Mower County transcript., 1904-09-14
DUTCH CHEESE MART
QUAINT ALKMAAR AND ITS ANCIENT
WEIGH HOUSE SCALES.

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. *El
Though Eidam, on the Zuyder Zee,
gives its name to those rose red spheres
we know as Dutch cheeses," 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 a
Friday, and about the hour of noon.
will have speedily come to understand.
For the Dutch cheese producer, in
deed, call roads, may be said to &ead
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 curtously gabld houses; they
stand in solid stacks upon the landing
stages-leaped up like cannon balls in
readiness for an immediate lombard
ment and. If 'twere not nbelous to
breathe aught savoring OF disrespest to
friendly country's. national oomesd
bic. as deadly, possibly, also to an un-
accustomed stomach as their leaden
prototypes.
But, be that as it may, the cheese
market is a rare good sight in quaint
Akmaar when the peasant proprietor
and his vrouw come in to drive their
bargain at the weigh hootlse with the
Wholesale agents from far and near,
and every hosiery does It's own brisk
trade with both parties. Across those
rounded bridges peculiar to Holland
come shoals Of peasant folk in pie
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 bew1tching and
lending some subtle attraction to even
the hardest featured dame we'll up in
years7 On they come-clatteF, clatter,
clatter, vo4ubIe with their cultural flu
ency we somehow feel we ought to un-
derstand because Of it's confusdngly
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 jumble Of sounds than ever to our
ears, and we content ourselves with
turning our attention to the building
itself. It stands where it's richly paint
ed facade can be seen clearly reflected
in the cool, smooth waters Of the neigh
boring canal, a dignifed Old pile, built
in 1861, with an especial eye to the
growing Importance of Dutch cheeses,
Alkmaar having in that year received
it's fright to weigh" from William Of
Orange, and thus every cheese chang
ing hands from that date onward ha7-
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 S58
guilders and, having conscientiously
performed their duties without a hitch
ever since, certainly speak volumes for
the workmanship Of 200 and odd yeeSs
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
signifed 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, ''unoRcially," both parties to
the coming transactions have probably
already taken time by the ferelock
over a glass Of hollands in some inn
on the maafkt 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 bands.
1t is a study in temperament, this
weigh hoouse scene in the little Dutch
town. No hurry skurry'' mars the
calm Of the place or disturbs the phlee-
matte, pipe sucking individuals pri-
mar1ly interested in the transactions
here going forward. The cheese alone
seems riotous and inclined to wholesale
insubordina ton, with a mind to roll
hither and thfther, possibly resulting
from some 'subconscious' memory of
cows, green meadows and buttercups
and disinclination to coming bondage
upon the prosaic shelves Of some pro-
vision dealer.
If 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,
all through the day, does the trade pro-
ceed until the last "E1damer'' has been
disDosed of. but the extent Of the hl,si