Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1890-04-18
[Original.l
a LETTER FROM EUROPE

MY DEAR FRIEND-Before telling
you anything about my summers b
travels, | must devote a letter TO the
month | spent in London-a month
so crowded with delightful expert
ences, that | can hope to give you
only very general idea of how
charming it all was. In the first
place, we (that is, my sister and my
self went by way of Holland, spend
ing day at the quaint city of Rot
terdam. Every thing was there, ac-
cording to the geography, the his
tory, the story and the picture books
all that Goldsmith and Thdckeray
describe. The peasants looked like
the Dutch department of hlrmess
let loose There were the gold and
silver head dresses of the wonderful
on't-look as-if- they-were- really-true
foreign costume photographs; there
were the streets Of canals with peo-
pies back doors opening into the wa
ter, and on the real streets no end OF
little fruit carts. At the house fronts
were those queer little looking-glasses,
placed at such an angle that one can
sit at the window and see all that is
passing below without looking down
hadn't been so thoroughly satisfied
since the day | went out to Sans
Souci at Potsdam and found the his
torical windmill actually there, and
much larger than | had dared to
hope | must not forget the Dutch
wind mills ETHEREAL over Rotterdam
they were, as we'll as being the most
noticeable feature Of the country we
had come through. And every thing
looked so Immediately clean, that
one could we'll understand the old
SAYING about the Dutch scrubblng the
outside of their houses. Certainly
there is plenty of water handy for
verything-but drinking. You look
at the fluid, taste ii, and then decide
that YOU are not as thirsty as you
| thought you were. Finding all
things so thoroughly up TO the marx =,
| was emboldened 10 put one final
crucial test to matters. If you re-
member, in Irving's charming
Knickerbocker stories, he tells about
very delicious Dutch confection
called oliekock, receipt brought from
Holland for which the house wives
of New Amsterdam were famous, and
which was an indispensable adjunct
to the New Years feasting. If my
memory serves ne, it is one OF the
delicacies with which Ichabod Crane
is RECALLED at katrina's. AT dinner
that day, says | to our waiter, Have
YOU any oliekock?' The waiter look
ed pleased that a foreigner should
know anything about oliekock and
said regretfully they did have it in
winter, summer was not the time for
it. So the oliekock was there too, in
its proper season, and | couldn have
! felt more satisfied about the Wand if
it had formed part Of my dinner.
| That evening we took steamer tU
| Harwich and had a lovely sail out OF
the harbor, passing the herring fish
cry stations and the great istileries
where they make the famous Schiedan
| Schnapps. The channel was smooth as
a river and we got into Harwich long
before dawn. l suppose that Har-
wich landing might be called disma
| length of dock and sheds, but | was
/ so overjoyed To nave u lifelong wisn
! gratitied-to be really In England,
| that | found everything charming
/ In our railway carriage | mad my
/ first experience OF real cockney Eli
| glish women-two ladies VINO had
/ come over from Rotterdam with us.
/ They were stout, comfortably dress
ed, and very ordinary. l don't know
how long they had been away from
| dear old HingIand, but they were un-
mistakably glad to get back and one
| of them fervently invoked blessing
on the country. Then they both fell
! TO work on the contents of a biz
/ lunch basket, and such eating as
those women did Though the Dutch
sandwiches and cheese were not
quite TO their taste, for one Of them
announced her intention of break
fasting Oh smoked addock and a
good English cup o tea, with a DROP
o brandy III it as soon as she got
ONE. The other lady contemplated
making a similar repast, but with .
drop O whiskev i'll her tea, then the
first lady observed that travelling Wa:
a great han1iety, after which they
both subsided. | saw the lovely En-
glish country under very gray skie:
till we reached London where the sur
came out gloriously. But London
was not to be our resting place just
then; we stopped only long enough
to take the earliest train for little
village in Dorset, where We paid g
flying visit TO ali old English servant
who lived in our family years ago
The little hamlet where we spent 6
few hours would be perfect JOY L
any artistic soul-such a quaint 'OlC
English locking place. 1t boosted
| of tuo hotels The KINGS Arms Il