Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-04-27
SCHgEDAM SCHNAPPS.
THE "RECORD -UNI0sv CoRRE.
SPONDEN- IN HOLLAND.
A Country Rescued From the Sea-
Beauties of Architecture
Famous Paintings.

Beauties of Architecture
Famous Paintings.
Especial Correspondence of the RECORD UNION
AMSTERDAM, February 20, 1889.
One becomes as quickly used to the way:
OF Holland as though they were the mos
usual in the world. There is home-feel
ing everywhere which seems to swallow
you up, or, better, fold you in its arms and
make you one of the family. Entering
the country by any of its rivers, feeling
of satisfaction with all you see is the first
sensation, and then this landscape is SC
like the hundred pictures you have seen o.
it that you begin to imagine yourself part
OF an enormous etching. The grayness OF
everything in winter, the sketchy, leafess
trees, the heavy boats and distant spires
SO dear to artists in copper, are mono
chrome, and absorb your little color imme.
diately. That the Dutch have taken Hol-
land we have often heard but truly nc
country has ever been so thoroughly taken
by Its inhabitants. All its parts are char.
acterlstic. Everything in Holland is
Dutch; and though Spain, and very lately
France, have both had foothold in the
country, there is little to show that
Holland has not been as untouched and as
thoroughly self-contained as her old
friend Japan. There is remarkable man.
illness observable in the people, strength
not shown by size, but in a certain clear
ness of eye, and grit, vim, endurance. and
all that tenacity We admire SO much in
California. Their ancestors must have had
it or they never could have driven back
the sea, and | think they left it as an in
heritance with the land.
FROM ROTTERDAM TO scHIEpANf
Is but a short ride. The appearance of
the town, where windmills vie with
church steeples in prominence, is peculi-
arily effective. There is little about Schie-
dam TO interest one excepting the distil-
leries, which are about $50 in number and
where the famous Geneva Ia corruption of
the word jenever, which means Juniper
and Holland Schnapps are made. There
were many red noses at Schiedam. nv
own among them, but whether it was
from the frost without or the iuniper
within it is difficult tie say. Some one has
said that Schiedam has more pigs than
population.
in the streets it is amusing to see
many women with the large, white
caps, worn in different parts of the coun-
try, on top of and quite crushing which
are bonnets, such are worn by the women
at home. Some of the head-dresses have
seen In Holland must be of great value, for
many of them have bands of gold two
inches wide passing around the head.
while Others are made Of filigree as beau
tiful as that of Venice
There are two names connected with
Holland, in the minds of the English
speaking visitors, which take as promi-
nent part as do those of Van der VERT
or De Ruyter. They are Motley and
Ihackeray. The first presents us with the
history of the country, and the second in
PRODUCES US in the most kindly way to the
people and the landscape No better
preparation could be had for a Dutch
visit than the reading of ''The Rise of the
Dutch Republic" and Thackeray's travels.
The country, as all know, has been for the
most part
RECLAIMED FROM THE SEA.
And this IS the manner in which il is
done. The district to be reclaimed is
mapped out and long walls of earthwork
or dikes are run out until the spot is in
closed. If the floor of this basin is level.
no other work is necessary than with
pumps to empty the water over the bikes.
but if the bed is uneven series of bikes
are thrown out and then the water is
raised from one basin to the other and
finally into the canal, which carries it to
the sea or river. bikes usually, and always
when by the sea, have stone foundation
to hold the earth bank which is held in
place most firmly by interviewer osiers
and grass, and also by the planting of
trees with spreading roots, but daily super
vision and great expense are needed
to keep them In perfect order so
that the drained land, or potder. as
these basins are called, are not
flooded again. The bottoms of the canals
and bitches are above the cultivated lands.
and take the place of fences in dividing
property. Not only does the Hollander
have to watch the lion ocean, which is
ever roaring without, but he has to guard
against the serpent rivers which wind
through the heart of his country: and
even more dangerous, because more I'M
certain are these rivers which almost every
spring, when the snow meIts in the Ger
man Mountains, overflow the poJders Dur
ing the winter farmer will often let his
land lie under water, as it is thought to
make it more fertile. FOLDERS are gener-
ally made by stock companies, and rented
or sold, being laid out with the painful
mathematical precision of our town lots"
The whole of
THE ZUYDER ZEE.
Will soon be converted into poIder of
about 700 square miles. The tough grass
used on the sand-hills near Golden Gate
Park to prevent the sand drifting is used
here for the same purpose and seems like
an old friend from home. Also, on these
sand dunes pine trees are planted after the
grass has gotten Roadway, and little for
ests are often seen. The windmills are
universal and are used for all work, prin-
cipally for pumping, though when much
water is to be removed steam pump is
taken in its place. They are glorious old
iSAO"o, bhSoC MluufllllS, anu
hover over the sunken land like good
genii.
One evening while walking near Schei-
dam, just at shutdown, stopped to sketch
huge black tower which was silhouetted
against red, winter sky above the tops of
some bushy pines. / had made the out
line of the tree tops and was about to do
the tower, when, to my establishment, it
began to topple over to the right. 1t had
gone but half way when another tower
made its appearance above the grove, and
proved that even Holland windmill
could play joke on the foreigner when it
would. OF course the neighborhood of
Scheidam viii at once suggest itself to
those who want unheard of reasons for all
things.
QUEER SIGHTS.
One of the queerest sights one has on
country walk is that of the bridge-keeper
taking toll fIom the passing boats. Seated
by the dixie side, he puts out fishing
pole and line at the end of which is a
wooden shoe into which the boatman drops
the money, and the toll-keeper lands his
odd fish into basket, the bridge is raised,
and the boat passes on. The country peo-
pie are so demure and wooden that every
thing they do causes one to smile-they