Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-04-20
IN DUTCH HOUSES.
THE WAR WHICH A PEASANT Wo-
MAN MAKES AGAINST DUST.

Interesting Study of Dutch Interior"
How Laundry Work Is Done In Hoi-
Iaud - Servants--A Strange Custom.
Food and Cooking.
Had Lady Macbeth lived in Holland, that
damned spot" would have been out in five
minutes. Nothing, not even it, could stand
against n Dutch cleaning woman. She is
irresistible. Look how she is armed. Glance
at her weapons. Cloths and chamois, brooms
and brushes, scrubbing brushes for the floors,
hair brushes for the wainscots, feather
brushes for the walls, tooth brushes for the
corner geese wings for the stoves, hens
feathers for cleaning out the key holes, small
sticks of wood for poking out any unhappy
particle of dnst which may have got into the
cracks of the floor, white paste for the win
dows, red paste fer tho hearth stones, emery
for the steel, and several other pastes and
polishes as the occasion may require. These
are the implements Dutch peasant woman
uses TO clean out her cottage home. Dust is
her natural enemy, she is born into the world
TO fight it, il is her mission, and she docs no
more than her mother and foremothers have
done before her. No wonder that such n
home training turns out an exceedingly high
class of domestic servant; and yet, the Dutch
mistress grumbles Such is life.
A DUTCH INTERIOR.
Dutch INTERIOR from houSekeeper's
as well as an artistic point of view, is most
interesting study. 1t is one thing TO know
country well by travelling through it, stop
ping at the best hotels, visiting all points of
interest, taking careful notes by pom and
brush of all worth recording, but it is quite
another experience and fully as interesting
to live among its people as one of themselves
81. aud tttlr
eat when they are conscious no locker on is
by, and that they need not adapt themselves
to any strangers custom or fancy. This
latter has been my good luck to experience,
and | can truthfully say that there are no
cleaner, more hospitable, kind hearted, do
nestle people in the world than the Dutch.
l mention cleaner first because with them
it comes first What would become of u
Dutch woman in world where there is no
dust is a subject for conjecture, and though
look upon my visit TO Holland as part of
the happiest time in my life, still my sincere
prayer is that my Dutch friends may never
visit me. l could never live up to their idea
of cleanliness; the mental strain would be too
great.
Washing is not done weekly as in America,
but allowed to accumulate for weeks, some
times even longer, an unhealthy custom; but
in this as in many other respects the Dutch
can hardly be called clean nation, from a
hygenic point of view. With them it is dust,
dust, and again dust
Often the underservants such as scullery
maid, nurse maid, etc, do not sleep in the
house. This gives more space and room for
the family. These girls come in by the day,
sleeping at their own homes at night. All
servants in Holland dress extremely neatly,
generally in lilac print dresses, white muslin
caps, and large white aprons.
The same dress is worn in the street as in
the house If the weather is cold, shawl is
thrown over the shoulders. They do "a good
deal of the household shopping. 1t must be
indeed delightful for the Dutch mistress to
have Betsey Jane all ready dressed to run her
little srrands, instead Of having to wait
hour or more while Betsey Jane Gurls her
chang" and bedecks herself with cheap f1nery.
This a good arrangement for maid as well as
mistress, for with the former it breaks the
monotony of the daily round gives her a lit
tie blow of fresh air, besides the opportunity
of a slight Irritation with the butchers boy
or the green grocer's assistant.
HOUSEHOLD CUSTOM.
A strange household custom in Holland
is the custody of the guest money! by the
mistress. Each guest is, as in England, ex-
pected to fee the house servants. In HolA
land, this money is at once handed by the
certain seasons of the year such as Christ
mas and Easter, divides it equally among
all her staff. Not a bad plan when one
thinks it over, but rather startling at first to
the guest.
And now for Dutch food. All food is
good in Holland all cooking excellent, beef
and mutton even better than in England,
vegetables in abundance. Butter is very
good and plentiful and is used without stint,
but--everything is spoiled by being served
cold Rich dishes which would be most APP
petizing were they eaten piping hot, become
repulsive, indigestible masses of grease
when served from a cold dish on q stone cold
plate. During the whole of my stay in Hol-
land never once saw a dish covered or a
plate heated.
Cakes are specially with the Dutch.
Each town has one or more of its own, and
it was interesting to trace the ancestry of
many of our American ones. Waffles met
me at a kermes at The Hague. The koekje,
which is to be found all over Holland and is,
in fact, the Dutch word for "little caken is
actually and etymologically the ancestor of
the New England cookie. Doughnuts ! met
everywhere, though cannot imagine from
where they got their ugly name of dough
NUT In Holland they are called spritsen,
and in French Canada, where they are a
sort of national cake, they are known by the
name of croqugnoles, and sometimes beg-
net, which latter name is simply the French
for frtter. ! imagine that in one way and
another we owe good deal of our cooking
keeping.