Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1904-10-27
DUTCH CHEESE MART
QUAINT AlKMAAR AND ITS ANCIENT
WEIGH HOUSE SCALES.
A Town In Northern Holland Which
For over Two Hundred Years Has
Had the "Rights TO Weigh" Every
Cheese Made In the Realm.

Though Eidam, on the Xuyder Zee,
gives its name to those rose red spheres
we know as Dutch cheeses," which
are instinctively associated with i'll
digestion, yet it is Alkmaar, in north
ern Holland, that conduces to the week
" importance of this edible of com
MERGE, as any one who has ever stood
in the quaint old market place upon a
Friday. and about the hour of noon,
will nave speedily come to understand.
For the Dutch cheese producer, In
deed. "all roads may be said to lead
TO Alkmaar, likewise all waterways,
and there are many of them. Thither
come the cheeses by rail, by cart and
by boat; you stumble over them inside
the station as you alight from the
train; they dispute the right of way be
tween the rows of narrow, many col
ored and c%uriously gabled houses; they
stand in solid stacks upon the landing
stages-heaped up like canno balls in
readiness for an immediate lombard
ment and, If 'twere not libelous TO
breathe aught savoring Of disrespect to
n friendly countTy's national comesti-
BILE, as deadly. possibly, also to an I'M
accustomed stomach as their leaden
prototypes.
But. be that as ii may, the cheese
market is a rare good sight in quaint
Alkmaar when the peasant proprietor
and his vrouw come in to drive their
bargain at the weigh hoouse with h
wholesale agents from far and near,
and every hosiery does its own brisk
trade with both parties. Across those
rounded bridges peculiar to Holland
come shoals of peasant folk in pic
turesque attire. Who does not know
by now the dress with its glorious cap
and golden ''corkscrew' ornaments, h
pride of many a generation, making
pretty faces doubly bewitching and
lending some subtle attraction to ever
the hardest featured dame well up in
years? On they come-clatter, c%latter,
clatter, voluble with their cultural hu-
ency we somehow feel we ought to I'M
derstand because of Its confusingly
familiar sound, but its very kinship to
German sends us astray. and we listen
and listen till the jargon about the
weigh hoouse becomes a more hope
less tumble of sounds than ever to our
ears, and we content ourselves with
turning our attention to the building
itself. 1t stands where it's richly paint
ed facade can be seen clearly reflected
In the cool, smooth waters of the neigh
boring canal, a dignified old pile, built
in 1851, with an especial eye to the
growing Importance of Dutch cheeses,
t.1or loxi.~ Il. That rnar vanoiuaI
its fright to weigh from William OF
Orange. and thus every cheese chang
ing hands from that date onward hav-
ing passed from the producer to the
dealer across the Alkmaar scales. The
present ones, by the way, which have
hung in their place since 1892, were
made in Amsterdam at a cost of 85S
guilders and. having conscientiously
performed their duties without a hitch
ever since. certainly speak volumes for
the workmanship of 200 and odd years
ago.
Though the little town Is thronged
from earliest morn with orderly
crowds of heavy Hollanders. 1t is not
until the musical chimes within the
all important weigh hoouse turret have
signiied the hour of noon by breaking
forth in melody, generally from some
well known comic opera, that the ac-
tual business OF the day begins, al
though. 'unofficially," both parties to
the coming transactions have probably
already taken time by the forelock
over a glass of hollands in some inn
on the maarkt. Now, however, the
cumbersome ware is carried within
doors, the time honored ceremony is
gone through and the ticket stating
the correct weight Of each given, after
which act the money changes hands.
1t Is a study in temperament. this
weigh ho0use scene in the little Dutch
town. No hurry skurry" mars the
calm Of the place or disturbs the phleg-
matte, pipe sucking individuals pri-
marily interested in the transactions
here going forward. The cheese alone
seems riotous and inclined to wholesale
INSTRUMENTATION, with a mind TO roll
hither and thither, possibly resulting
from some "subconscious' memory of
cows. green meadows and buttercups
and a Discrimination to coming bondage
upon the prosaic shelves of some pro-
vision dealer.
II so, we honor the last kicks" fu-
tile though they be, for accustomed
hands soon pounce upon and gather
up the stock, of which each single
cheese weighs from two to six kilos,
and they are swiftly carried out to
make way for the next lot. And SO on.
I'll through the day, does the trade pro-
eeed until the last "Eidamer' has been
disposed OF, but the extent OF the bust
ness done In 80 quiet and orderly a
fashion on cheese market days" may
to some extent be gagged from the
fact that no less than 100000 pounds
weight Of Eidam cheeses are computed
to pass through the Alkmaar weigh
hoouse annually before proceeding to
Amsterdam and Rotterdam. where
each Is duly invested with 1t familiar
red coat. prior to moro extended trav-
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