Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1892-09-22
PRESIDENT BUCKHAM'S LETTER.


To the Editor of the Free Press:
Holland is great fun. had almost writ
ten ''groote foone, Dutch spelling goes.
Steamboat Is "stoomboote," son is ''zoon."
Cape Horn in South America is named after
the old city of Hoorne on the Zuyder Zee,
or South See, where the discoveror
was born, or shall | say "boorne"
Anyway Holland is "groote foone." If
tourists tell you it is dull and tiresome don't
believe them. How can n city lie dull
which, like Utrecht or Alconar, has no two
streets running in the same direction, or in
any direction, and two houses in Guy
street alike, and every house picture
And how can country be called tiresome
which has 81, 600 windmilis After spend
ing several days in Holland have not got
over the comIcal aspect which everything
takes on at first view. The men and women,
especially the latter, are geared as II they
were gotten up for some mummery. bome-
body las ted up 800 varites of native
costumes, each the 81 ecialty OF some prov
ince or village. One very common head
| gear of which the women seem especially
proud, is brass hemlet flashed on either
temple with n brass cork screw. The chill
dren-anu there seem to be hosts and hosts
of them-clatter about III their clumsey
wooden shoes, their chief amusement seem
Everything seems odd and grotesque and in
terestiug. | don't know how long these
impressions would be kept up but thus far
every minute Of my stay in Holland has
furnished new sensation and almost al
ways a pleasing one,
AS in England you can be sure Of getting
across fields to any place you wish to reach,
in Holland you can 90 from any pacs to
any place by canals. And when we say
canals, you must not be thinking Of the
Champlain or the Erie canels, mere fresh
water ditches you must think of wide and
deep salt sIuices, winding about more ike
rivers than canal. between rich grass lands,
specked over with umernble back and
white cattle, fringed on either hama with
pollard willows and confined within strong
dykes, paved on the water side and sra' SD
on the landward slopes determining to
put this possibility OF Du3th travelling to
venture | one day set out for famous
historic city, Gving in my mind general
direction but no specified route Taking
the steamer up one OF the Rhine outlets, dis
embarked at little port, whence there
ought be q canal leading my way, anu sure
enough, after wal King short distance
through the odd little town, | found my
canal and my little "stoombootl' ready to
start. That proved the pleasantest after
noon | have spent IN Holland. The country
one in Nhlch you could fancy 1t to be
always afternoon, the Cana-it is shame
10 call 1T by 30 protane a nane-meander-
ing about iii rich dairy country,
wooded as Holland generally is, with will
lows and ems. My only fellow voyagers
were the peasants, never more than three
or four, who got on at one village aud off
at the next. shall not tell you tie names
OF these villages, for there many
'y's and ''k's'' in thom you could not
pronounce them, and lie / les | want 10 keep
this route for the prIvat use of my friends
when they come to Hol and. Enough tosay
that the afternoon san was as beautiful
well, say as beauti NJ es the sail up the OF
ter creek to Nergennes was be- ore tine wool
was cut oif-aud that u evening | reached
my famous historic city as | had set out 10
DO. And it seemed to specially iitting
that | should thus come to city on which
one of the great treaties was concluded,
which gave peace to Europe Within
small circle about the idy,lic scene | nave
been destr. ing are Rys@ick, Utrecht and
Nymegeu, all famous for tel.ies Of peace
IN which al the great powers of Europe
were Goa cerned. The historic as veil us
} the material asmo-p 4ere SEEMS 10 breathe
around sort OF pax Aobiscum, which as in
} Gray's Country Cuurcn Yard, bids every
fierce tumultuous pass on CEASE"
> An English Wi or quotei in the guide
, books describes what lie calls the dead
) cities O. the Iuyder Ie,, - and as | have
never b Ell t. Laalbec or Uneven | thought
; ! would hike TO see dead city, SO | went to
t Hoorne, which ne calls "a forgotten corner
of the Iuyder Iee.' l thought dead city
should be approached not by the rapid,
l noisy train, but composedy by the diligence
: and on foot. | found the city dead only IN
the sense in which Salem and New Beito I'd
are dead, that is found it has decayed
quarter ono, kept busy and rich by the ex-
tonsve shipping of its port. But found
handsome Streets large and quite
elegant deKo, II wish we had one half as
good IN Burlng ol,) telephones, electric
= lights and the Old ramparts and marts
made into the most beautiful! pleasure
groun is have seen anywhere in garden
loving Holland. All this | mention as q
prelude to a fact which came TO my knowl-
, edge IN this r si)n of dead cites. That is
that toe population of Holland is so out
y growing its area these hosts and hosts OF
children are crowding 50 many people out
OF Holland 40 America as | was told,
that the government has project Of in
= creasing the area of Holland by annexing to
> It the Zuyder Zee, that is by wallIng it oil
- rum lie OCEAN anu ny pumping anu III "'tA
y age, making dry land of it. This stipend
GUS project would b. no real novelty in
. Holland, except in its magnitude, for a
- good part OF the country is below sea leve
and is maintained as land only by the i'm
mense dykes which on the sea side complete
" ly surround holland. 1t is computed that the
cost of the sea wall will be several hundred
millions cf dollars, and that for the tirst OF
years the income IRON the lands VIII mo-
pay tho interest on the outlay. But every
$ body S interested in the project; every caf'
II and beer house has on its wall II detail maj
# of the successive stages Of the enterprise
- patriotism and natoaa economy JOIN hand
a III urging it forward, and all Signs indicate
. that beginning viii soon 10 made Tb
c will turn the dead cities into great agricul
p tural centres. Holland will have lnrg
y area of new "polder;' still more cheese
d will be made; more ducks will be raised
Il more wnl-mis will be built and fewe
n Dutch will have to emigrate to America.
70 am sure / should grow to like the Dutch
=, | cannot helD adm ring them. PhyslCaIl'