The record-union., 1894-01-04
Miss STUDENTS TRAVELS.
Some of the inconvenience of Euro
pean Travel.
Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Paris
Quaint Description of Pictur-
esque Scenes.


Miss Gertrude Miller, now travelling in
Europe, sends some charming letters to
her relatives, from which the RECORD
UNION has been permitted to make the
following selections:
AMSTERDAM, Nov. "a, 1888.
At 2 O'Clock Thursday morning our
steamer arrived in the channel opposite
Boulogne, and commenced whlstiIng ana
signaling for the tug to take US to the
wharf, as it is too shallow for large ships
TO land at Boulogne-sur-Mer. All the
passengers for Paris We're gotten up at 3,
and we sat around until II, when sail
boat came, and we learned that it was too
rough to land the passengers that there
had been a terrible storm, the IKE OF
which had not been known for forty
years; that all steamers were delayed as
were we; that two hundred people had
been drowned, and that many structures
had been blown down all along the coast.
So there was no course for our steamer
except to go on to Rotterdam. We ar
rived at that place about this morning,
and were awakened to receive the GUS
toms officer. He merely asked If we had
anything to declare, and on our saying
mo-" he stamped our baggage and LETT.
At $50, after storing our luggage anG
arranging for the tickets for Paris, we
took tug and went to the station. The
train for Amsterdam left at s, so we had
two hours to see Rotterdam by gaslight.
We saw the workingmen in short, tight,
white trousers and wooden shoes, and the
women in short stuff dresses and queer
caps, trudging along with milk pals and
vegetable baskets.
/ sent a cablegram, as we happened to
stumble into the telegraph office. Not
having my cipher book with me [ simply
wired arrived" We travelled from Rot
terdam to Amsterdam through the most
beautiful country Imaginable; full OF pic
turesQue windmiilS, thatched houses and
quaint children, trudging along the damp
roads to school. Tell Edith that all the
cows here have blankets strapped over
them in cold weather, and that they some
times pull them OIL partly and go with
them hanging around their necks and
dragging on the ground. We were adj
vised by friends to come to the hotel,
where we are now stopping. 1t is called
"Bible Hotel" because 1t was on this site
that the first Bible in Holland was printed.
The printer was driven out of Holland,
and sold his house to a Scotchnan, who
turned it into an inn, using Tor his sign
an open wooden book. That same sign
is still on the hotel and the Bible Is also
here. 1t is a very good hotel, rather
cheap, very central, and so clean. We
spent some time at the Rijk'S Museum
seeing all the old Dutch paintings, some
fine old delft and silver oddities, and
great deal of old wood carving, tapestries
and religious relics. | saw also the old
flags taken from different countries in
their wars; they seemed to tell such
CORY tale. We lunched in queer old
restaurant attached to the museum, with
this motto on the wall. "Eet wat gaar is;
Drink wat klaar is; Spreek wat waar isl
We visited also the royal palace, seeing
III
room and the ballroom. Excuse me
from living in marble halls, unless it be
in dear "Amerika," where they know
how to heat the rooms. How thankful l
am that my little sister Edith is not the
young Queen of Holland! Do not you
like the Dutch postage stamps with little
Wilhelmina's childish head thereon?
They have such pretty, fat, round,
small horses here, that go around SO gaily
and seem so dapper compared with our
ill-treated beasts. Every body here is in
uniform, and they are SO obsequious and
willing until you do not fee them enough,
and then they are as surly as you can
imagine. These people stare and make
themselves so disagreeable. l went out
with Mrs. -, the oldest lady in our
party, and two men coming up from be-
hind spoke to me.
Last night we all trudged out in the
rain and went to the Kalverstraat, the
principal shopping street, and l bought,
as a memento, beer-mug with a silver
cover, which L shall endeavor to smuggle
through the Custom-house,
PARIS, Nov. 50, 1898.
Leaving Amsterdam we went to The
Hague, where we came upon wet weather
and poor hotel. We visited the royal
picture gallery and saw some fine Rem
brandts. We went into an old church
and ruthlessly walked over the graves of
old burgers of the twelfth, thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries. The sexton opened
door III the wall and showed some frag-
ments of tomb of the ninth century.
The tomb was demolished on st. Bar
tholOmew'S night. We heard troops of
Dutch revelers passing our windows at
night and singing "Ta-ra-ra boofn-de-ay"
at the top of their voices. 1t was so pain
fully like home.
We left The Hague early in the morn
ing, hoping to be able to catch the first
train for Paris at Rotterdam. At the last
place we found that we could not transfer
our trunks from the one station to the
other quickly enough, so we lost the
early train for Paris and started off To see
more of Rotterdam, while thus detained
until 2:30. 1t is prettily laid out city,
with interesting canals bearing the queer
est-looking craft Imaginable. This is
such picturesque country that / have
sketching. The Groote Market (or Great
Market) is very interesting, for there we
saw more country people in their native
costumes. We had good dinner at the
Mas Hotel and returned to the station
about hour before the train started as
we thought, but, sad to relate, the train
was TO start in six minutes, and in that
short time we could not recheck our
boxes" So we lost the second train;
had TO leave on the next train at P. NJ.
and travel all night and until in the
morning.
1t was a hideous night, really. We had
to sit upright the whole time and toward
morning our footwarmers grew cold. Our
luggage was examined twice, once on the
Belgian frontier and again on the French
frontier. We had to change cars at Brus-
sells during the night, and remained there
two hours. Several of us ladies took
walk down the principal street, so that
we could say that we had seen Brussels.
Some Russian Grand Duke was in the
city and a grand ball was given in his
gs A pure cream of tartar powder.