The Oskaloosa herald., 1902-07-24
FROM OVER THE SEA
Interesting Letter From the Dan
Davis Party.

of the readers of the HERALD would
like to hear a word from me ! will hur-
riedly drop you a line as l promised.
We landed in Belgium all safely af-
ter a pretty rough voyage. The first
two days were beautiful, afterwards
the wind began to blow a gale and the
sea dashed SO that when we were about
the middle of the great ocean you
could see the long waves which would
toss the Massive ship from one side to
the other and it looked a little bit
dangerous to an inland man. But such
is the sailors life. They did not seem
to mind it. The sea remained in this
way until we got to the English Chan
mel and as we approached the North
Sea it became calm again. To those
who never crossed it, it is quite a pro-
position.
We have been sight seeing ever
since We landed at Antwerp, Belgium,
and visited many places of interest,
such as the fortresses, which are said
to be the strongest in the world. The
Cathedral and its many master pieces
In art, Hotel de Willie, Guild Halls Pic
ture Gallery where so many old and
valuable paintings are kept, the Mus
cum showing the home and business of
the early Painter Plantain, which Is
kept and preserved just as 1t was in
A D. 1900, showing all type and press
es used with Somples at his work. I
am afraid these things will not inter-
est you so l will try and cut it short,
as these places must be seen to be ap-
preciated. The people here are mixed
IN fhnfrr n ~ ~ orO VNhnn- fa1y AhA
French and Flemish languages, but
very few talk United States and those
that do make the attempt make a poor
struggle at it.
We went from this place to Brussels
which is about one-half hours ride.
Brussels is a beautiful place and is sit.
uated in the same country, Belgium.
Here is where an American can see
sights, beautiful buildings, statuary,
paintings until he can not keep them
all in mind. Everything looks strange
here. The streets are very narrow.
Street cars are drawn with one horse
and many of them have nc tracks but
are run upon the pavements. Every
business is conducted strictly in the
French and Flemish tongue. All signs
above the business houses are so that
you car not read them. If you go to
find a certaSulplace you must write it
down or you will forget it before you
get started. Isl
The people are all of the Catholic re-
ligion and are surrounded by a beauti-
full country. TIE fields are small, but
every foot, .Suilized. Across the street
from the hotel in the morning when i
wake up / hear, it seemed to me, a
thousand dogs barking and on looking
out the streets were covered as far as
] could see with dogs hitched to carts
filled with straw berries, the finest l
yer saw The entire streets were COW
cred with different vegetables and were
being sold out by the peasant women.
| tell you it was a noisy place. Every
dog seemed to try to bark the loudest
and every woman, it seemed to me, was
trying to drown the others out. In a
few hours every thing was cleared
away. You could see bowling dogs go
ing in every direction. My wife took
several snap shots with her kodak.
We visited all the principal points in
Brussels and | will not attempt to try
tic tell you now as It would take me
too long. We then took the train for
Waterloo. l had read so much about
this great battle that | wanted to
stand on the same ground where Ma.
poleon and Wellington once stood and
| found the place marked by a large
mound or pyramid about 400 feet high
with 225 stone steps to ascend. Before
we reached the top and on the very top
OF this structure is a lion cast from
the brass cannons taken from the
French in this awful battle, which
weighs 2S tons. This pyramid was built
by the government of Belgium and it
took two hundred women four years to
carry he earth to build it. AT the bot
tom of this structure is the museum
where maps showing the situation of
the different armies and the head
quarters of Napoleon and Wellington,
and a thousand relics of the war. AS |
stood upon that great pyramid I could
not but think of the $4,000 men that
died in this bloody battle field, and
that the most important battle the
world has ever known was fought on
this very spot. | can not go into de-
tails, but must hasten on.
We next took the train for Holland,
the land of the wooden shoe, to The
Hague. This is the place you will re-
member where Queen Wilhemina
dwells. We visited the ancient prison,
the dungeons and saw the thousand in.
struments of torture employed in the
year 16OO by the Spanish during these
most cruel times. / wish | could de-
scribe to you the awful instruments
that were used in those days. The
building stands today the same as it
did then, with all the dungeons, in
struments and everything so that a
person car see the real place where
thousands were killed in every con-
ceivable way. 1t is enough to make the
strongest man of today shudder to
think of 1t. This is 4 beautiful place.
We took a carriage and drove to the
Queens park and her house in the
woods. This Is the place where the
great Peace Congress met about three
years ago. We visited all the different
rooms and viewed the beautiful paint
ings. 1t took nine artists four years to
complete the paintings where the
Peace Congress Of the world met and
1t is unnecessary for me to say it is a
grand place. We next visited the Pal
ace Of the Queen and a more beautiful
sight cannot be imagined. There are
200 rooms in all. The Queen was not
al home when we visited the palace
but we were shown through by one of
her guides and no pen can describe the
grandeur and beauty of this place. 1t
ic growing so late I must close as I
must keep going. / will try and write
again soon. Yours truly,
DAN DAVIS.
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