The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-09-07
AND IT'S EXHIBITION
BY LEMUEL B. LESTER.

Very little has been said about the
Amsterdam Exhibition since its COM
mencement last spring; and appar-
emily for the very excellent reason
that there is not much to say. The
Amsterdam Exhibition, in fact, is a
very small show and is chiefly inter
esting as study in local color in
that quaint old capital of country
century or SO behind the age. The
picturesqueness of the Amsterdam
ische Teutons-stellung is therefore,
to those who have seen the great
Worlds Fairs at Paris and Chicago,
its chief attraction. This picturesque
ness begins at the very gateway
which is guarded by two soldiers in
the dress of the Middle Ages and is
heightened as the visitor traverses
street of Holland of three hundred
years ago where maidens with filmy
lace caps and short-skirted black
petticoats and scarlet bodices with
gold chains, walk about with the de-
mure air proper to the staid times of
three centuries ago. Here also one
sees portly burghers in black cloth
and blue hose solid and substantial,
in appearance at least, as the burgh-
ers of Leyden who gave Holland that
noted bath to rid her of her Spanish
invaders. The other articles along
the street, such as ancient silver,
spires with windmills upon them,
delft jugs, old pamphlets, and illum-
mated missals, and the vine clad town
hall, transformed to an eating house,
are in their way pleasant aid to
ones studies in the antiquities of this
city whose commercial greatness was
at its zenith some centuries ago.
Perhaps to the American visitor
Amsterdam itself and vicinity is of
more interest than the exhibition in
which, as is getting too common in
exhibitions, the money-making part
is altogether too obvious. The Royal
Museum of Amsterdam, for instance,
contains the Night Watch of Rem
brant, masterpiece of itself, suffi-
cient to repay the artistic student for
his visit to this quaint old city. Mod
ern Dutch art is also in evidence in
the Royal Museum, especially Yer
lat and Gallait, artists whose infu-
ence On French art has been notable.
Everywhere hang pictures of low fiat
landscapes, bare trees with ground
slightly covered with snow, or quaint
looking peasant groups and horses
and kline the perfection of their kind.
And one does not have to go far
from the city to see the peasants
themselves and the lanscapes more
varied than any other level landscape
of the world with signs of quiet life
and humdrum industry. On the
little island of Marken, short sail
from Amsterdam in fair weather, one
can still see Dutchmen who are not
unlike in their dress to the exhibition
burghers and lassies in Amsterdam
with the added interest of natural
ness. Here are houses where the
proverbial Dutch cleanliness finds its
best illustration, despite the fact that
COWS with their tails tied to the roof,
are in close proximity to the pots,
pans and kettle, polished and cleaned
almost to mirror brightness. In
this island also, with the waves of
the sea separating it from civilization
we can get entirely away from gas,
steam, and electricity and live for a
few days at least in the sixteenth GEN.
tury but with the comfortable feeling
that any time it can be quickly ex-
changed for our nervous, restless, but
undeniably interesting nineteenth
century, of whose progress these
simple people have failed to take
note.
CHICAGO, Sept.2.