The Press., 1899-09-21
LETTER FROM HOLLAND.

LE Elk r NOM f1OLLANO.
The following interesting letter was re-
ceived by Henry Tresher from his brother
who at present is travelling In Holland:
KoLN, DEN, Aug. 28th, 1899.
Dear Brother 81 am rather tardy in
keeping my promise to send you some
jottings by the way as we ran through
Holland, but each day is SO full Of inter-
esting sights and incidents that night
comes all too soon, and am too tired to
think of writing. We had a pleasant voy-
age, over quiet waters, from New York
to Rotterdam In eleven days by the good
ship Maasdam, of the Holland-American
line
We landed at 10 a. M, the 10Th inst,
and soon mounted our wheels and picked
our way over rough stone paved streets to
Hotel Cooman In the center of the city.
After lunch we exchange our American
dollars for Dutch florins Ga form Is Al
cents in our money! and are ready for
for silver must be always in
stroll towards the market place Gan i'm
portant exponent of city's life), and we
pass park, see a mower cutting grass
with a scythe and snath quite like those
our grandfathers used. The scythe was
short and broad, like cradle scythe, and
the snath straight stick, the upper thale
foot long with a crosspiece at the end,
for the havel! I saw the same in use at
Furness Abbey, England, ten years ago.
At the market place we find motley
crowd of men women and children, sturdy
looking people, and collection of vege-
tables and fruits, most of which we are
familiar with. In our cycle dress we ex-
cite the curious interest of the people
quite as much as their present garb and
foreign looks awaken ours. One old crone
admires Aben's "big calves" rushes up
to him and pats them and gives voluble
utterance to her Dutch admiration
We find here at the entrance to the
market fine bronze statue of Erasmus, a
merited tribute of the 18th century to one
of the great men of the reformation.
In the next street we were glad to find
the house In which the great man was
born (1467), with brass plate giving the
information: "Here Is the little house In
which the great Erasmus was born" In
a nearby street stands the old church of
St. Lawrence, erected in 1886, to the top
of whose tower-21O five climb, and
Rotterdam lies around, as under our feet.
1t Is picture that fills and stirs the heart
as one thinks of the noble men and wom-
en- that in the middle ages, here and In
Leyden and HARLEM and in other cities
and towns, forever consecrated the name
of Hollands little, low-lying, spongy
land (wrested from the sea-, not larger
than one-third of Ohio, by their heroic
struggle for liberty. In E76 our revolu-
rronary rarhers were inspired by this early
example.
The next morning we wheeled away to
the Hague, the capitol of Holland, past
Schiedam (of Schnaps fame), through
Delft, famous for its table ware, which
our grandmothers priced, of more his
torical interest as the place where Will
liam, prince of Orange, was assassinated
in July, 1884; also of special interest to
Americans because of the recent cele-
bration by the peace congress Con July
4th last), in memory of Hugo Grotius,
the father of international law, oelebra-
tion in which our Ambassador White
took so prominent and honorable part.
The Hague is clean, well built city of
about 200, 900 Inhabitants, with many fine
streets and parks, some interesting old
buildings and museums, including the
Binnenhof, an immense pile of medieval
building once surrounded by a moat,
and the Mouritsthuis, in which some OF
Rembrandt's and Paul Patters best
hours to sightseeing at the Hague; the
same to Leyden and HARLEM, either OF
which would interest the visitor profitably
for week. At Leyden we find many in
teresting memorials Of the Pilgrims
old house where their leader from England
John Robinson, lived and taught. The
old church across the street has on it 6
memorial inscription of him, placed
there by American Congregationalists
At Haaslem the Groote Kerk, the
Stadhuis and the museum detain US 6
few hours. In the museum are six O
Frans Halls best paintings, illustrating
burgher feasting and jollity - master
pieces. The next morning we run OF
twenty-five miles to Egmond, on thu
northwest coast of Holland, fill our lung
with the sweet sea air, and look out upoI
the stormy German ocean. At Egmont
we find George Compton hard at worl
under the American painter, Hitchcock
famous for his paintings illustrating