The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-04-30
Toretgm Correspondence.
PARIS. January, 1912.

tie respect for the good or the moral feeling OF
such people. He who contemplate the mass OF
vice and wretchedness which Paris offers to his view,
without turning back with pleasure the happy album
dance, the honest dealings and the social virtues of
his own country, has something wrong within him.
He had better stay in Europe all his life, for he will
never make good citizen at home. In my opinion
there can be no better lesson of patriotism than
years residence in Paris. The American of common
and correct principles who observes with atten-
ton the character of the people say nothing ofpo
lies,) must return loving his country than ever
and blessing his stars that he born American
For my own part, though there many things in
Paris that shall leave with great regret, shall bid
adieu to it with dry eyes, and shall greet with plea
sure, my return the clear sky the rich fields the
free and honest population of my native land.
In one of my last letters gave account ofmy
| very agreeable tour in Holland | am much pressed
for time present. and give you the remainder
Of il with much detail but will merely recall some
Of the more interesting objects which came under my
| notice.
| Before quitting Amsterdam, ! made excursion
to the little village Of Brock which is famous for being
''lhe cleanest in the world" 1t is about six miles
north of Amsterdam and ands up from the surface
of the vast meadow land which forms the whole Of
this part of Holland like the Arab tents in the midst
Of the great desert II is small village, built around
the banks Of little pond formed by the widening out
Of the canal which by Brock by all the other
towns of Holland. The most remarkable peculiarly
Of the village is, that has streets wide enough for
carriages and vsiters therefore obliged to halt at
an inn the atsde os the town. and explore its in
Rita. oh tba
purposes Of streets in other towns about six feet
in width, and paved with small bricks, and beng
odden but by the shoes Of the inhabitants, they
| are smooth and clean the well-tended gravel
walks Of a flower gtiden. Opon these miniature
streets OF miniature yards counts, paved with
bricks of various colors disposed in squares trianges
and hundred other varieties of design so to form
a sort of Mosaic. Each house has its separate en-
closure of painted palings, and they all exhibit the
true Dutch taste Of bright colored painting though
green is the predominant color. The larger houses,
which belong TO rich retired tradesmen from Amster-
dam, exhibit an incongruous mixture of ornament,
which distinguishes the Dutch architecture per-
haps than that OF any other country in the world
| less il be our own unclasslc America. The little
| summer houses standing on the banks o, the mnia-
ture lake, in perfect keeping with every thing
| around them, loaded with ancfu ornaments, and as
clean neat, and spoessly white if they had been
finished but yesterday. The gardens, too are fault
lessly neat, and some of them contain world Of odd
motions and "gmcracks." Brock could not be
without its canals, which like the lake from which
they ramify the streets the houses and every thing
else are in miniature being only wide enough TO let
one two small coats pass In word Brock is
Ia,n a e
| baby -heuse. The interior of the houses u.s. As may
be supposed a model of cleanliness and order The
Brockites enter without pulling of their shoes
a, the door, and when the Emperor of Russia visited
Brock, thirty years ago. he obliged to submit to
the ceremonial the lady Of the house observing
| ing, that if he the Burgomaser of Brock
himself, he should not enter her house in boots.
gained admission into of the less pretending
dwellings without being subjected to this dsagreeable
necessity. Ii was cheese making establishment that
entered, and the good woman, who superintendent
the operations explained to me by signs, for our
tongues were of no use to us on the occasion, the
various steps Of the process, from the churning by
dog-po,cer machinery, to the moulding and drying
Every thing exhibited extreme degree Of cleanliness
and order and the planks seemed worn half through by
mere dint of scrubbing A part of the house is ar
ranged into winter habitation for the cows, and it
was as clean and neal as the rest of the establish
ment. From motives of cleanliness the cows tails
are tied up to iron rings, and trough is placed be-
hind them with the same view. After viewing the
devoted to the biped part Of the household and
sufficiently complimentng the housewife upon the
brightness of her old and well rubbed cupboards and
the beauties of her many porcelain plates and
| 81, a AZ.
took my leave of her and Of Brock and returned to
Amsterdam.
This part of Holland exhibits the characteristic
featu of the country in their highest degree. 1t is
one boundess and uninterrupted meadow, as fiat and
as green as newly drained marsh. Not a tree nor
mound of earth varies the strange monotony, the
emptiness of this singular landscape The little ca
nals or rather ditches which nterseet the meadows
from point to point, answering the purpose of fen
cess now and then herd of cattle dotting the rich
green surface, and from time to time cluster of red
brick houses rising up to view far off in the distance
these, with the dark of Amsterdam in the hori-
zon, all the objects which the eye dscerns as it
roams over the vast void, 4" the boundless CONT
guilty of space" The view Of such Landscape Gre
ates strange feeling it is mixture Of pleasure and
of dissatisfaction, Of asonshment and of sad loneli
ness that it is impossible to shake off Nowhere on all
this green surface, which is really SO fertile and pro-
ductve, is any thing visible, which give signs of the
care and labor of the hasbandman nowhere is the
sod broken by the plough the spade but all one
fiat, smooth, UNMARRIED meadow. The round-faced and
happy-looking inhabitants may truly say,
'Cnlum nebis hac otia fecit."
The road to Brock lies, part of the distance along
the bank Of great canal--the water of which, by
the by, quite above the level of the meadows on
either sidewhich is of the greatest works Of the
kind in the world, 1t is ship canal, extending from
Amsterdam to the western promontory of the Zuy-
der Zee, called the Helder distance Of forty or fiji