same way. In the pictures and on the china the windmills, the cows and
even the people have always been blue. Of course I knew better, but
when I found that a Holland landscape was not blue and white, I felt as
if I had been deceived. The sky is blue, but the windmills are browned
with exposure, the cows are black-and-white, and the people are not
any more blue in Holland than they are in Newton.
[Illustration]
The ride from Cologne, Germany, to Amsterdam, down the valley of
the Rhine, which is no longer picturesque or lined with castles and
legends, gave me my introduction to Holland. Most of it is the kind of
country in which a traveler can enjoy reading a good book. After the
first enthusiastic demonstration over windmills,—and they are more
numerous than telegraph posts along the Santa Fe,—and the excitement
of watching canal-boats having died out, Holland is not a country
that causes thrills. There is a strange effect created on seeing a
canal-boat in a canal a little distance off. You see a sailboat or a
steamboat apparently sailing right through a pasture. You can’t see the
water, and the effect is as if ships were really gliding over the grass
and fields.
The canals are generally at least fifty feet wide and at least six feet
deep. There are many good-sized boats. The power used is of different
kinds: steam, sails, horses, men, women. Steamboats are numerous. Sails
are used on nearly all, at least to help. Very often a man is hitched
to a rope and sometimes a woman, with a regular harness so that the
pull comes on the breast and shoulders. Dogs are not used to haul
canal-boats, but they are the usual motive-power in the towns for small
delivery-wagons, milk-wagons and the like.
[Illustration: CANALLING IN HOLLAND—THE EXTENSION OF WOMAN’S SPHERE.]
The people of Holland, especially outside the cities, stick to their
old peculiar costumes better than do the people of any other country
in Europe that I have seen. The originals of the quaint Dutch pictures
are here and numerous. The women wear the foolish bonnets, funny short
full skirts, woolen stockings and wooden shoes, and the men the odd
hats, clothes that bag between the hips and knees, and the wooden
shoes that turn up like sled-runners. The wooden shoes are not worn
in the house, but shaken off as the person enters and a pair of cloth
shoes substituted. I suppose that is a ground rule made by the Dutch
housewives, whose propensity for scrubbing and cleanliness is well
known. But in spite of the deserved reputation, I do not think that
Holland is as clean a country as it is advertised. The canals are close
to being stagnant water, and as all the dirt and sewage goes into
them there is an odor about Holland that comes near the smell you get
from old cheese. Especially in the towns and cities where the canals
form the principal streets, I can’t escape the idea that they are a
good deal like open sewers. The water is changed by pumping, but not
often, and after it stands a while over the stuff thrown in one would
think from the noticeable odor that it would breed sickness. They say
it is not very bad, but it would cause a big kick in America—the
newspapers would go after the city council a plenty for permitting such
a nuisance.
A good deal has been said and written in the United States of recent
years in regard to the “emancipation of women.” The extension of civil
and legal rights to persons of the female sex has been properly the
subject of general congratulation. The club movement has done a great
work in forcing a recognition of the work of women equally with the
work of men. Prior to coming to Europe I had supposed that the women of
the United States had made more progress along these lines than those
of any other country. But I was mistaken. The women of Europe are far
ahead of the women of America in the equality of the sexes. A women
in continental Europe not only has the right to go out in the field
and labor, but she can work on the roads, and she can engage in any
business that a man can. In Italy I saw women harnessed alongside of
dogs and in Holland I find them harnessed to canal-boats, the same as
men. If there is any kind of work in Europe that a man can do in which
women cannot and do not engage I have not discovered it, except the
occupation of wearing military uniforms. The mercantile and shopkeeping
business is almost entirely given over to women, and the right to carry
trunks, shine shoes, sell papers and act as porters is not denied them.
The men seem to be perfectly willing to let the women do the work, and
the emancipation seems to have been accomplished without trouble of any
kind.
[Illustration]
The Dutch language is more like the English than like the German, with
which it is classed. With my little knowledge of German I can read the
Dutch signs and make a stagger at the newspapers, for there is more
English than German in the written words. But the Dutch as a spoken
language is like neither the German nor English. When two Dutchmen have
a social, quiet chat it sounds like a buzz-saw. I can usually make a
Dutchman understand me, but when it comes to my grasping the meaning of
his talk I had as soon try to interpret the remarks of a file. It is
ridiculous the way you have to change language every few hours’ ride
in Europe. But I quit trying when I came to the Dutch. They will have
to talk English or make signs in order to get my money; and again I am
brought to the conclusion that no matter what is the language of the
country, “money talks.”
THE DAM DUTCH TOWNS.
THE HAGUE, HOLLAND, Aug. 2, 1905.
Before leaving Amsterdam we took a trip through several little Dutch
villages and to the island of Maarken, where the fisher-people continue
to wear their eighteenth-century costumes in the progressive, stylish
twentieth century. As a very pleasing incident of this journey we
happened to reach Maarken at the same time with Queen Wilhelmina, so we
not only got to see a live queen but in the excitement in the village
escaped the attention usually given to American tourists by a thrifty
people who have curios to sell. Queen Wilhelmina was a disappointment.
I had been prepared to see a charming girlish sovereign, and I guess
I was looking for something like a bright American girl with her hair
hanging down her back. The queen is only 24 years old, but she looks
30. She wore a cheap-looking white suit which probably cost 30 cents
a yard, American money. Her face was faded and so was her hat. She
has large feet, wears coarse shoes, and her stockings wrinkled around
the ankle like a fisherwoman’s. The stolidity of the Dutch was too
much for me. The queen walked through the village, and while everybody
turned out to see her there was not a cheer. When she passed the little
group of a half-dozen Americans we took off our hats and gave a loud
hurrah, just to show our friendship. She didn’t smile or look around,
and we felt as cheap as she looked. In appearance she is sad and
uninteresting. In America a governor or a president would have smiled
and spoken cheerfully. But the queen of Holland does not have to run
for reëlection, and I suppose that has a salutary effect on American
statesmen. I will confess right now that my observations of European
nobility have been made at a distance. I have not been mingling with
the dukes and counts, but have received most of my impressions from
the hotel clerks, the hackmen, the store-keepers and the workingmen.
They are always glad to talk or make signs to Americans, and I have
not met one laboring man who did not say he wanted to come to America.
In the smoking-rooms and around the hotels I have talked some with
the so-called “upper classes.” They don’t like America or England. I
think the rulers of continental Europe and all the lords and valets are
afraid America and England are going to combine with Japan and rule
the world. The leading newspapers are full of that kind of talk, and
while it is laughable to find that they think the American people are
planning an invasion of Europe, it has a satisfactory side in the fact
that it shows they think we could do it if we tried. The ruling classes
are hostile politically to America. On the other hand, the working
people are very friendly. The kings and nobles know that their jobs
would not last long under American ideas. And the workingmen think that
America means a chance to earn more than a mere living. Both classes
have instinctively taken a position on the American question, and I
don’t blame them.
[Illustration]
Amsterdam is the biggest city in Holland and is the capital, but the
queen and court reside at The Hague. Amsterdam is rich in commerce,
but is beneath the level of the sea, rather unsightly, and perhaps
unhealthy. The Hague is about as high as the sea-level and is on
real land, not the drained and reclaimed sort. It has some beautiful
streets and thousands of acres of woods which are kept in comparatively
original condition and used for parks and drives. The two cities are
only an hour’s ride apart, and The Hague is becoming the residence city
for wealthy Dutchmen. Amsterdam is one of the financial centers of
the world. The Hague is one of the political centers of the world. On
account of its size Holland is not considered dangerous, and therefore
presents a convenient meeting-place for international conferences. We
visited the palace known as “The House in the Woods,” where the peace
conference was held in 1899, on the suggestion of the czar of Russia,
and in which twenty-six governments were represented. The actual result
was not much, but an international court at The Hague was provided to
which nations can submit disputed questions if they wish, and probably
after the Japs get through with the czar so he can call another peace
conference, further steps will be taken to prevent or mitigate the
horrors of war. Andrew Carnegie, the same gentleman who put up the
money for the Hutchinson public library, has promised $1,500,000
to erect an international court-house at The Hague which will be a
suitable place for what might be called an international supreme court.
One great weight which every European power has holding down its
progress is the necessity of maintaining a large standing army and thus
withdrawing from active production a big per cent. of its workers. The
governments of Europe know this and talk of “disarming,” but each one
is afraid the others won’t do it. And I also have a guess coming that
some of the kings and queens would worry a little over the future of
their jobs if they did not have the big armies at their command.
The Dutch are a hard-working lot. They get up earlier than the people
of any other country I have seen in Europe. And as the entire family
works, from the grandmother to the dog, they accumulate wealth as a
nation and as individuals. The ordinary dwelling is part of the store,
the shop, the barn or the windmill, so that the women-folks can do
their part of the labor and not lose much time going back and forth.
Whenever the women are not attending to the farm or the shop they are
scrubbing. The smell of good strong soap is one of the real Dutch
landmarks as much as a windmill or a canal.
[Illustration]
From Amsterdam we went to Edam and Monnikendam and Volendam and
Zaandam, and from here we go to Rotterdam and through several other
dams. The affix “dam” means bridge or embankment, and in a country of
canals it is not surprising that nearly all the names of towns end
with dam, Amsterdam being on the bank of the Amsel river, and so on.
When I was a boy I heard the story of the teacher who was having her
class give sentences containing the words they were learning to spell.
One day they came to the word “cofferdam,” and the teacher asked the
bright boy of the class to frame a sentence illustrating the use of the
word. He wrote on the blackboard: “Our old cow thought some sawdust was
bran, and if she don’t look out she will cofferdam head off.” The word
“dam” is not a cuss-word in Dutch. If it were, all the dam towns would
be printed with a dash for the last syllable.
[Illustration]
The history of Holland has about as much trouble in it as that of any
country. It was not much of a nation during the dark and medieval
ages, as there was no such state, but a number of petty vassal lords
and bishops. About 1500 a Holland count got the title of Prince of
Orange by marrying a French heiress. The principal ruler in Holland was
the count of Burgundy, but the Dutch cities developed along business
lines and were to a certain extent independent of kings and emperors,
although nominally a part of the German empire. In the sixteenth
century Philip of Spain inherited the sovereignty of the country, and
by his bigoted and cruel rule started a civil war in 1568 which lasted
eighty years and ended in the independence of Holland. During that war
the Dutch had to have a leader, and so they elected William, prince of
Orange, as stadtholder, or governor. Under his management the war was
fought successfully, and when he was assassinated his son was elected
stadtholder. The Dutch were divided into two parties, the Democratic
and Aristocratic, and when Spain was defeated there was trouble
between them. The so-called Dutch Republic was only an aristocracy,
the privilege of participating in the government being restricted to a
privileged class of small nobles and wealthy families. The office of
stadtholder was elective, but generally went to the Oranges. Holland by
its wise statesmanship and a strong navy was a world-power for a while,
and in alliance with England and Sweden generally defeated the French
and Spanish, and when there was war with England the Dutchmen held
their own. Finally William III. of Orange became king of England, and
the Dutch Republic lost its prestige. In the eighteenth century it was
a tail to the English kite, and in 1806 Napoleon made his brother king
of Holland and five years later annexed the country to France. After
Napoleon’s defeat the European powers created the kingdom of Holland,
joined Belgium to it, and made William of Orange king of the united
country. The Belgians broke away in 1830, and since that time Holland
has been a monarchy, although the power is with the people.
[Illustration]
I was much struck with the apparent lack of loyalty to the queen.
In England everybody is loyal to King Edward because he not only
represents the sovereignty of the nation, but he stands for the English
constitution, rights of parliament and the people, and the king is the
result of centuries of English thought and political action. But the
Dutch have been without a king most of their history and they don’t
feel the reverence for the crown that the English do. Wilhelmina is
not very popular, and her husband, who is a second-rate German prince
that never mixes with the people and is said to be mean to his wife, is
not liked at all. The Dutch cities have practical self-government, and
it would not be surprising if after the death of Wilhelmina or in the
event of some political upheaval the Dutch Republic would be revived on
a broader basis than before.
* * * * *
ROTTERDAM, HOLLAND, Aug. 3, 1905.
To-day we came to Delft, where the Delft china does not come from
any more, and from there to Rotterdam in a canal-boat. Riding in a
canal-boat is a very pleasant way of traveling. If you want to get
off, the boat simply runs up close to the bank and you make it with a
jump—one jump is better than two. You glide along through the pastures
and back yards and see the women scrubbing, the men smoking and the
dogs pulling the carts. When you come to a low bridge everybody lies
down flat until the boat is beyond it. Our canal-boat was propelled by
steam, and we went flying along at the rate of five or six miles an
hour, but still with plenty of time to inspect the country and visit
with the people on the other boats if we could only have talked their
language. As a cure for nervousness or as an antidote for being in a
hurry I recommend a trip on a canal-boat.
Delft is a quaint old town, with old churches and clean canals. Two
hundred years ago the manufacture of porcelain made the town famous,
but for a hundred years the business was suspended and now most of the
Delft china is made in New Jersey. Recently a factory has been started
and real Delft ware can be obtained, but the American kind is just as
good.
The canal-boat brought us through the town of Schiedam, where the
celebrated Dutch “schnapps” is made. They tell me schnapps is closely
related to that brand of American whisky which will make a man climb a
tree. There are 200 distilleries in Schiedam. The Dutch are given to
strong drinks rather than beer. The result is that the Dutch get wildly
and meanly drunk, whereas the Germans merely get fat.
Near Rotterdam we canalled by Delfthaven. This is the place from which
the Pilgrims sailed for North America in 1620. They stopped en route
in England, but their original start was from here. They had come to
Holland from England in order to secure freedom of worship, but they
were still Englishmen and did not want to become Dutch. So they secured
a promise that they would not be disturbed in the New World, and left
their Holland home. If they had stayed in Delfthaven there would have
been no New England, no Bunker Hill, no United States. But they did not
stay. THE KINGDOM OF BELGIUM.
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, Aug. 5, 1905.
I do not suppose other people are as ignorant as I was, but I will
admit that in my mind I have always lumped off Holland and Belgium
together as two countries with the same kind of people, the same
language, the same habits and generally the same government. This
is a great mistake. Holland and Belgium are about as unlike as the
United States and Mexico. Holland is Dutch, with a language related
to the German and English, and with Teutonic characteristics. Belgium
is allied to France, the people speaking French or a kind of French,
and with traits of character like the Parisians. Holland and Belgium
have never agreed well politically and have never lived together
harmoniously. When the allies had defeated Napoleon they created the
kingdom of Holland and Belgium and tried to tie the two together.
The combination lasted just fifteen years, and in 1830 the Belgians
revolted, declared their independence and fought successfully to make
it good. This year they are celebrating the seventy-fifth anniversary
of Belgian independence. Two hundred years ago the king of Spain
was sovereign over both countries. Holland threw off the yoke and
did business on its own account, while Belgium failed and remained
the property of Spain or Austria down to the time of Napoleon.
The Hollanders drink “schnapps” and the Belgians drink wine. The
Hollanders are Protestant in religion and the Belgians are Catholics.
Except for the fact that they are side by side along the North sea and
are flat and low, the two countries differ in about everything possible.
[Illustration]
The largest city in Belgium is Antwerp, located on the Scheldt river a
little way from the sea, and with one of the largest and best harbors
of Europe. During the Middle Ages Antwerp was a great commercial
city, monopolizing much of the trade with the Orient, and being known
everywhere for its wealth and business. In the eighteenth century,
under Spanish and Austrian rule, the city lost its standing and went
down to about 40,000 population. During the nineteenth century it had
a boom; now there are 355,000 inhabitants and Antwerp looks like a
great American city,—with many wide avenues, beautiful buildings, and
handsome stores. Aside from the fact that the streets are often narrow,
a modern city in Europe looks better than one of the same size and
standing in America. The Europeans have better ideas of architecture,
put up their buildings more substantially and with more regard to their
appearance, and have less of the cheap and shoddy construction than
we do. I suppose we have as good architects in America as in Belgium,
but I know of no city in our country where the business blocks are
so elegant or so well built. Our folks build in a hurry. Over here
they build for centuries, because they have already had centuries and
know that is the way to do. I haven’t seen a frame house except in
Switzerland. When people build with stone they are apt to put the work
there to stay. And these modern European cities, by which I mean cities
which have kept pace with the world’s growth and are not simply living
on history and tourists, have many large squares with monuments and
fountains, parks with gardens and boulevards with drives,—all over the
city, not simply where the rich folks live as in some American cities.
I reckon I am as conceited about my country as anybody, but I get it
taken out of me every now and then, and modern city-building is one of
the places. It would pay our town-builders to take a little more time
and do better, more substantial and more tasteful work.
[Illustration]
Brussels is the capital of Belgium. If all the suburbs were taken in as
in Chicago and New York, it would have a half-million people. It has
the reputation of being one of the handsomest cities of Europe, and is
called “the second Paris.” It has many wide avenues, beautiful shops,
and the people, like those of Paris, are great on having a good time.
Nearly every other store in Brussels is a lace store, and most of the
rest are jewelry stores. There are said to be 150,000 women in Brussels
and vicinity making lace for sale, and they are paid by the shops
for which they work about 20 cents a day. The country round about is
fertile, but the farming is more what we would call market gardening.
The picturesque costumes have disappeared, and the Belgians dress and
act more like French and Americans than any other European people I
have seen. Their farm labor is still crude. There is no machinery, and
there need be none so long as labor is cheap. The dogs pull the carts
to town with the truck for market and the working-people live on fish
and vegetables because they are used to it and because meat is away
beyond their means.
[Illustration]
To-day I went to the battlefield of Waterloo. It has always been a
matter of regret to me that Napoleon did not win that fight. The big
powers of Europe had combined and forced his abdication. They sent
Napoleon to Elba and were quarreling over a division of the spoils when
he escaped and returned to France. The people received him with joy
and his old soldiers rallied to his standards. The allies ran hither
and thither and were scared almost to death—all but the English, who
never know when to quit. Wellington with about 70,000 soldiers was near
Brussels and Napoleon rushed his army of the same size to meet him. If
Napoleon had defeated Wellington the backbone of the alliance against
him would have been broken and the map of Europe would have been very
different from what it is. The battlefield is comparatively small.
The two armies had a front of about two miles and were less than a
mile apart. In those days a cannon could not shoot a mile and a musket
not more than 150 yards. After the first firing the guns had to be
reloaded, so as a matter of fact there would be a few volleys and then
the opposing armies would clinch and go at it with bayonets, clubbed
muskets, and swords. That was the way at Waterloo. Napoleon made the
attack and Wellington’s army had the help of stone walls and position.
In a space of about forty acres around one farmhouse there were 6,000
killed and wounded. Both sides fought like the devil, or rather like
devils, and took few prisoners. The English allies held their ground
all day, beating back the frequent and ferocious French charges. In
the evening the Prussian army under Blucher came slowly up at one side
and the outnumbered Frenchmen had to retreat. It was all over with
Napoleon, for his army was dead or missing; so he again gave up, and
this time his enemies were careful to put him at St. Helena where he
could not get away.
[Illustration]