The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-02-15

Special Correspondence OF The Sunday Republic
Rotterdam. Jan. 26.-Do you want to pray
with the ghosts of your Pilgrim fathers?
You can do so If you go to Delfshaven.
a village on the Mas, two miles from Rot
terdam.
There is o church there where Elder
Brewster, Miles Standish. John Alden. Pris-
ella and the rest of the saints worshiped
before they left on the Speedwell for
Southampton. where they got the May
flower. which landed them at Plymouth
and on its famous rock.
They had been driven from England TO
Holland. where they settled at Leyden and
lived for twelve years. The Dutch treated
them well, but they wanted a land OF their
own.
They bought a vessel at Delfshaven. and
upon it made their first start for America.
They remained at Delfshaven some time
before they sailed and during that time
worshiped in the old church, which still
stands.
/ went there to-day on the top of a car,
paying 4 cents for the round trip. We
rode out through one OF the fine residence
sections of Rotterdam. past a beautiful
park. and on through tenement streets,
which swarined with Dutch babies and old
err children as clean as new pins.
We passed many wind mills on the farms
outside the city. and in about half an hour
found ourselves in one of the sleepiest
towns of this sleepy Dutch country.
1t was Delfshaven, the port of the city
OF DELI. which a few centuries ago was one
OF the important cities of Holland, but is
now almost forgotten except for its blue
porcelain dishes and tiles.
QUAINT DUTCH HOUSES
WITH DORMER WINDOWS.
9 Delfshaven has now but a few hundred
people. 1t is composed of two and three
story Dutch houses, old and black and
quaint in the extreme.
The roofs are steep and ridge-shaped with
little dormer windows poking their heads
out here and there.
The houses are flush with the sidewalks,
and the chief street has a canal running
through filled with barges and fishing boats
upon which the boat families were cooking
their suppers at the time Of my visit.
There were many children in clogs run
ming about. some chasing each other and
others climbing the trees with their clumsy
feet.
posed three of the smallest of the girls
on the wall of the canal, and had my son
snap the camera at them to get a sample
of. low the little ones looked when our
Pilgrim Fathers were here.
i say when they were here for the chill
dren of Delfshaven dress about the same
now as they did then, holding tight to the
wooden shoes of their forefathers.
Indeed their mothers are quite as thrifty
AS were our Pilgram foremothers; for the
stately old dame in short skirts and lace
cap with a golden corkscrew over each eye.
whose daughters / posed, looked on and
laughed until l gave each of them 10 Dutch
cents as a present.
She then came forward. and as I looked
back l saw that all the coins had found
their way TO her itching palm to the evil
dent disgust of the babies.
A little further on l found the old church.
1t stands facing the canal Just below the
dra wbsidge. which crosses it.
There are old houses ON each side of IL.
and the street looks as though it were a
slice taken out of the Middle Ages and
dropped down into the present.
The church is made of w%ell-burnt brown
bricks with doorJ and window frames
painted white. The windows are arched