The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-09-10
HOLLAND.
How the E1hlegmatie Dutehman Keeps
his Head Above Water.

/ How the Phlegmatfe Dutehman Keeps
his Head Above Water.
In some parts of Holland the sea at
| high tide is thirty feet above the level
of the face of the country, and at low
| tide deep enough to drown the tallest
man. Along some parts of the Rhine,
during the spring g-freshets. the water is
! higher than the roofs of the houses of
/ the cities and towns along its banks.
/ On the sea-cOast, the inhabitants who
live behind the dykes can feel them
vibrate from the blows of the huge
waves, and can hear the breakers roar
ing and raging above their heads, in
their mad efforts to engulf the lis eners
The reader may well imagine that Hol-
land is a delightful country In which to
live for people of nervous temperament
or weak nerves But the stolid Dutch
man calmly drinks his beer and smokes
his pipe, or sleeps through the storm,
dreaming not and fearing not of danger.
The construction Of the ocean and
river dykes for the protection of Hol-
land, including only those bulwarks
and embankments erected at national
expense for common safety, have cost
the inhabitants of the Netherlands the
enormous sum Of two thousand millions
of dollars since the time of their war of
Ahut lltLluCuCU ttsdllhb tllEe6 cen ]
turies ago. How 50 small q country, |
with such limited natural resources, |
could afford to spend so prodigious |
sum of money must always remain a |
mystery. After the terrible war with /
Philip III. of Spain, the population was /
reduced, by butchery, starvation, dis |
ease, and migration, from 2, 900, 600 to a /
miserable remnant of 800, 900 souls. /
The dykes had been broken for the pur-
pose of drowning out the Spaniards /
but the desperate act ruined the inhabi-
tants. The waves of the sea, for many /
years thereafter, washed over nearly /
the whole surface of Holland. Then /
commenced the mighty work of recon
strncting the sea-walls, river dykes and /
embankments, and the expuls on of the /
obtrusive water. Whole generations
labOred and toiled during their lives on
this huge task; and indeed it could /
hardly be considered completed until
the first part of this century but, in
truth, the work can never be considered
finished. The Dutchman can only keep
from drowning by continually repairing
and strengthening his dykes and oper-
ating his Windmill pumps. Eternal
vigilance with him Is the price, not only
of liberty, but of existence.
A special college at Delft Is set apart
for the instruction Of engineers whose
duty it is to watch the state of the
winds, tides and waters, and guard
against all accidents from irruptions of
the ocean or the Rhine, and TO see that
the pumps keep down the constantly
accumuIating waters in the low lands.
The national board of water engineers,
which includes men of high scientific
attainmt nts, has most important duties
to perform !; and indeed, the existence
of Holland may be said to depend on
its skill and watehfulness. The annual
expense of keeping in repair the whole
system OF dykes and dams, canals and
s1uiceways, and operating the state wind
mills amounts toRbOut s., 900, 900 year.
Everything is now in such perfect con-
ditiOn that the operating and weaT-and-
tear expenses are reduced to a minimum.
The canals of Holland are as numer-
Gus as roads in other countries, and af-
ford ample means of conveyance in
every direction. A person looking down
upon Holland from a balloon would see
a network of canals extending in every
direction, crossing each other at right
angles and moving along them would
be seen the white sails of thousands Of
crafts and scattered all over the coun-
try, singly and in hocks, would be OBJ
served the revolving arms of the wind
mills, Tapping their wings like great
birds. Every city and town has its own
system of canals and wind-mills, and
the canals all connect with each other
by means of locks, which the Dutch
claim to have invented, and which are
hardly less useful than the wind-mills
in regulating the flow and the height of |
the water in this Low country. A per-
son may take a boat anywhere in HOl-
land, and sail all over the country in
any direction. Along the top of the
embankments constructed from the
earth taken from the canal will nearly
always be found wagon road, which
answers also as a tow path.
The highroads of Holland, connect
ing the principal towns, are nearly all |
paved with brick. Nearly all the
streets in the cities are also paved with
brick. There are no stones in Holland,
except what are imported rom Norway
or Germany, but their place is supplied
by q small, tough, hard brick, called |
" "klinkers, which are placed edgewise
close together, and the interstices filed |
with sand. The roadbed is first care
fully smoothed and rolled, and the |
arch or crown of the road is about
eight or ten inches while the width of |
the brick-paved way is usually about ;
- feet, or sufficient for two teams to |
/ i
the pavement In place is simply a lar
hand-burnt brick set in the
ground endwise to the depth of, say,
10 inches.
1 was shown roads which were brick
paved in the way described. which had |
lasted a hundred years, with little re-
pairing, and still looked smooth, fine,
and good. A friend whom 1 met here
took me out into the country the other
day, 10 miles, over one of those old
brick-payed roads to look at Dutch |
farms, cattle, crops, etc. It was a
smooth, hard, pleasant highway, cen
tury old, and which had been subjected
to much travel. j noticed that most of
the streets iu Antwerp, Rotterdam, Ly-
den, the Hague, and Amsterdam, were
paved with brick. The average cost of
thus paving q highway - feet wide is
about 81, 900 per mile. There are thou
sands of miles of such roads in HOl-
land. The crossroads and local roads
consist merely Of loose sand or mud,
and at all seasons are wretchedly bad,
and in wet weather are hardly passable.
Were It not for the large cost of paving
a road, there is no apparent reason Why
klinker brick would not answer good
purpose on the prair1e-roads OF Illinois.