Abbeville press. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1860-1869, 1868-05-01
THE LAND OF THE WINDMMLS.
A CAPITAL DESCRIPTION Fon YOUNG
READERS.

READERS.
ICarleton" writer's to tho Boston
Journal a letter in regard to Holland,
which is q model in its way, giving to
Young readers a moro dcEuite and
vivid conception of tho geography Of
that country than they would be liko-
iy to get from their regular school
textbooks. Wo copya largo part of
tho letter:
Holland is queer, strange, funny
place, and the people arc odd and Gu
rious. There arc such scenes as can
not DO found anywhere else in the
wido world. Most of tho boys i'll Now
England carry knives in their poc:;-
cts; and dare say that thero is not
q lad among all Of thom who may
read this lottor who has not whitfield
out windmill, or at least a whirligi s;
but thcro are moro windmiils here
than they ever dreamed of-windmills
in the towns and cities, out in the
country, and oil along the shore of
the sca-all in motion wherever there
is wind enough to turn them. Yes
terday could see nearly ono hundred
at time. 1t WAS gusty, breezy
day, and tho storm.clouds wcro flying
in from the German Ocean, and there
Was q tremendous commotion among
the windmills. Each ono seemed to
be trying to whirl faster than tho 9TH
er.
Undoubtedly you have read of the
exploits Of that crazy knight, Don
Quixote, who saw q windmill and
thought it was q giant, and wont at
it full tilt, and got tumblod into tho
dirt by tho great fans, which went
round and round just as if nothing
had happened; but if ho were alive in
these days, and wcre to visit Holland
ho might think with good reason that
tho land was full OF giants.
WHAT THEY ARE FOR.
!
| You wonder, perhaps, what tho peo
ple of this country can want OF sc
mary windmiils; but let mo tell yo'
that if it had not boon for thcse mill
in the past thcro would DO worry few
pcople in Holland now. The wind
mills, in ono sonse, havo mado tn
: country what it is.
Looking upon your map OF lIollan
you will SEQ that the liver Rhine
J. which has its source away south i
! tho contro of Europe among the moul
e talns of Switzcrland, horo reaches til
sea. When it gets within about on
9 hundred miles OF the sea itsplits itse
= Into dozen or moro channels, oil
= which, after winding aud turnir
- through q great marsh, pour the
D. waters into the ocean. Hollan
therefore, wns once great marsh
bog. There are worry tow stones
-. the country; there are no mountai
or hills, but one dead level of mar
n land.
'ss Hundreds Of years ago tho peoI
r. who lived near tho mouth of t
K Rhine saw that the marsh land W
les very fertile, for the silt in tho riv
he brought down evory year from t
lly mountains made tho land very rie
he they saw also that if they could 0,
ne get rid of tho water on the mars'
=. % they might lay out cabbage gard'
,ed and little farms. They comment
,x- by building dams here and there
OF on tho branch of tho Rbinc called
~, ~ Rotter-and the place in time
cI. known aa Rotterdam; another on
.try Amstel, which was tho origin of
cks name of this clty.Amsterdam.
on all of tho dams in Holland came,
"' nos' because tho people whore in tho h'
ots % of using wicked words, but boon
the they built dams on the streams.
ave the water soaked through tho embs
'der monts, and. every rain made their
I ,hs deos wet; they dug d,tches,
,u,l which the water settled, and
and conceived the idea of building VI
. on mills for pumping the water into
.,"s' river.
h.w s"vy They set one of the forces Of ma
aaob tho wind--to work against ano
Hill foroe-tho rain; and as gust Of :
D +. will turn several thousand OF ,
nc, nos just as easily as it does ono, they
N. IA conquered the rain-have forced
:wn- great river Rhine to quit the mar
'm a and have begun to pump tho 9
10 OF dry.
Two Two That is the meaning of all the
>, % .h. ants swinging thoir arms from
cir. end of the year to the othcr-da,
= the night-whenevsr thero is q brea
nrss air.
THE COUNTRY.
nsid- To see the country as it is, i'm
'aon' a great smbapkment along the
so Of the sea, against which the :
alIot., are always dsshing. Walking
pre- the embankment you notice tn
ss, as land is ton, fiftoep, twenty, eve'