THE COMMISSIONER.
AS may well be imagined, the best use to which the green fields of
Holland can be put, is the raising of grass to feed cattle; for the
wetness of the land, which makes it somewhat unsuitable to be ploughed,
causes grass to grow upon it very luxuriantly. Accordingly, as you ride
through the country along the great railway lines, you see, every where,
herds of cattle and flocks of sheep feeding in the meadows that extend
far and wide in every direction.
The cattle are kept partly for the purpose of being fatted and sent to
market for beef, and partly for their milk, which the Dutch farmers make
cheese of. Dutch cheeses are celebrated in every part of the world.
In the neighborhood of Amsterdam there are a number of dairy villages
where cheeses are made, and some of them are almost always visited by
travellers. They are great curiosities, in fact, on account of their
singular and most extraordinary neatness. Cleanliness is, in all parts
of the world, deemed a very essential requisite of a dairy, and the
Dutch housewives in the dairy villages of Holland have carried the idea
to the extreme. The village which is most commonly visited by strangers
who go to Amsterdam, is one called Broek. It lies to the north of
Amsterdam, and at a distance of about five or six miles from it.
One day when Mr. George and Rollo arrived in Amsterdam, Mr. George, just
at sundown, looked out at the window of the hotel, and said,--
"Rollo, I think it is going to be a superb day to-morrow."
"So do I," said Rollo.
"At least," said Mr. George, "I should think so if I were in America.
The wind has all gone down, and the western sky is full of golden clouds
shining in roseate splendor."
Mr. George enunciated these high-sounding words in a pompous and
theatrical manner, which made Rollo laugh very heartily.
"And, to descend from poetry to plain prose," said Mr. George, "I think
we had better take advantage of the fine weather to go to Broek
to-morrow."
"Very well," said Rollo, "that plan suits me exactly."
Rollo was always ready for any plan which involved the going away from
the place where he was, to some new place which he had not seen before.
"But how are we going to find the way there?" said Rollo.
"I shall take a commissioner," said Mr. George. "I am going to Saandam,
too, where Peter the Great learned ship carpentry."
"I have heard something about that," said Rollo, "but I don't know much
about it."
"Why, Peter the Great was emperor of Russia," said Mr. George, "and he
wished to introduce ship building into his dominions. So he came to
Holland to learn about the construction of ships, in order that he might
be better qualified to take the direction of the building of a fleet in
Russia. Saandam was the place that he came to. While he was there he
lived in a small, wooden house, near the place where the ship building
was going on. That house is there now, and almost every body that comes
to this part of the country goes to see it."
"How long ago was it that he was there?" asked Rollo.
"It was more than one hundred and fifty years ago," said Mr. George.
"I should not think a wooden house would have lasted so long," said
Rollo.
"It would not have lasted so long," replied Mr. George, "if they had not
taken special pains to preserve it. They have built a brick house around
it and over it, to protect it from the weather, and so it has been
preserved. Now I think we had better go to-morrow and see Broek, and
also Saandam, and I am going to take a commissioner."
Mr. George had employed a commissioner once before, as the reader will
perhaps recollect, namely, at the Hague; and perhaps I ought to stop
here a moment to explain more fully what a commissioner is. He is a
servant hired by the day to conduct strangers about the town where they
reside, and about the environs, if necessary, to show them what there is
that is curious and wonderful there. These men are called, sometimes
commissioners and sometimes _valets de place_, and in their way they are
very useful.
If a traveller arrives at a hotel in the morning, at any important town
in Europe, before he has been in his room fifteen minutes he generally
hears a knock at his door, and on bidding the person come in, a
well-dressed looking servant man appears and asks,--
"Shall you wish for a commissioner, sir, to-day?"
Or if the gentleman, after remaining in his room a few minutes, takes
his wife or his daughter, or whomever he may have travelling with him,
and goes out from the door of the hotel, he is pretty sure to be met
near the door by one or more of these men, who accost him earnestly,
saying,--
"Do you want a commissioner, sir?" Or, "Shall I show you the way, sir?"
Or, "Would you like to see the museum, sir?"
When a traveller intends to remain some days in a place, he has
generally no occasion for a commissioner; since, in his rambles about
the town, he usually finds all the places of interest himself, and in
such a case the importunities of the commissioners seeking employment
are sometimes annoying to him. But if his time is very short, or if he
wishes to make excursions into the neighborhood of a town where he does
not understand the language of the people, then such a servant is of
very great advantage.
Mr. George thought that his proposed excursion to Broek and Saandam was
an occasion on which a commissioner could be very advantageously
employed. Accordingly, after he and Rollo had finished their dinner,
which they took at a round table near a window in the coffee room, he
asked Rollo to ring the bell.
Rollo did so, and a waiter came in.
"Send me in a commissioner, if you please," said Mr. George.
"Very well, sir," said the waiter, with a bow.
The waiter went out, and in a few minutes a well-dressed and very
respectable looking young man came in, and advancing towards Mr. George,
said,--
"Did you wish to see a commissioner, sir?"
"Yes," said Mr. George. "I want to make some inquiries about going to
Broek and to Saandam, to-morrow. I want to know what the best way is to
go, and what the expenses will be."
So saying, Mr. George took out a pencil and a piece of paper from his
pocket, in order to make a memorandum of what the commissioner should
say.
"In the first place," asked Mr. George, "what is your name? I shall want
to know what to call you."
"My name is James," said the commissioner.
"Well, now, James," said Mr. George, "I want you to tell me what the
best way is to go, and what all the expenses will be. I want to know
every thing beforehand."
"Well, sir," said James, "we shall go first by the ferry boat across to
the Y,[7] and there we shall take the _trekschuyt_ for a short distance
on the canal."
[Footnote 7: The Y is the name of the sheet of water which lies before
Amsterdam. It is a sort of harbor.]
"And how much will that cost?" asked Mr. George.
"For the three, forty-five cents," said James.
He meant, of course, Dutch cents. It takes two and a half Dutch cents to
make one American cent.
"There," continued James, "we take a carriage."
"And how much will the carriage be?" asked Mr. George.
"To go to Broek and back, and then to Saandam, will be ten guilders."
Mr. George made memoranda of these sums on his paper, as James named
them.
"And the tolls," continued James, "will be one guilder and twenty-five
cents more."
"And the driver?" asked Mr. George.
In most of the countries of Europe, when you make a bargain for the
carriage, the driver's services are not included in it. He expects a fee
besides.
"The driver, fifty cents. Half a guilder," said James.
"Is that enough for him?" asked Mr. George.
"Yes, sir," said James, "that's enough."
"We will call it seventy-five cents," said Mr. George. So saying, he
wrote seventy-five.
"Then there will be some fees to pay, I suppose," said Mr. George, "both
at Broek and at Saandam."
"Yes, sir," said James. "We pay twenty-five cents at the dairy,
twenty-five cents at the garden, and twenty-five to the hostler. That
makes seventy-five. And the same at Saandam, to see the hut of Peter the
Great, and the house. That makes one guilder fifty centimes."
"Is that all?" asked Mr. George.
"There will be forty-five cents for the ferry, coming back," said James.
Mr. George added this sum to the column, and then footed it up. The
amount was nearly fifteen guilders.
"We will call it fifteen guilders," said he. "To-morrow I will give you
fifteen guilders, and you will pay all expenses. And then what shall I
have to pay you for your services?"
"My charge is four guilders for the day," said James.
"Very well," said Mr. George. "And at what time in the morning will it
be best to set out?"
"There is a boat at nine o'clock," said James.
"Then we will leave here at half past eight. We will have breakfast,
Rollo, at eight. Or perhaps we can have breakfast at Broek. Is there a
hotel there, James?"
"Yes, sir," said James. "There is a hotel there."
"Very well. Then we will wait till we get there before we take
breakfast, and we will expect you at half past eight. Our room is number
eleven."
The arrangement being thus fully made, the commissioner, promising to be
punctual, bowed and retired.
"Now, Rollo," said Mr. George, "to-morrow we will have a good time.
After I give the commissioner the fifteen guilders, I shall have no
further care or responsibility, but shall be taken along over the whole
ground as if I were a child under the care of his father."
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