Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-11-13
BITS OF DUTCH LIFE
INTERESTING VISIT TO THE ISLE
OF MARkEN.
TOLLS PAID AS OF OLD
Passing Glimpse at the Farming
Customs of Holland and Other
Affairs of That Quaint and Curl
Gus Country-!nterestine to Tras-
eIers.

Heaven knows what time it was
when We arrived in Rotterdam--half-
past or 5 o'clock, perhaps, says
writer in the Springfield Republican,
An hour or more afterward the ships
| astronomer informed us in perfect
Dutch that it was 6 o'clock by one
local time and $40 by another. Yet
Holland was awake, and had been for
hours, it seemed. When we steamed
| up the river in the dim blue morning
| the awkward saiIboats worked slowly
| by, fishermen in blunt-bowed skiffs,
! with queer Japanese-shaped fish nets
| hanging from the stern, rowed past,
and on the banks, when we had come
| to dock, the dogs were barking their
morning chorus as the happy, know
| ing little creatures were being has
| messed up, for another days endeavor.
A little after 6, when We went ashore,
| the laborers were hard at work upon
the street pavement, hordes OF hatless
| young girls, who didn't care a boot
| schen how their skirts hung, were
| hurrying down the sidewalks, appar-
emily to the factories. We had come
at last to the headquarters of human
| industry, to the place where your
good old New England grandfather
could stop preaching thrift and toll,
and come back in the spectators
seats with the rest of us and hear and
| see and wonder; to the home of the
odd little fat-faced creatures, who
| have learned to harness woman and
make a real clever driver of her, to
| squeeze a couple of horsepower from
mongrel dog; who have built, like
a colony Of coral insects, a land of
their own in defiance of the laws of
gravity and the almighty sea.
1t was certainly foreign territory we
had reached this time. The little cir
cles Of clinging-clanging bells on the
brick tower in the center of the town
| played gayly the tune for o'clock;
dogs skunk by between the wheels of
| the milk and vegetable carts, wadded
men and quilted women slouched by
! Of the pavement. We reached the
railroad station and passed in one Of
| those neat and convenient five-pound
posters which the great British nation
uses now instead of wampum. In re-
turn we received a pair of enigmatical
tickets and lovely handful of dirty
| hand-bills from the ticket man. We
asked him shyiy if this was regarded
as good and conservative money there
| abOuts; he responded that it was
much preferred. With our hands
clutched wistfully about the little
wads, we proceeded upward toward
the waiting-rOom with the graceful
easy manner of a Polish immigrant
left in the union station to be for
Warded to ChicOpee. There was still
| half an hour before the train wen.
we had just time to wander down and
get one real good smell Of the canal:
to see the opening and cleaning of the
! shops.
A number were already opened; be-
fore doorway a man with divided
| skirts and a woman with gold anten-
nae on her fOrehead-no doubt some
members Of the local aristocracy-
were beating carpet to death. We
wandered back to the station, we're
tucked into our compartment and at
last the train drew out We passed
! beyond the red-tiled houses of the
| town, through the green country, the
lowered windmills, the canal boats in
the long bitches, the county peddlers
driving their spanking spans Of dogs
to town, until over an hour later the
first scent Of Amsterdam met our
| nostrils. And there, between a double
row Of exceedingly polite beggars.
who touched their hats most defer
entially to us as we passed, We found
behind the station the boat for the isle
Of Marker.
At 10.15 the good ship set out to