_George Wharton Edwards._
A book delightfully written, and artistically illustrated by a well
known painter.
_THE OPEN LETTER_
The travel impressions of an artist are always interesting. Mr. George
Wharton Edwards in his book, “Holland of Today,” presents with brush and
pencil a vivid and attractive picture of life and natural conditions in
the Netherlands:
* * * * *
“The first impression that the traveler in Holland gets is in one
respect similar to that given by the far western prairie regions, and
the broad, wind-swept flat country with comparatively few trees, and
lying open to the gales of the North Sea, has a little of the same bare
aspect. But with this is mingled a most decided aspect of novelty. Here
the fields are cultivated with the care of suburban market gardens, and
are separated by long V-shaped ditches, through which the water runs
sluggishly some feet below the surface of the ground. Looking across
them, one sees broad, brown, velvety-hued sails moving in various
directions among the growing crops; the roadway is on an embankment,
running high above the land, frequently crossing canals lying far enough
below for the brightly painted barges with lowered masts to pass freely,
generally without the need of drawbridges.
* * * * *
“The passenger boats, once so common in the canals, are fast
disappearing; like the diligences, they have been replaced by the system
of tram-cars which now cross the country, but here and there this
old-fashioned means of communication between the towns and villages
still survives, and it is certainly a delightful experience to make a
journey on market day in one of these arks. It is generally a long and
rather narrow boat, low in the water, and usually painted green and
white, with a low-roofed deck cabin divided into two compartments
running the entire length, with clean board seats, and tiny
lace-curtained windows, the floor scrubbed with sand until it is almost
as white as snow. The roof is covered with a mixture of sand and
pulverized shells, on a foundation of bitumen to hold it. It is most
delightful to sail or be pulled along by ‘boy power’ through the country
between the ‘pollarded green banks’ and look upon the changing landscape
and the brown-armed mills in legions engaged in battle against the water
enemy.
* * * * *
“The very laws of nature have here been reversed, for disregarding the
injunction, every house is builded upon the sand, and the whole coast is
held together practically by straws. There being little or no wood in
the country whole forests have been brought hither in ships and buried
as pile foundations for the cities. Save in the Island of Urk in the
Züyder Zee there is not a stone to be found anywhere. Yet artificial
mountains (almost) have been brought in vessels from Sweden and Norway
and in masterful and ingenious manner erected as barriers against the
sea.”
* * * * *
Concerning the people of Holland, Mr. Edwards has this to say: “The
superficial observer will perhaps find that the people move more slowly
and deliberately than his standard demands; that there are not enough of
the quaint costumes, of which he has read so much, to be seen in the
large centers, to satisfy his sense of the picturesque; but for him
whose eyes are open to the glory of attainment and the greatness of art,
whose mind is attuned to effects of environment upon the development of
character, who can appreciate the brave and successful attempts of a
people grown out of the very soil to ameliorate sorrow, poverty, and
suffering, and who have succeeded in spite of adverse conditions and
climate in establishing an almost ideal form of civilization and
government, I say no land has so much to offer as little Holland. As the
poet says:
“‘What land is this that seems to be
A mingling of the land and sea?
This land of sluices, dykes, and dunes?
This water-net that tesselates
The landscape? This unending maze
Of gardens, through whose latticed gates
The imprisoned pinks and tulips gaze;
Where in long summer afternoons
The sunshine, softened by the haze,
Comes streaming down as through a screen
Where over fields and pastures green
The painted ships float high in air,
And over all and everywhere
The sails of windmills sink and soar,
Like wings of sea-gulls on the shore?’”
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