# Things Seen in Holland/Chapter III

CHAPTER III
THE QUEEN AND HER PEOPLE
ALTHOUGH Queen Wilhelmina and the Dowager Queen Emma strive to encourage the wearing of the several local costumes, the custom, sad to record, has died, and is dying out in many localities. A sign of this is that ladies wear these costumes for a bal costumé, as if they were truly a thing of the past. On certain occasions the Queen affects the garb of the women of Friesland. If one wishes to see the women in their picturesque array, Zeeland, Groningen, Friesland, the southern ​part of Brabant, and Volendam, in North Holland, are the places to hie to on Sundays or on vegetable market-days. The women of Volendam have a weekday and a Sunday dress, but it is practically the same costume, the difference lying in the colour and striping of the outer skirt—generally one of the seven which they drag about.
NIJMEGEN'S MARKET-PLACE.
In the shadow of the Church of St. Stephen.
​dames and damsels throughout the land would require a volume. As a general rule, it may be stated, and this especially in regard to sea towns, that an abundant supply of petticoats is de rigueur, as it is considered the right thing to pretend to much embonpoint below the waist, which, in its turn, is padded out with bourrelets of wadding, or even filled with sand. A foreign lady whose embonpoint is the work of Nature is a thing of beauty and of joy to the native, who will openly express her admiration for the charms of an unartificial dikke vrouw.
The foregoing remarks naturally apply to the peasantry and fisherfolk only. With regard to The Hague, a note of smartness reveals itself in the ladies' gowns; while provincial ladies, who, when travelling outside their own country, have been bold enough to indulge in “foreign fashions,” ​carefully pack away these sacrifices to vanity when reaching home. The good folk in the provinces do not dress their part, but cultivate for the fashions a contempt which is pedantic and even stupid. During the recent Conference at The Hague some members of the Diplomatic Corps visited a University town, and their “Bond Street liveries” excited to derisive laughter the soberly-clad professors.
Queen Wilhelmina, in the early days of her reign affectionately referred to as Koninginnetje, or “Little Queen,” typifies in her simple life the nation over which she rules, while her tender sympathy for her people is returned by them. She rules because she is of the House of Orange, and the national cry of “Oranje boven!” always unmistakably proceeds from Dutch hearts as well as from Dutch lips. She expressed ​her feelings on the occasion of her “inauguration” (for of “coronation,” as we understand it, there was none), when she said at the time of taking the oath: “I count myself happy to rule the Dutch people: small in number, but great in courage—great in nature and in character.” Dapper maar klein (Brave, though small). In 1909 Queen Wilhelmina presented the nation, greatly to its joy, with an heiress to the throne, and heartfelt rejoicings took place on this occasion.
During the summer months Her Majesty lives at Het Loo (The Grove), a charming residence in Gelderland, north of Apeldoorn; in winter at the Palace in the Noordeinde, at The Hague; and for ten days in the year she occupies the Stadhuis at Amsterdam. Louis Napoleon accepted this residence as a palace, which it has remained ever since, but as William I. ​gave it back to the city, the Queen is the city's guest during her sojourn there.
A GOES MILKCART.
A Zuid Beveland milk-woman going her rounds.
​Boulogne-sur-Mer, where it is known as la Portugaise. In addition to these ornaments, one greatly prized is a coral “dog-collar,” which is just as highly valued as the one of pearls worn by rich ladies in this country. Earrings there are of many shapes, from the kurkentrekkers (corkscrews)—akin to bed-springs—to the quaint ear-ornaments looking like horses' blinkers, and fitted on above the ears with projecting triangular plates studded with pearls. The most valuable of all ornaments is the gouden kap, or skull-cap of gold, of Friesland. Its price is sometimes as high as eight hundred guilders, and it is worn by the married women only, and by widows. According to a legend of Medemblik, it constitutes the glorification of the crown of thorns. A gold “back-piece” is also worn on the nape of the neck. Nor is the male sex behindhand in its love of ​ornament; the broad breeks are clasped at the waist with broekstukken, huge silver buttons larger than our crown-piece, some of them handed down from generation to generation. The men also affect silver chains bunched up like skeins of wool as a neck ornament. In some parts, especially in Friesland, silver shoe-buckles are still to be met with. Again, there are gold buttons in filagree to hold the gaudy necktie under control, while the wedding-ring is more or less worn by the men.
IN ZUID BEVELAND.
Goes dairymaids in their neat and picturesque costume.
​totas de capsula nitidas—to alter the gender in the quotation; they appear to have come out of a bandbox. They are very partial to eau-de-Cologne, which finds a large market in Holland, and an hotel-servant will not mind helping herself to any perfume left lying around in my lady's chamber. It is her perquisite, and she will not consider that she is doing anything wrong when liberally besprinkling her person with it. In other respects she is scrupulously honest. Another weakness of the Dutch countrywoman of the sea or country side is to compress her bosom; as a result, they are all flat-breasted to an extent that is a disfigurement of the human form, and they rival the Amazons in their flatness.
The headgear of the womenfolk varies with the locality. Every kind of cap is to be met with, from the close-fitting one ​of Friesland, worn by the Queen, to the Volendam cap, with its well-starched cornettes, with which opéra-bouffe has rendered us familiar in England. It is on a market-day at Middelburg or at Flushing that the visitor can more especially feast his eyes on Dutch women be-jewelled, be-capped, and be-petticoated, or again at a kermis. A shock will come to him when he sees the gouden kap surmounted by a Parisian chapeau, from either side of which peep the kurkenkrullen. The wearing of these must on such occasions be looked upon as a tribute rendered to national sentiment by these devotees of “modernism.” In the winter of 1908 Friesland revelled in a skating carnival, at which were worn the garments of days gone by, and the revival of habiliments in vogue in the days of Holland's grandeur was a welcome and picturesque one. In the museum at ​Hindeloopen is to be seen a fine collection of costumes of olden times.
ANCIENT MARINERS.
Markeners in their characteristic “knickerbocker” garb. On their feet are klompen, or wooden shoes, which are sometimes daintily carved, and serve many purposes besides that of footgear.
​of which she had hauled him. A blow on the left side of the head steered the reveller to the right, and vice versa.
There remains but to tell a pretty story in which klompen play a part. After Queen Wilhelmina had retired for the night on the day she had taken hold of the reins of Government, a notice was issued requesting the good citizens to go home quietly, and not to disturb their Sovereign's slumbers with shouts doubtlessly loyally meant. Two devotees of Bacchus who were passing by the Palace disregarded this request, to which their attention was called by some less noisy citizens, whereupon the loyalists considerately and gallantly kicked off their klompen, and zigzagged their way home in their stocking-feet.
“THREE LITTLE MAIDS ARE WE.”
Placid and smiling, they enjoy facing the visitor's kodak. Children in Holland have few indoor games, but the girls' chief delight seems to be in skipping and knitting.
​Volendam, hold entirely different views in this respect. They parade a broad, ugly, yellow fringe of hair and a couple of long and thick krullen (curls), which give them an untidy appearance. These curls are the subject of cruel remarks on the part of the shy maidens of Volendam.
THE FROZEN ZUIDER ZEE.
Children playing on the ice opposite Volendam.
​aalen (smoked eels), dried scharretje (another species of the flounder tribe), poffertjes (the American “pop-overs”), olie-bollen (balls of paste fried in oil), wafelen (waffles), and hopjes (caramels, the last the most beloved of the various kinds of lekkers). In the meanwhile, the organs of the merry-go-rounds are noisily grinding out tunes that are “popular” the world over. When night comes, Bacchus is libated in a fashion worthy of the days of Rome's decline, and men and women mingle together with a licence unknown during the rest of the year.
In Amsterdam and other big towns the kermis has been abolished. This abolition was the cause of a two days' riot in the city lying at the influx of the Amstel into the Y.
Ranking next to the kermis is the Feast of St. Nicholas, kept on December 5, the ​eve of the saint's name-day. His legend is widespread, as shown in our own Winchester Cathedral, and in many parts of France. The “Knickerbockers” who went to America imported the celebration of this feast into that country, where it still flourishes as Santa Claus, but where it is kept on Christmas Eve. To some of the Dutch who returned to their native land may be due Knecht Rupprecht (de zwarte knecht), the saint's man Friday, who would seem to personify the negro slave. At this festival there is a large consumption of klaasjes, special cakes taking the shape of a bishop in full canonicals.
YOUNG HOLLAND.
A companion picture to Hanicotte's “Oud-Holland”
​“I am King of the Castle” (Man ik sta op je blokhuis) is a game which needs no description. The girls enjoy skipping, and when not engaged in this pastime seem to delight in knitting just as much.
Photo. Halftones Limited.
FISHERMEN'S WINTER WORK.
Volendammers ploughing the snow to make a skating track.
​Hague, and Amsterdam, etc. An indoor game, reduced almost to parlour-golf, has taken its place in some localities, but even this game appears to be dying out.
It is to be regretted that the companies of doelen, who formed clubs akin to our archery clubs, but who did not belong to the army (doelen are “targeteers,” just as the Italian bersagliere derives his name from bersaglio, a target), are a thing of the past; for their prowess has been immortalized in many a painting, and their name is preserved in that of several hotels throughout the land.
Skating is, of course, the national pastime. Parties are made up to skim over the frozen rivers and canals from town to town, and much sleighing takes place in the towns after a fall of snow, the children being conveyed to school in sleighs. The Dutch excel in the exhilarating exercise of ​skating, and while engaged in it are, for the nonce, as light-heeled as any.
Among the students, particularly those of Leyden, rowing is greatly in vogue, and, as we know, they have sent crews to Henley. In the last year or two football for boys and hockey for girls have taken a foothold, and young Holland is going in for exercise to an extent unknown heretofore.