The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-01-02
The Land Of the Windmills-A Capital
Dissertation for Young Readers.

moQcl IN ltS way, giving 10 young reau'
crs q more definite and vivid conception
of the geography of that country than they
would be likely to get from their regular
school textbooks. We copy q large part
of the letter:
am sure that every boy and girl who
reads the Journal would take great plea
sure in visiting Holland, it is such queer,
strange, funny place, and the people are
so odd and curious. There are such scenes
as cannot be found anywhere else in the
wide world. Most Of the boys in New
England carry knives in thcir pockets, and
dare say that there is not a lad among
all of them who may read this letter who
has not whitfield out windmill, or, at
least, q whirligig but there are more Wind
mills here than they ever dreamed Of
windmillS in the towns and cities, out in
the country, and all along the shore of the
sea-all in motion wherever there is wind
enough to turn them. Yesterday could
see nearly one hundred at time. 1t was
gusty, breezy day, and the storm clouds
were flying in from the German ocean, and
there was a tremendous commotion among
the windmills. Each one seemed to be
trying to whirl faster than the other.
Undoubtedly you have read Of the ex-
ploits of that crazy knight Don Quixote.
who saw windmill and thought it was a
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
aad happened; but if he were alive in
these days, and were to visit Holland, he
might 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
It's source away south in the centre of
Europe among the mountains Of Switzer-
land, 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 a great marsh or hoe uhs-~ -. -
Very VERY rev stones in 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
wear from the mountains made the land
very rich they saw also, if they could
only get rid of the water on the marshes,
hey might lay out cabbage gardens and
little farms. They commenced by build
ing dams here and there-one on the
branch of the Rhine called the Rotter-
and the place in time was known as Rot.
terdam; another on the Amstel, which
was the origin Of the name of this city
Amsterdam. So all Of the dams In Hol'
land came, not because the people were in
the habit of using wicked words, but be.
cause they built dams on the streams
But the water soaked through the EN-
bankments, and every rain made theil
gardens wet they dug bitches, into which
The water settled, and then conceived 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; aud as gust Of wind will turn
several thousands Of mills just as easily as
if does one, they have conquered the
rain-have forced the great river Rhine tc
quit the marshes, and have begun to pump
the ocean dry.
That is fhe 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 SEQ 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, tnrnips,
caulihowers, and other yegetables-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. II
shows us what enterprise, intelligence
perseverance, and hard work will accom-.
plish.
It would give you strange sensation to
sail up the river from the ocean in steam.
boat or in ship, and find yourself so high
above the houses that you can almost look
down the chmneys, also to see cattle and
sheep feeding down below, and men catch.
ing fish above.
Were it not for the windmills, 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, 60 to school
eat their three meals day, play IN the
streets, 60 to church on Sunday, without
ever dreaming of any danger.
Once there was terrible disaster; a
dam gave way, and the water 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. But
the people filed up the breach, set the
windmills agoing, pumped the whole
country dry again, and ever since have
taken good care to keep all the embank-
ments strong and in repair. There is a
saying that "eternal vigilance is the price
of liberty" but here in Holland it is the
aprice Of life. Men are on the watch all
,Tshe time to see that there are no weak
places in the embankments. They are
,k9aid by the Government, and have control