Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-01-10
The Land of the NVindmilIs-A capital
Description for Young Readers.


Carleton writes to the Boston Jour
pal a letter In regard to Holland, which i:
model in its way, giving to young read
erS Il more definite and vivid conception o.
| the geography of that country than they
would be likely to get from their regular
school textbooks. We copy large part
Of the letter:
L am sure that every boy and girl who
reads the Journal would take great pleasure
i'll visiting Holland, it is such a queer,
strange, funny place, and the people are sc
odd and curious. There are such scenes
as cannot be found anywhere else in the
wide world. Most of the boys in New Eng
land carry knives in their pockets, and I
dare say there is not lad among all oi
them who may read this letter who has not
whitfield out a windmill, or, at least, q
@hirhgig but there are mere wicdmills
here than they ever dreamed of-windmills
III the towns and cities, out in the country,
and all the shore of the sea-all in motion
where there is wind enough to turn them.
Yesterday [ could see nearly one hun dred
at a time. 1t was gusty, breezy day, and
the storm-clouds were flying in from the
German ocean, and there was tremen-
dous commotion among the windmills -
Each one seemed to be trying to whirl fast
er than the other.
Undoubtedly you have read Of the ex-
ploits of that crazy knight Don Quixote,
who saw windmill and thought it was q
giant, and went at it full tilt, and got tum-
bled into the dirt by the great fans, which
went round and round just as if nothing
had happened; but if he were alive in these
think with good reason that the land was
full of giants
WHAT THEY ARE FOR.
You wonder, perhaps, what the people
OF this country can want of SO many wind
mills but let me tell you that if it had not
been for these mills in the past there would
be very few people in Holland now. The
windmills, in one sense, have made the
country what it is.
Looking upon your map of Holland you
will see that the river Rhine, which has its
source away south in the centre of Europe
among the mountains of Switzerland, here
reaches the sea. When it gets within one
hundred miles of the sea it splits itself into
dozen or more channels, all of which,
after winding and turning through great
marsh, pour their waters into the ocean.
Holland, therefore, was once great marsh
or bog. There are very few stones i'll the
country ; there are no mountains or hills,
but one dead level of marsh land.
Hundreds of years ago the people who
lived near the mouth of the Rhine saw that
the marsh land was very fertile, for the silt
in the river brought down every year from
the mountains made the land very rich
they saw also, if they could only get rid of
the water on the marshes, they might lay
out cabbage gardens and little farms. They
commenced by building dams here and
there-one on the branch of the Rhine
called the Rotter-and the place in time
was known as Rotterdam another on the
Amstel, which was the origin of the name
of this city-Amsterdam So all of the
dams in Holland came, not because the
people were in the habit of using wicked
words, but because they built dams on the
streams. But the water soaked through
the embankments, and every rain made
their gardens wet they dug bitches, into
which the water settled, and then con-
ceived the idea of building windmills for
pumping the water into the river.
They set one of the forces of nature
the wind-to work against another force
the rain ; and as a gust of wind will turn
several thousands of mills just as easily as
it does one, they have conquered the rain
have forced the great river Rhine to quit
the marshes, and have begun to pump the
ocean dry.
That is the meaning of all these giants
swinging their arms from one end of the
year to the other-day and night-when-
ever there is breath of air.
THE COUNTRY.
To see the country as it is, imagine a
great embankment along the shore of the
sea, against which the waves are always
dashing. Walking along the embankment,
you notice that the land is ten, fifteen,
twenty, even thirty feet lower than the
sea. You can hardly realize that these
gardens--green with cabbages, tUrnips,
caulifowers, and other vegetables-were
once the bed of the ocean ; that the waves
rolled miles and miles inland that vessels
once sailed where farm-houses now stand ;
that fishermen now let down their hooks
and nets above those meadows. But so it
has been, and the story of the rise and
growth and pumping out of Holland is one
of the most Interesting in all history. 1t
shows us what enterprise, intelligence,
perseverance, and hard work will accom-
plish.
It would give you a strange sensation to
sail up the river from the ocean in q steam
boat or in ship, and find yourself sc
high above the houses that you can almost
look down the chimneys, also to see cattle
and sheep feeding down below, and men
catching fish above.
Were it not for the windmiIIs, the river
the ocean, and the rain would soon food
the fields and meadows and set all the
houses afoat but because the mills are
always going, the boys and girls of Dutch
land sleep securely at night, go to school
eat their three meals a day, play in the
streets, go to church on Sunday, without
ever dreaming of any danger.
| Once there was terrible disaster {
dam gave way, and the wal or came pour
ing in, covering the meadows, drowning
cattle and sheep, sweeping away farm
houses, villages, and towns, destroying
many lives and making sad havoc. Bu
the people filed up the breach, set th'
windmills agoing, pumped the whole
country dry again, and ever since hav,
taken good care to keep all the embank
ments strong and in repair. There is
saying that " eternal vigilance is the pric,
of liberty" but here in Holland it is tn
price of life. Men are on the watch al
the time to see that there are no veal
places in the embankments. They ar
paid by the Government, and have con
troll of all the mills They wage constan
warefare with the ocean at cost of nearl
three millions of dollars every year bu
with the wind for an ally, they are enable
to keep the marshes drained, and hav
| transformed tba ho0S into haoutifpI ,ooad