The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-10-22
DUTCH CHARACTER.
An Energetic and Sensible People Noted
Everywhere for Their Honesty.

An Energetic and Sensible People Noted
Everywhere for Their Honesty.
The Dutch character partakes of the
soberness of the climate. Man is sub
dued to what he works in. He can be
but relatively cheerful in a relatively
cherries climate. He must be serious
where nature is serious. Having
fought for ages with the sea, lived in
it, sported with it, it became familiar
object to the Dutch. They ceased to
fear it, or to fear nations like the En-
glish, who were but a little less am
phibious, and thought they owned it,.
So they made distant voyages to the
Orient, planted colonies, and monopO-
lied its trade to the injury of the Port
uguese, and nearer home Van Tromp
swept the channel of the English with
his broom. They received naturally
the ascetic doctrine of Calvin. 1t was
an unsmiling religion, and suited to a
climate and people that, not lacking
in humor, yet smiled rarely; though to
study some of their old painters, such
as Steen and Van Ostede, one would
think that their life was one prolonged
revel. as people the Dutch are not
handsome. There are handsome
types, but they have come in with
Flemish immigrations or by accidental
admixture with some of the blonde
tribes of North Germany. They are
evidently not the old Batavians recog-
nized in history hundred years before
the Christian era, and, by sim
gular persistence of Descent per-
petuated till the present day. This
perseverance of ancient types through
thousands of years of pestilence, of
submergence, of desolating wars, of
internecine contests, of successive i'm
migratiOns, is one of the marvels of
history. The Flemish type is charac-
terized by length of nose, breadth Of
forehead, smallness of chin and short
ness of face; The true Dutch type has
length of nose, narrOwness of fore
mead, thinness of feature, gauntness of
body and often considerable length of
limb. These details are subject to
notifications. The types more nearly
approaching it are those often seen in
Denmark. You can wander for days
through the streets, museums and pub
lie places of Amsterdam, Harlem, The
Haugue and Rotterdam and not meet
a handsome woman, young or old, un-
less she is a foreigner. The climate,
like that of Boston, proves more try
ing to the gentIer sex. This absence of
personal attractiVen ess in young wom-
en- and girls is not without certain
pathos. The faces of old women be-
come thin as blade, the nose sharp as a
needle, the complexion preternaturally
clear and white. There is no room for
wrinkles OH a surface so small and
thin. Surmount this queer face with
one of the close-fitting white native
caps, and put about it a quantity of the
curious gold ornaments of the coun-
try, and you have a personal ensemble
to be remembered.
The Dutch having received from a
strong-charactered ancestry these dis
tinctive features of mind, face and
form, change them slowly. The aged
retain the ancient fashions; the mid
dle-aged and young yield gradually
to fashions dictates and the inexora-
BILE spirit of progress. The peasant
retains his sabots and his simplicity.
The cities are becoming modernized
by degrees. They have fashionable
shops, and the new quarters are built
up in modern styles of architecture.
The influence of France is felt in the
Dutch cuisine. There are cafes every
where like those of Paris, but they give
you real cream to season the beverage.
Altogether the first impression made
on the stranger by the Dutch is that of
an energetic and sensible people, in
whom the infrequency of personal
beauty and grace is more than atoned
for by honest courtesy and great good
ness of character. Albert SsttIife, is
San Francisco Chronicle.