Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-08-07
OLD AND NEW HOLLAND.
The Strength of the Elder Days is
Living Yet.

Inc Strength OF the Elder Days rs
Living Yet.
Rev. DIR. Rollin A. Sawyer In the
Evangelist-We find old Holland here
in the North. The fishing fleets of
Maren and Volendam are in sight; the
fishermen and their families might
have stepped out of Viking ships or
faced the horrors of siege in the fights
with Alva and the Inquisition. There
were over a thousand men, in the
Catholic church, at one service, and
for pure physical power, tremendous
pluck and pure endurance, you might
match them with the finest of Old
Prince Williams heroic soldiers Just
here the reformed church is Unitarian.
The Calvinist Dr. Kuyper has the
state on his side, but the Leyden men
seem to be in the majority among the
country clergy. You will find the old
churches in the cities that of Utrecht
| is a magnificent survival from the
| iconoclast of the 10th century. But
the old Hollanders. the old customs,
the old habit of life and thought, are
growing rare in towns on lines of
traffic and travel. You must seek
them in the country and find them
best kept in the North Marken is a
rarity, the goal of tourists, the sur
vival of our islands fife. But the
coasts of the Zuider Zee, as you go
North are fresh from The old times
and old ways that attest their genu-
ineness and betray their unconscious
loyalty to the old ideals. You might
fill pages with character sketches and
personal incident. as your camera
girl fills her limitless portfolio with
pictures. But few days residence
among the farmers and fishermen
gives YOU something so striking. so
tangible, so imperiously real and ag-
excessively strong that you resrect il
and cease to peer patronizingly into
the types of the past, This queer oh.
ject that might be king Nalrus
standing on end at first sight. gives
you greeting In a country fashion and
tells you that man to be reckoned
with, with ancestry that handled
roughly the Spanish fleets and tnun-
dered up the Thames with Van Tromp
and De Ruyter behind him. is looking
you in the face and compassionating
your modernity.
The new Holland is rising nm. hut
as yet it fits no better with the old.
than the modern bonnet perched on
the top OF n Tristan woman's lace
covered helmet of gold There is a
racing yacht out yonder amons the
/ oh Al G~ht 81
dandy decidedly out of place and
harmony: and by the door just now
were two automobiles out of Anster-
dam to rumble up the dyke with in
congruous noise and ohstrusive pre-
tense. So the new Is coming in with
boldest contrasts and with such often
sive mien as to make it unwelcome to
the old. II will take century yet
and more. to transform this people
into modern types and ways. Out
here in the country. who would wish
IL? With conventicle over you built
when the Puritans were crossing the
Plymouth. you are reverent during
the long and rather trying service.
When you 80 into an old cathedral but
partly used, or rather misused. you
grow impatient for n change. In such
grand old buildings as the Dutch
church has Inherited from the 18th
and 18th centuries, II seems to us that
II might do better In its worship than
Il does today. For II not. then the
new Holland that is growing up in the
towns. will reject II In earnest. will
repudiate its dull routine and reform
its rude neglect of common needs and
refined requirements,
| After all. the old and new are one
at heart. as human nature is one the