The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1879-12-12
Amsterdam.
City HuiIt Upon Tree-Gops- Its
Canals, Churches. streets and Build.
tngs-A Famous school.


Canals, Churches. streets and Build.
ings-A Famous school.
Originally in the misty and troubled
past collection of fisbermen's huts,
where amphibious inhabitants there
sought to escape the depredations of
oppressive and warlike neighbors, Am
sterdam has in the lapse of time become
not only the important city of this part |
of Europe, but the mother of our own |
American metropolis. Gradually in
creasing by events which have no spec
ial record in history, its location became
a fixed and permanent fact. Material
interests identified with it offset the
barriers of nature and established it as
a center cf trade and population. The
obstacles of its situation have been
overcome by the ingenuity and labor OF
generations of men. and still require a
vast annual expenditure of money
and work to maintain the city on its
artificial foundations. The entire city
is built upon piles, and unless ravages
of decay are promptly repaired the
Dutchman's house may come down on
his head. 1t was no idle boast of
Erasmus that he knew of city where
the people lived on top of high trees
like rocks, for the forests of Norway,
here transplanted for the piles, in their
new service, bear upon their high
trunks the city and its inhabitants.
Amsterdam is called vulgar Venice.
Specifically the comparison is just, tor
it has little OF the marble beauty and
the romantic charm of the famed spouse
of the Adriatic. It's sluggish canals
are discolored and unsavory in odor
and appearance no light gondolas or
pleasure boats skim their surface, but
the fantastIc, clumsy craft built ard
used for practical purposes take their
place. The banks are bordered by
queer, grim, antique buildings, with
little display of architectural beauty
and pretensioDs to vie with the palaces
of its southern prototype. But behind
the dingy. practical aspect of its exter-
| lor is a scrupulous and
METHoDIcAL NEATHEss
That has always characterized the in-
habitants in private and public affairs
culture, prosperity and enterprise that
gainsay any epithets that might convc,
any different impression. One of tie
first features that strike the stranger oD
his visit TO Amsterdam is the novelty
of the view and everywhere streets
greet his eyes. The broad canals, the
highways of local and distant traffic,
filled with market-boats and all the
peculiar and nondescript craft Of the
pattern of ages ago, which conservative
Holland retains tc the present day, the |
narrow streets or alleys between the |
canals, where the sound of carriage or
rumbling wheel is seldom heard, and |
where with difficulty the sunlight
struggles down between the high build |
ipgs by which they are flanked, the In
Vulnerable bridges which one must cross |
in all his perambulations-al convey |
an unusual and not unpleasant impress
ion which is one OF the grand effects |
that the traveller most likes to expert |
ence. Everything has the appearance
of having been squeezed into place and
kept there by that process. All the
buildings are placed end to the streets
or canals, where with very narrow and
lofty fronts suTmounted by the gable /
end of peaked root This gives them
the appearance of being wedged in so
as to contract their originally intended |
dimensions. From the decay or SET
tling of the piles now and then build
ing is jostled out OF the perpendicular,
aud mods in most friendly and patron
izing manner towards the passers-by /
below. But the inspection of buildings
is SO rigid and vigilant and the instan-
ces of their falling SO rare that their
leaning condition never excites any APP
prehension. IT You stand at the head OF
ene of the streets or look down the vistas
of one of the canals and note the solemn
old structures swaying this way and
that as though undecided what To- do,
it makes one stop and contemplate
whether his eyes and head suffer- from
the. obliquity he secs. The effect is
QUITE LuD1cRous,
And gives an idea of want of stabil.
ity which really does not exist. The
buildings are mostly Of dark colored |
brick Joined with wlnie cement, Some
times the gable end, the cornices or
door-posts arc painted some fancy color,
which gives fantastic and not PARTON.
larly tasteful appearauce The tglaanfi.l