later 
 host of geniuses. I need only name the Mestdags, 
 father and son, the former of whom painted that 
 magnificent "Sunset at Sea," which has been given 
 the place of honor in the National Museum, at 
 Amsterdam, with the "Nightwatch" of Rem- 
 brandt; Josselin de Jong, to whom we owe the 
 best portraits of the noble Wilhelmina ; Madame 
 Bilders van Bosse, whose woods and bosky groves
 
 OF TO-DAY 91 
 
 seem endowed with life; Madame Vogels-Rooze- 
 boom, for whom, as if in response to her name, 
 (Rose-tree), "the fairest flowers rise up, as at a 
 magician's touch, when she raises her brush;" and 
 others, so well-known among us by their great 
 works, Joseph Israels, Mauve, and Jacob, Wil- 
 liam and Thys Maris. 
 
 In sculpture Holland has not attracted such 
 wide attention as in the sister art, although the 
 numerous monuments to her heroes prove that in 
 this, too, she has a noble past; but of late years 
 Ode, Bart de Hove, Van Wyck and, chief. Pier 
 Pander, the crippled son of a poor Frisian mat- 
 plaiter, have gained a good name among their fel- 
 lows in the same line of art in other countries. 
 The latter was summoned from Rome by Queen 
 Wilhelmina to model the bust of the Prince Con- 
 sort, Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. 
 
 Appreciation and taste for art are cultivated in 
 every school, from the lowest elementary schools 
 to the universities, and are kept alive by frequent 
 exhibitions at numerous art galleries. There are, 
 besides, three societies whose special purpose is to 
 encourage the study and practice of art: the Art 
 Circle at The Hague, the Society of Art and 
 Friendship at Rotterdam, and the Society for the 
 Study of the Beautiful. These are in addition to 
 the regular schools of art, of which the National 
 Academy of Fine Arts stands at the head. By a 
 law of May 26, 1870, an annual competition for 
 prizes in the fine arts was established, to be held 
 at the National Academy. In this only native 
 Dutchmen, or the children of such residing abroad.
 
 92 THE HOLLAND 
 
 can compete. Candidates must first pass a suc- 
 cessful examination at that Academy before they 
 can be enrolled among the competitors for the 
 prize in either painting, sculpture, or artistic ar- 
 chitecture. Two prizes are offered, one in gold 
 and the other in silver. The successful competi- 
 tor for the first prize, upon recommendation by 
 the directors of the Academy, may be granted an 
 annuity of twelve hundred guilders ($480), with 
 an additional one thousand guilders ($400), an- 
 nually, for rent of his atelier and models. Among 
 the most notable of the competitors so far have 
 been the sculptors J. H. P. Wortman and J. C. 
 Wienecke, who gained respectively the gold and 
 silver medals in 1896, the subject of the statue 
 in each case being "The Prodigal Son." 
 
 In recent years there has been a great revival in 
 repousee, or hammered work in metal. In this 
 Jan Hendrik Brom, of Utrecht, has become most 
 noteworthy. His "Crucifixion," in chased cop- 
 per, in the Chapel of the Roman Catholic college 
 at Katwyk, is among the most beautiful of its 
 kind. By the same artist is an exquisite piece, 
 "The Guardian Angel of the City of Maastricht," 
 which is in the possession of the Queen. 
 
 In book-illustration, there are few anywhere su- 
 perior to Jan Braakensiek, who, by his splendid 
 cartoons in the Amstcrdammer, and by his vigor- 
 ous and lifelike illustrations elsewhere, has w r on 
 for himself a more than national reputation. 
 
 The artistic work in earthenware produced by 
 the potteries of Gouda, Rosenberg and Delft can
 
 OF TO-DAY 93 
 
 only be mentioned, though the Delft ware has for 
 generations been famous the world over. 
 
 In music, Holland may scarcely be mentioned 
 at the same time with Italy, Germany, or France. 
 And yet even in this she possesses a fame that ex- 
 tends from remote times down to the present. As 
 far back as the earlier part of the Fifteenth Cen- 
 tury the Netherlands had her great composers and 
 masters in counterpoint, such as Okeghem and his 
 pupil Josquin, who became the great choir leader 
 at St. Marks, Venice; and Adrian Willaert, the 
 teacher of Zarlino, called "the father of modern 
 harmony," who was summoned to take the posif 
 tion of musical leader at the court of Louis XII. 
 of France, a post he held for a number of years!"**- 
 The Italian Guicciardini testifies that in his time 
 the Dutch musicians were sought for by all the 
 courts of Christendom. 
 
 Among recent composers of note, she has pro- 
 duced at least three whose names ought to be wi- 
 der known Verhulst, De Lang and Mann. But 
 they have rarely published their works, because, 
 strange to say, the national feeling is not strong 
 enough to give them public patronage at home ; 
 accordingly they seek recognition for their work 
 mainly at private concerts. Fame in this branch 
 of art has of late years been carried to our shores 
 by some of the these masters, and has for several 
 seasons been maintained here by the great bari- 
 tone, Van Rooy. 
 
 The Netherlands is rich in its store of ballads 
 and other compositions dealing with heroic events, 
 for which the terrible Eighty Years' War fur-
 
 94 THE HOLLAND 
 
 nished an abundance of subjects, or with some 
 romantic incidents. Of the latter the author re- 
 calls a fine example, describing the parting of two 
 lovers, he impatient to be off to the field of glory, 
 she eager to retain him a little while longer. In 
 it both the metre and the music closely imitate 
 the rhythmic march of troops going to battle, as 
 may be illustrated by four of its lines, although 
 the translation necessarily mars much of the 
 beauty and vividness of the original: 
 
 " Hear'st not, my Ada, the drum's urgent rattle? 
 
 Hear'st not the shrill sounding trumpets of war ?" 
 "Herman, why dream thus of conquest an* battie? 
 
 'Tis but thy fancy that calls thee afar." 
 
 Among national airs there are few which have 
 more stir and swing to them than the old "Wil- 
 helmus Van Nassauwen ;" and there is no coun- 
 try where more melodious chimes are found, to 
 make the air pulsate at every half and full hour 
 with the sweetest music. 
 
 The great national instrument is the organ. On 
 this there are some notable performers. Most of 
 these are men, though there are some noteworthy 
 women organists in private life, the best known 
 of whom is the blind Elizabeth Moser, who was 
 educated at royal expense at the Institute for the 
 Blind at Amsterdam. It is remarkable also that 
 several of the Dutch male organists are blind. 
 
 The seeker for the grand and sublime in archi- 
 tecture would not find his quest as well rewarded 
 in the Netherlands as in its neighboring Belgium. 
 There are, however, some ancient buildings which 
 have a special beauty of their own, as the City
 
 OF TO-DAY 95 
 
 Hall at Middelburg, the Watergate at Sneek and 
 the Weigh House at Alkmaar, where the red, 
 round Edam cheeses are weighed. 
 
 A revival has also come to Holland in architec- 
 ture of which the most noted exponent is H. P. 
 Berlage, Nz., of Amsterdam, the architect of the 
 fine new Exchange and of the Assembly Hall of 
 the Diamond Cutters Union, both in Amsterdam, 
 and of notable interiors in Hamburg, Berlin, 
 Bremen, Paris and Antwerp. 
 
 Scientific Achievements. In the domain of 
 science the world owes to Holland many a dis- 
 covery, or invention, that has enriched commerce 
 and enabled the learned to unravel the secrets of 
 Nature, either in the far-sweeping heavens above, 
 or in the minute creatures about our feet. To 
 Jansen and Huygens we are indebted for the first 
 telescopes and microscopes ; to Drebbel for the 
 first thermometer; to Christian Huygens for the 
 pendulum; to Musschenbroek for the Leyden jar. 
 
 The herring fisheries became to the Netherland- 
 ers of more value than all the gold and silver of 
 ancient Peru, when, in 1384. William Beukelsz, of 
 Biervliet, discovered the method of curing fish. In 
 microscopy Holland has given to the world the 
 immortal name of Leenwenhoek ; in jurispru- 
 dence, Hugo de Groot, the father of International 
 Law and the founder of the laws of peace and 
 war; in medicine, Boerhaave, the rival in fame in 
 this department of Hippocrates and Galen; in 
 military science, Coehoorn, the rival of Vauban 
 in the art of fortification. To-day several of the 
 professors of the Dutch universities are acknowl-
 
 96 THE HOLLAND 
 
 edged authorities in various departments of scien- 
 tific research; while in anthropology, the re- 
 searches of Doctor Dubois in Java have done 
 much to establish and prove the theories of Dar- 
 win in this particular branch of science. 
 
 The great botanist, Hugo de Vries, became 
 widely known among us, during the past summer, 
 by the lectures he delivered at numerous places, 
 and by his opening of the new laboratory of the 
 Carnegie Institute. 
 
 Literature. The literature of Holland is 
 strangely unknown to English and American 
 readers. The cause of this is to be sought for in 
 our almost total ignorance of the Dutch language. 
 What is known of it is largely confined to the 
 writings of Erasmus and Grotius, or Hugo de 
 Groot, which, however, were written in Latin. 
 Had they been written in Dutch, it is likely that 
 even the works of such famous men would have 
 been buried in oblivion. But in this department 
 of human activity there has been no dearth of 
 worthy labor in the Netherlands, from the great- 
 est of her older poets, Vondel, "the Milton of 
 Holland," to those who, to-day, are writing, as 
 he did, for eternity. Although his monument bears 
 the inscription "Scripit aeternitati" (he wrote 
 for eternity), it was not till Mr. L. C. van Nop- 
 pen, a worthy descendant of Dutch ancestors, a 
 few years ago brought out an excellent translation 
 of Vondel's Lucifer that the American literary 
 world became acquainted with this masterpiece. 
 
 The list of noteworthy poets, historians and 
 novelists that followed Vondel, from Father Cats,
 
 OF TO-DAY 97 
 
 the most beloved of popular poets, to the novel- 
 ists van Lennep and Madame Bosboom-Toussaint, 
 is too great to enumerate. Within the last three 
 decades a revival has occurred in Dutch literature 
 that will yet force recognition in other lands; in- 
 deed it has already done so in the excellent trans- 
 lation by Miss Putnam of that masterpiece of his- 
 toric writing, Professor Blok's History of the 
 Dutch People. Among those who have taken the 
 lead in this renaissance, the editors of and writers 
 for De Gids, one of the oldest reviews in any mod- 
 ern tongue, stands in the forefront ; while the 
 young novelist Augusta de Witt, and the great 
 poet, Helen Lapidoth-Swarth, display, the one a 
 marvelous power of description, the other a 
 wealth of invention and imagery, with an almost 
 magical power of expression. 
 
 Education. The work of education in the 
 Netherlands is conducted according to a system so 
 complete and thorough that it would be difficult 
 to point out any defects in it. At its head stands 
 the Minister of the Interior, under whom are 
 three Chief Inspectors, one each for the Northern, 
 the Southern and the Northeastern provinces. Un- 
 der these there are twenty-five District and one 
 hundred Arondissement Superintendents. Be- 
 sides these, there is a system of local supervision, 
 which in places having less than three thousand 
 inhabitants devolves upon the local burgomaster 
 and magistrates; in those of over three thousand 
 inhabitants, upon a specially appointed school 
 commission. Each of these officials must be fully 
 qualified for the discharge of his duties.
 
 98 THE HOLLAND 
 
 BEST WORKS IN ENGLISH 
 ON HOLLAND. 
 
 Motley, John Lothrop. "Rise of the Dutch Re- 
 public." 3 vols. New York, 1861. 
 
 (Same). "History of the United Netherlands." 
 4 vols. New York, 1 861 -1864. 
 
 (Same). "John of Barneveld." 2 vols. New 
 York, 1874. 
 
 Putnam, Ruth. "William the Silent." New 
 York, 1895. 
 
 Putnam and Bierstadt (Translators). "History 
 of the Dutch People." New York, 1898. 
 
 Griffis, W. E. "The American in Holland." 
 Boston, 1899. 
 
 (Same). "Brave Little Holland." Boston, 
 
 1894- 
 
 Esquiros, Alphonse, "The Dutch at Home." Lon- 
 don, 1863. 
 
 De Amicis, Amades. "Holland and Its People." 
 New York, 1893. 
 
 Meldrum, D. S. "Holland and the Hollanders." 
 New York, 1898. 
 
 Hough, P. M. "Dutch Life in Town and Coun- 
 try." New York, 1893. 
 
 Havard, Henry. (Translator, Anna Wood). 
 "Dead Cities of the Zuyder Zee." Lon- 
 don, 1875. 
 
 (Same. Translator, Mrs. Cashel Hoey). 
 "Through the Heart of Holland." Lon- 
 don, 1880. 
 
 Mets, J. A. "Naval Heroes of Holland." New 
 York, 1 90 1.
 
 OF TO-DAY 
 
 99 
 
 INDKX TO CONTENTS 
 
 Adolf, 12 
 Agriculture, 34 
 Alkmaar, 95 
 
 Amicis, De, 5, 18, 90 
 
 Amsterdam, 26, 27, 31 
 
 Apel, Reverend, 60 
 
 Arnold, Duke, 12 
 
 Art schools, 91 
 
 Bailey, 22 
 
 Batavia, 16 
 
 Hatavians, 7, 14, 37 
 
 Bathing machines, 21 
 
 Beds, 56 
 
 Beggars of the sea, 66 
 
 Berlage, H. P., 9 =, 
 
 Beukelsz, William, 95 
 
 Beylinck, 41 
 
 Bible, reading, 5S 
 
 Biervliet, 95 
 
 Birds, 1 ; 
 
 Births, 71 
 
 Blok, f'rofessor, 97 
 
 Bloemendaal, 36 
 
 Boerhaave, 95 
 
 Boers, 40 
 
 Boosboom Toussaint, 97 
 
 Braakensiek Jan, 92 
 
 Brom, Jan Hendrik, 92 
 
 Bugs, 13 
 
 Buren, 12 
 
 Burgundy, 12 
 
 Burns, 43* 
 
 Butler, 89 
 
 Ca?sar, Julius, 15, 39 
 
 Canals, 24; North Holland, 
 26; North Sea, 27; Rhine- 
 Merwede, 27, 28; ship, 26 
 
 Carmen, Sylva, 20 
 
 Cats, Father, 32, 96 
 
 Catti, 7, 14, 37 
 
 Charles V., 40 
 
 Christenings, 74 
 
 Churches, 55; services, 87 
 
 Coehoorn, 95 
 
 Comfoortje, 57 
 
 Coxinga, 42 
 
 Cromlechs, 14 
 
 Danes. 3 S 
 
 De Lang, 93 
 
 Delft, 92 
 
 De Witt, Augusta, 97; Broth- 
 ers, 43, 97 
 
 Ditches, 28 
 
 Dolmens, 14 
 
 Domburg, 20 
 
 Doofpot, 54 
 
 Drente, 14, 36 
 
 Dress, 44 
 
 Dubois, 96 
 
 Dunes, 18 
 
 Dykes, 21 
 
 Raster games, 64 
 
 Edam cheeses, 95 
 
 Eighty Years' War, 93 
 
 Erasmus, 96 
 
 Family government, 59 
 
 First settlers, 13 
 
 Feast days, 85 
 
 Floods, 16 
 
 Floriculture, 34 
 
 Flushing, 9, 11, 20, 60 
 
 Friesland, 22, 45 
 
 Frisian baby, 38; cattle, 10 
 
 Frisians, 38 
 
 Funerals, 77 
 
 Furniture, 53 
 
 (lames, home, 61; outdoor, 62 
 
 Gold ornaments, 46 
 
 Gouda, 92 
 
 Goyet, 42 
 
 Groningen, 23, 38 
 
 Groot, Hugo de, 95, 96 
 
 Grotius, 96 
 
 Guelderland, 7, 12, 17, 24 
 
 Guiceiardini, 93 
 
 Haarlem, 31, 51; lake, 30 
 
 Hague, The, 18, 26, 31 
 
 Hals, Frans, 90 
 
 Hambroeck, 42 
 
 Havard, 11 
 
 Helder, 23, 26 
 
 Henry, Duke, 91 
 
 Highways, 31 
 
 Homes, 51 
 
 Honesty, Dutch, 40 
 
 Hoogeveen, 36 
 
 Home-life, 57 
 
 Hop-scotch, 64 
 
 Horse races, 65 
 
 House in the Woods, 32 
 
 Hove. Bart de, 91 
 
 Hudson, Hendrik, 39 
 
 Huygens, 95 
 
 Israels, Joseph, 91
 
 ioo THE HOLLAND OF TO-DAY 
 
 Jansen, 95 
 
 Jong, Josselin de, 90 
 Josquin, 93 
 Kananifates, 37 
 Katwyk, 92 
 Kermis, 51, 79 
 Leenwenhoek, 95 
 Leyden, 24, 31; jar, 93 
 Louis XII., 93; XIV., 24 
 Low Countries, 6, 9, 34 
 Maastricht, 92 
 Mann, 93 
 Mantel-pieces, 53 
 Marbles, 62 
 Maris, Jacob, etc., 91 
 Marriages, 75 
 Marken, Island of, 46 
 Mauve, 91 
 
 Merry-go-rounds, 80 
 Mestdags, 90 
 Meuse, 7, 12, 14 
 Middelburg, 9, 14, 20, 95 
 Moser, Elizabeth, 94 
 Music, 60 
 
 Musschenbroek, 95 
 Naarden, 6b 
 Name, Holland, 5 
 Napoleon I., 15 
 Nehellenia, 14 
 New Year, 86 
 Nieuwe Diep, 26 
 Ode, 01 
 Okeghem, 93 
 Orange, Prince of, 40 
 Overyssel, 7, 38 
 Pander, Pier, 91 
 Parks, 52 
 
 Passions, Dutch, 43 
 Pavements, scouring, 33 
 Peat, 36 
 People, 37 
 Philip II., 40 
 Physical features, 8 
 Pichegru, 12 
 Pipes, lighting, 57 
 Potter, Paul, 90 
 P\itnam, Miss, 97 
 Quatre Bras, 40 
 Religious character, 88; cus- 
 toms, 86 
 Rembrandt, 90 
 Rhine, 14, 28 
 
 Rhine-Merwede canal, 27, 28 
 Romans, 15, 22 
 
 Rosenberg, 92 
 
 Rotterdam, 7, 9, 10, 26, 52 
 
 Salii, 38 
 
 Santa Glaus festival, 81 
 
 Scheldt, 14, 23 
 
 Scheveningen, 20, 31 
 
 Schouten, 39 
 
 Shoes, wooden, 50 
 
 Skating, 65 
 
 Sleighing, 69 
 
 Sneek, 95 
 
 Stoves, 56 
 
 Streets, 32 
 
 Tasman, 39 
 
 Ten Kate, 58 
 
 Tennis, 64 
 
 Tholen, 47 
 
 Tiel, 34 
 
 Trekschuyts, 25 
 
 Tulip-bulbs, 35 
 
 Utrecht, 17, 34 
 
 Van Bosse, Madam, 90 
 
 Van Dieman, 39 
 
 Van Huysum, 90 
 
 Van Lerinep, 97 
 
 Van Noppen, L. C, 96 
 
 Van Rooy, 93 
 
 Van Wyck, 91 
 
 Vauban, 95 
 
 Verhulst, 93 
 
 Vogels-Roozeboom, Madam, 
 
 9 1 
 Vondel, 96 
 Vries, Hugo de, 96 
 Walcheren, 9, 14, 19, 23 
 Watchmen, 61 
 Water department, 23 
 Waterloo, 40 
 Wellington, 40 
 Wienecke, J. C, 92 
 Wilhelmina, 5, 59, 90, 91 
 Willaert, Adrian, 93 
 William III., iS 
 Windmills, 29 
 Wortman, J. H. P., 92 
 Wouverman, 90 
 V, 27 
 
 Yacht racing. 65 
 Ymuiden, 27, 28 
 Zarlino, 93 
 Zeeland, 23, 45 
 Zeelandia, 42 
 Zuyder Zee, 8, 12, 17, 27, 31, 
 
 46, 66
 
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