The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1904-12-03
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 Zuyder Zee,
gives it's name to those rose red spheres
we know as Dutch checscs," which
are instinctively associated with in
digestion, yet it is Alkmaar, in north
ern Holland, that conduces to the week.
ly Importance of this edible of com.
merce, as any one who has ever stood
in the quaint old market place upon q
Friday, and about the hour Of noon,
will have 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 curiously gabled houses; they
stand In solid stacks upon the landing
stages-heaped up like cannon balls in
readiness for an immediate lombard
ment and, If 'twere not libelous to
breathe aught savoring Of disrespect to
a friendly cOuntry's national comesti-
BILE, rs deadly, possibly, also to IN un-
accustomed stomach as their leaden
prototypes.
But he that as it may, the cheese
market is rare good sight in quaint
Alkmaar when the peasant proprietor
and his vrouw come in to drive their
bargain at the weigh hoouse with the
wholesale agents from far and near,
and every hostelry 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, the
pride Of many generation, making
pretty faces doubly bewitching and
lending some subtle attraction to even
the hardest featured dame well up in
years? On they come-clatter, clatter,
clatter, voluble with their cultural flu
ency we somehow feel we ought to un-
derstand because Of it's 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 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, dignihed old pile, built
In 1861, with an especial eye to the
growing Importance Of Dutch cheeses,
Alkmaar having in that year received
| 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 cost Of 1853
guilders and, having conscientiously
| performed their duties without 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, it Is not
until the musical chimes within the
| all important weigh hoouse turret have
| signified the hour of noon by breaking
forth in melody, generally from some
| we'll known comic opera, that the ac-
tual business Of the day begins, al
though, "unof1cially," both parties to
the coming transactions have probably
already taken time by the forelock
over 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 q study In temperament, this
weigh hoouse 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 rlotous and inclined to wholesale
insubordination, with q mind to roll
hither and thither, possibly resulting
from some "subconscious'' memory of
cows, green meadows and buttercups
and disinclinatton to coming bondage
upon the prosaic shelves of some pro-
vision dealer.
If so, we honor the "last kicks,' f"-
tile though they be. '-.r -, accustomed
~ ' 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,
NIL through the day, does the trade pro.
ceed until the last "Eidamer" has been
disposed of, but the extent Of the bust
ness done in so quiet and orderly O
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 it familiar
red coat, prior to more extended trav'
els, by land and by sea, often into the
heart Of the unknown, travels, how.
ever, which almost invariably end
within the interior Of man.-Pall Mall
Gazette.
| His Request.