Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-09-03


The HAGUE, HOLLAND,
August IL, 1867.
A country as fiat and fruitful as the rich
est American prairie is that known as Hol-i
land or the Netherlands. and no spot of
earth is stranger or more instructive. Af-,
ter the lovely lakes and frozen mountains
OF Switzerland, and the ancient architec-
ttife of the grape-covered shores of the
Rhine, there was something startling in
the contrast presented by vast table land,
not inaptly STYLED, because absolutely re-
covered from, ''the bottom of the sea-" 1
have now trayersed large part of this Gu
rious domain, and find it an object of man.
ifold and increasing interest. You pass
for hundreds of miles over territory with
out fence, and yet the fields are carefully
divided by narrow canals. which, while
draining them of their superfuous moisture,
1T the same time protect them as successfully
as strong barrier of stone. These wonder
full expanses are singulariy fertile; and he
who prefers to peruse the present and to
forecast the future of people by the q
works of their own labor, will be deeply
impressed by these and the other greater
proofs of human energy which abound in
Holland. For Holland is monument of
patient industry and unhagging persever-
anee; aud it is difficult to decide, as we
: read its history, whether it is most deserv-1
ing of nraise for It's resistance to the tYran-
It's people have not only conquered an en-
pire from the sea, and for centuries sue
cessfully combatted the ever-nerying eff
forts of Old Ocean to recover the treasures
she has lost, but they have made the very
winds their slaves. Others employ the
multiplied modern agencies of steam, but
the. sHollanders, for five hundred years,
have adopted the windmill to grind their
corn, to saw their timber, to crush the
rape-seed for oil, to beat hemp, and to drain
the soil, by exhaustiDg the water from
the land aud pouring it into the great
canals and rivers. AS a great writer OBJ
serves: ssItmight be supposed that the alb
sence of those elevations which afford
shelter to other countries would leave Hol-
land at the mercy of every blast that blows.
So far is this from being the case, that not
breath of air is allowed to pass without
paying toll by. turning a wind-mill.n And
I fcannot describe to you the appearance of
hundreds of these odd machines, moving
their huge shadows all over the landscape
at the same time. They are so much cheap
er than steam for all purposes, that not
withstanding the mighty progress of that
revolutionary discovery, they are still in
universal use in this country. l have
counted fifty in view at one time. They
are much larger than in America. A sim
gle s'sail." or fan, is often one hundred and
twenty feet long, and the under part of the
structures from which they wave their ban
dwellings. So that it may said, if the coun-
try Swiss live in their barns and next
door to their stables, the country Holland
ers live in their windmills. There are sew
eral thousand windmills in this country,
the annual lscost of which is three millions
of dollars. In fact, 1.-THE laws of nature
seem to be reversed in Holland" The
whole nation stands upon the most un-
stable foundation; and but for the great
dykes that surround it like mighty 1ort-
resses, it would be swept back into the
ocean from which it came; and it is con-
fdently asserted that if human care were
removed for only six months, the waves
would regain their ancient dominion.
Most of the whole country lies far below |
the level of the sea. The lowest part of it is |
twenty -four feet below high water mark,
and when the tide is driven by the wind it |
is thirty feet. I'm no other country do the
keels of the ships float above the chimneys,
and no where else does the frog, croaking
from among the bulrushes, look do%n upon
the heswallow on the house-top." The mighty
dykes, erected to keep out the ever
threatening and encroachlng billows, are
marvels of human toll and skill; and as
the rivers and inland lakes, nearly all of
them direct tributaries to or estuaries of |
the sea itself, are as dangerous as the ocean, |
the expense and trouble are 1ncessant and
immense. These dykes are built upon |
long piles driven far into the porous soil, |
forming the base upon which rests "a heavy
substrstum of clay-the whole foundatiop
being from 40 to $50 feet in width; and the |
front is thatched with a kind of wicker
work of interviewer willow twigs; the in
terstices filled with puddled clay TO render |
it compact, while the base is often neatly |
faced with masonry. A fine road runs
along the top, and rows of trees give it a
picturesque effect. These indispensable |
barriers are terribly expensive, and
impose q heavy tax upon the. peo-
Die. The sum annually expended to |
keep them in repair and to regulate the
level of the water, to prevent the cities |
and farms from being submerged, is three
millions of dollars-a burden not TO be en-
WED when we reflect that it is collectt d
from a population not larger than that OF
Pennsylvania, and is only portion of the
price they pay for the mere privilege of
living. It excites novel sensations to see
tlires millions of any human beings living, I
as it were, under the water, and only pro-
tected from inuhdation by their own un-
sleeping vigilance. -Watchmen are sta
toned along these lines of artificial defent O.
against the assailing sea during the winter
season, when ssthe broad ocean leans against l.
the land" and when the immense volume
Df-water cannot find ready passage through
he narrow channel at Dover and falls back