Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1875-04-14

Old Amsterdam /.

We take the following description Of
Amsterdam from Col. Warnings first
article of his series, "a Farmers Vaca.
tion," which begins in Scribner fol
April:
1t is one of the peculiarities of Hol.
land that we go down into it from the
sea, and the further in we go the deeper
down we get. The metropolis lies on q
river or estuary called (for short) the
ii. Into this we entered through a
ponderous granite-built lock-one OF
an assorted series, of various sizes,
adjusted to vessels Of larger or smaller
dimensions. After We had been shut
into our compartment the valves were
opened, and we followed the declining
water until it reached the level of the
IL, when the gates were swung back
and we steamed on to the city.
And here We were in Amsterdam-the
mother of the ''Nieuw Amsterdam" of
Peter Stuyvesant and Wouter Van
Twiller. The guide-books Ito which
the reader is respectfully referred) are
fond of calling this town ''the Venice
of the North, which misleads the ina
gination. Like Venice, il is built on
piles. Erasmus speaks of its people
living like birds perched on the tops of
trees-and some of its obscurer narrow
alleys are only canals. Beyond this,
the resemblances are only differences.
The canals penetrate many of the prin-
cipal streets, it is true, but these are
WIDE thoroughfares, with broad, well
paved roadway and sidewalk, and often
with four lows of trees-the waterway
being between the center rows. Car
riages and heavy drays are moving in
every direction, and the canals are but
little used for internal traffic. Canal
boats, lighters, and in some parts even
squsre-rigged ships are fioated oppo-
site to the warehouses which are to
receive or to deliver their cargoes but
the city has a roar and hum that would
at once destroy the dreamy charm of
Venice.
There is much in Amsterdam that is
magnificent, and in which we were
greatly interested, but my present pur-
pose is mainly connected with those of
Its features which seldom engage the
attention of travellers. Rising at day
break, | strolled out to see the street
life Of the early morning. Market men
and market women from the country,
near and far, dressed in their widely
varying local costumes, were plying
their traffic in the streets and ON the
canals and housemaids were scrubbing
steps and sidewalks, and sweeping to
the middle of the carriage way, or hur-
rying home with prayerbook or market
basket. The town was alive with
population which a few hours later
would make way for those who are only
known to the broader day.
Canal-boats were arriving and de-
parting moving out from their berths
through a crowd of other craft, with
that mysterious kind of silent help that
a moving canal-boat always gets from
the crews of its neighbors at rest,-its
sides are prodded with boat-hooks from
here and from there. and it slowly floats
out from the crowd and starts on its
way ''sans mot dire :" turf boats were
floating into the Dam Rak, furling their
sails and lowering their masts cargoes
of cabbages were being tossed, one by
one, from men in boats to men on
shore here the clatter of knives and
forks was heard through low back win
dow and cabin-hatch, and here the
vrouw was washing up the breakfast
things in a slat-hoored kitchen sink
hanging from the taffrail strange
looking people were doing strange
looking things throughout all the
Strengthening fleet, and all with the
air of its being in no wise unusual or
peculiar. On shore, a street vender
was attracting custom with a watch
mans rattle men were hoisting baskets
of turf TO the cellar, at the top of a
high house gable women and children
were going from basement with the
sign water en- vuur te koop," with
neatly painted iron buckets, each having
a kettle of boiling water at the top. and
lump of burning turf at the bottom,
going home to make the morning tea
at every quarter-hour, the carlton
iingled from all the steeples. The GIN
shops were already well patronized, for
it seems universal habit, in this moist
northern climate, to take ''een sneeuw-
balletie" of gin and sugar as frequent
prophylactic. At this early hour, and
about the canals, the gilded heads and
odd bonnets of the peasant women are
more frequent than elsewhere, or later
in the day.