Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1892-04-07
A DOUBLE DELUGE.
An Americans Experience with q
Holland Storm.
MIR. Biddlc. Of ST. Louis, Assists In Stop
ping the I'olcs In Dike-The
nIagnificence OF tho
Dutch Country.

So few members of the army of
Americans which yearly pours to Eu-
rope go to Holland unless it be simply
to fly through by rail- giving perhaps
day to Amsterdam, that to those who
know the fair "Low Countries" it has
become matter of great surprise.
1t would seem natural thatthe soldier
should wish to see the fields where
were fought the most heroic battles of
modern times; when the citizen soldiers
of small and unmilitary country
stood their ground against the mighty
legions of Alva, and did not talk of dy-
ing in the last ditch, but died there.
1t would seem as if the sailor would
like to visit the dock yards whence
Van Tromp, with his boom nailed to
his masthead, went out and swept the
sea-" and at least to look upon the
cabin where the great Peter OF Russia
lived while very practically studying
naval architecture.
But above all Holland is the paradise
for the mere seeker after novelty. In
fact, the novelty is, at first, almost too
marked; it is bewildcring. The rivers
pour along far over your head. Instead
of "going down to sea in ships" you
climb up long flights to get at them.
It seems mad land. The streets of
the cities are water; the whole land
scape is dotted with windmills grind
ing, not grain, but water; you may
walk along the seashore for days and
be no moro able to find pebble than
to find crown diamond, go little to
the north where what by courtesy may
be called the land is q few inches above
high tide and there for miles and miles
youwill find the sea sand neatly COW,
cred with mating to prevent its blow
ing awayl A still more astonishing
thing is that the. men and women do
not seem lat first sight always under
stood) to belong to the same race. The
men, most polite and courteous in all
classes, and hospitable to marked de-
gree, are staid, grave, formal and as
solemn as the fourteenthly of the SER
mon of Puritan divine. The women,
remarkably pretty, especially in Fries
land, which has more pretty girls in it
than any place on earth of the same
population tour own town, of course,
cxcepted) are gay, decidedly, although
demurely, coquettish, and not at all
averse to innocent fun. If, however,
the stranger be so fortunate as to gain
admittance rs an intimate to the fam
lily circle of some Dutchman, he gets to
know that the men are really very jol-
ly fellows. and that their grave formal
ity is only national custom instilled
in them from babyhood. But there is
no country in Europe where it is so
difficult for stranger to gain such adj
mittance, for the Dutch do not love
men of other races.
But the more one knows of this peo-
pie the more the curiosity grows as to
who were their ancestors and what in
the name of all that is wonderful ever
led them to settle in such country; a
country that had not a tree upon 1t,
and has needed to have millions of
Norway pines driven into its unstable
soil to hold its houses. But, in the
early days, how build houses at all?
There was not stone in the country;
there was no wood and no coal, SO how
make bricks? AS there was no wood,
absolutely none, how make boats to
bring necessaries from other lands, or
to hunt aquatic animals? What did
that strange people live upon? The
soil was then certainly unfit for agri-
culture, barren sand and water soaked
mud. There was no game except
water fowl, certainly no land animals
fit for food or useful for their skins.
How catch fish in any such numbers as
to be a mainstay of life without boats,
the fishing during at least three
months of the year being necessarily
on the seap Why they went there and
how they survived are mysteries; we
only know that the tireless industry
and indomitable pluck of the race has
made the land to blossom as the rose,
and dotted it with fair cities.
The language of the Dutch seems q
cross between German and English,
but the people are entirely unlike
either Germans or Englishmen, and
quite as unlike their other neighbors,
the Flemish and the French. They do
not like their neighbers, and in return
these neighbors, jealous of the Hol-
lander's hard-earned success. are al
ways throwing hard words at them.
This is Q long Introduction to my