Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1905-02-09
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Thomas Electric OIL At your
druggists. f28
DUTCH CHEESE MART

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 "tights to Weigh" Every
Cheese Made In the Realm.
gives its name to those rose rcd spheres
we know rs Clutch cheeses," which
are instinctively associated with ill.,
digestion, yet it is Alknaar, 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 cllriously gabled houses; they
stand in solid stacks upon the landing
stages heaped up like cannon balls in
readiness for un immediate lombard
ment and, if 'twere not libelous to
breathe aught snvofng of disrespect to
Il friendly country's national comesti-
BILE, as deadly, possibly, also to an I'M
accustomed stomach as their leaden
prototypes
But, he that rs 1t may, the cheese
market l., n rare good sight in quaint
Alkmaar when the peasant proprietor
and his; vrouw come in to drive their
bargain ut 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
turesuue attire. Who does not know
by now the dress With its glorious cap
and golden ''corkscrcw" ornaments, the
pride of many IL generation, making
pretty faces doubly bewitchinS and
lending some subtle attraction to even
the hardest featured dame we'll up In
years? On they come-cllttcr, olatter,
clatter, volub.e with Their cultural flu
ency we somehow feel we ought to uL-
Il nf fms inc ~
familiar sound, but its very kinship to
German sends us astray, and we listen
and listen till the jargon about the
weigh hoouse becomes Il 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
ell facade can be seen Clearly reelected
in the cool, smooth waters OF the neigh
boring canal, dignificd old pile, built
in 1851, With an especial eye to the
growing Importance of Dutch checses,
A.kmanr having in that year received
its fright to weigh" from William of
Orange, and thus every cheese chang
ing hands from that date onward huv-
dealer across the Alkmaar scales. The
present ones. by the way, which have
hung in their place since 1852, were
made in Amsterdam at Il cost of 1913
guilders and having conscientiouSly
performed their duties without u 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 Hollan!ers, it is not
until the musical chimes within the
all important weigh hoousc turret have
signficd 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, "uno1licialy," both parties to
the coming transactions have probably
already taken time by the forelock
over Il 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 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-
marlly interested in the transactions
here going forward. The cheese alone
seems rotous 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 Discrimination to coming bondage
upon the prosuic 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,
all through the day, does the trade pro-
coed until the last "Eidnmer" has been
disposed Of, but the extent Of the bust
ness done in so 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 it familiar