The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1883-08-09
Beautiful Holland.

1uouSutlcsS perSous, WIZ nave Ueeu
little away from home, are apt TO have
dimly floating in what they are pleased
to call their minds notion that Holland
is a damp, unpleasant country, where
the overfed inhabitants grow tulips in
defiance of inhospitable nature, and
where life is perpetual struggle against
roaring waters, momentarily threatening
to engulf the fields and villages. I know
the French. who are prone to imagine
that the world ends at their frontiers, ex-
pressed much surprise when told by
those who returned from the Inaugural
ton of the exhibition at Amsterdam that
Holland was little jewel" And 80 it
is-a right little-tight little bijou of
country-odd and original as possible,
yet picturesque and charming in highest
degree. No sooner does the traveller
leave behind him the Flemish land at
Rosendaal--inspiring name-and enters
upon the fat plains than the enchant-
ment begins. 1t is mistake to suppose
that mountains are indispensable to pic
turesqueness. No Hollander would al
low you to say that the physical features
of his native land lack majesty, simply
because they have no Zermatts and Grin
delwalds The vast plains, with their
bending grasses, over which masses of
shadow and floods of light are perpet.
ually playing hide and seek the willows
pensive beside the canals; and these
silent waterways themselves, with their
miniature fleets of sail boats and ponder.
GUS barges laden with hay or iroI bound
casks Of beer and wine; the redroofed
villages, with the fong streets bordered
tla ;,,x vh,ob
the mottled cows are lying lazily, ready
for the thinning pencil of some new
genius, and seeming to know that they
compose" beautifully for painting;
and the great arms of the sea, whic b
take menacing hold on the green prairies
all these things have have certain
grandeur of their own, and one which is
admirably combined with beauty. Hol-
land is in its prime in June. The Lusts
in Rusts are in their perfection then.
What delicious retreats from the busting
world are here to be found beside the
broad and smoothly flowing Mas, or in
this tree-embowered Hague, with its
parks and gardens even in the busiest
streets. or northward, around Amsterdam
of Bsrmen-and q hundred similar
places! There is a fund of reserve in the
Dutch character which impels each pro.
prietor to hedge and ditch himself round
about, and, in short, to do his best to
shut you out from the view of his villa,
which is usually small, but exquisitely
painted without and luxuriously
furnished within. All over Holland one
is perpetually catching momeEtary
glimpses of these sylvan bowers-these
"basky dells," where the hermit contem-
plation loves to sit over fragrant pipe
and a still more odorous glass of
''schnapps." One gets the impression
of solid wealth everywhere in this
diminutive land, and is at first inclined
TO wonder whence the riches come. But
after he has seen the lines of stately
ships crowding along the quays
at Rotterdam, and has peered into the
colonial department of q Dutch daily
and got some small idea of
the great movement in Batavia-after
one has heard the Amsterdam bankers
talk triAe concerning their investments
in dozen countries, he begins to under
stand that this people gets its money by
abroad, at the same time
that il neglects none Of its interests at
home.-Hague Corr. Boston Journal.