Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1904-12-26
DUTCH CHEESE MART
QUAINT ALkMAAR AND ITS ANCIENT
WEIGH HOUSE SCALES. 49,

|
WEIGH HOUSE SCALES. -.
| a Town In Northern Holland Which
| For Over Two Hundred: Yenrs Has
Haa the "RigIts tO weigh" Every
cAee"e Made ~ the Real1a. NJ
Though Eidam, sen 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.
~ 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, "all. roads" may be said to lead
to Alkmaar, likewise all waterways,
and there are many Of them. Thfther
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 ID
readiness for an immediate lombard
ment and. II 'twsre not libeious: to
breathe aught savoring of disrespeGt to
a friendly country's national comesti-
BILE, as deadly. possibly. also to an nm
accustomed stomach as their leaden
prototypes.
But, be that as it may, the cheese
market is a rare good sight in quaint
Alkmaar when the peasant proprietor
bargain at the weigh hoouse with the
wholesale agents from far and near,
and every hosiery does its own brisk
trade with both parties. Across those
rounded bridges peculiar to Holiand
come shoals Of peasant folk in pic
turesque attire. Who does not know
by now the dress with It's glorious cap
and golden '.corkscrew" ornaments. the
pride Of many a generation, making
pretty faces doubly bwitching and
lending some subtle attraction to even
the hardest featured dame we'll up in
years? On they come clatter, clatter,
clatter, voluble with their cultural flu
ency we somehow feel we ought to nn-
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. It stands where its richly paint
ed facade can be seen clearly reflected
in the cool, smooth waters of the neigh
boring canal, a dignitied 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 a cost of 858
guilders and. having conscientiously
performed their duties without a hitch
ever since, certainly speak volumes for
the workmanship Of eco 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:
well known comic opera, that the ac-
tual business of the day begins, IL
though, '1unofacialfy,'' both paroles 20
the coming transactions eFprobably'
aiready tainen time by the sforeioek
over a glass Of hollands In some inn
On the smaarkt. Now. however. the
cumbersome ware i carried within
doors, the time honored ceremony u
gone through and the ticket stating
the correct weight Of each given, after
which act the money changes hands.
It Is study In temperament, this
, weigh hoouse scene in the little Dutch
town. No hurry skurfy mars the
cain of: the place or distnrhs the phleg-
mstie pipe sucking Individuals spfi-
marty interested in the transactions
here going forward. The .cheese alone
seems riotous and inclined to Wholesale
insubordina don, with a mind to roll
hither and thither. 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. y$-.. s.,.n
II SO, we honor the "last kicks" fl-
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 80 on,
all through the day, does the trade Pro.
coed until the last "Eidamer'' has been
disposed of, but the extent Of the bust.
ness done In so quiet and orderly q
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