New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-10-21
TRAVELLER'S DELIGHT.
II Charming Book About Holland,
Its History, People and Art.

! It's History, People and ART.
a wANDERER IN HOLLAND. By E; V. Lucas,
With twenty Illustrations IN color by HeroeFI
Marshall, ano thlTty-four ILLUSTRATIONS a1IeI oLo
Dutch masters 12mo. PIP. 300. The Macmillan
Company.
Mr. Lucas assures US that Holland is one Of
the most delightful countries to move about in,
everything that happens in 1t being Of interest
He fully proves his statement. and we close his
book with the conviction that we shall never
find there a more agreeable guide than he. For
he is man of taste and culture. who has ap-
parently preserved all the zest Of youth for
things beautiful, touching. quaint or humorous
especially humorous-and his own unaffected en-
toyment gives to his pages a most endearing
freshness and sparkle. Here is modern Holland
as she is-a cheerful picture thrown adroitly
against the tragic background OF Spanish
cruelty. Relics Of the period when Alvas SOL
diers harrfed the land Of dykes appeal wildly
to the authors Imagination and IN his turn he
has known how to stir the reader. For many
Of his most dramatic relations he has gone d.
rectly to Motley, as a wise man should.
How may one most happily travel in Holland?
Mr. Lucas's descriptions go far to persuade US
that the eftest way is to board one Of the fat.
clean barges In Rotterdam canal and be car
Red by 1t 'to. say, Harlingen. in Frtesland":
the rushes through little villages, with dazzling
good wives washing. and saturnine smokers in
through big towns by rows Of sonbre houses seen
through delicate screen OF leaves: Under low
locks: ever movng 9yng slowly and surely,
being towed, with the wide Dutch sky overhead and
the pIovers crying in it. and the clean west wind
driving the windrnills and every thing just as 1t
was IN Renbrandt's day and just it Will be
i've hundred years hence.
The traveller might indeed do worse, for
these broad beaned barges are cosey in the ex-
IRENE, and the pink Of neatness. The captains
wife Is always aboard. and the scrubbing brush
is not far of. It's fine day; let US kill some
thing" says the Englishman. Here's an odd
moment. let US wash something" says the Dutch
vrouw. But the tourist of the early twentieth
century has no time for such dreamy saunter-
tngs by canal and must perforce take the COM
PORTABLE little steam tram These light railways
Eake network all over Holland says Mr..
lucas, and he heartily commends them, one
very good way to the country being to stand
on the train foot Il the little train flies
along under the willows and halts in the quiet
villages to meet its next comrade. AS for Dutch
railways IN genera. they testify to almost Sc
raphic management. The trains are always
punctual, all the officials are intelligent and po-
Etes the fares reasonable, and one can actually
coffee Are these railroads in fairyland?
And fairyland Holland would almost seem to
be In the matter Of serene happiness and COM
fort Every one seems to have enough; no one
too much. Great wealth there may be among
the merchants, but 1t is not ostentatious. Hol-
land still seems to have poor in the extreme
sense ct the word. rags" Not only are the
Dutch prosperous, they are well-the traveller
was particularly struck by their look of rudy
health. That they do sometimes die the "aans-
preker," u1ournfully pompous In his black drap-
cries. testines as he goes from house to house
announcing the demise Of this one or that "A
lady Of Hilversurn," says the author tells me
that she formally the recipient of the
message Please. ma'am, the bakers compliments
and he's dead. the time and place Of the inter
naent following" The aanspreker, it is added
is called In also at the other end OF life. AS
Stunning more jocund air, he trips from house
to house announcing little strangers" High
over the gardens OF Rotterdam the stork, the
genial parsonage who directs this role Of the
aanspreksr, builds his nest:
Re was building in the leisurely style Of the
British workingnan He would negligently de-
would bay on the fabric and then carefully per-
dine 70 see that every one else was BUSY Whe enc
als ss SRy 9n {2d66E enid 9
work he seemed to say: this nest building
ard overlooking and congra tulating himself thus
sor a few minutes. he would stroll off over tina
fosssetouS for another stick. He unoueS-
ffonabIe feHing of the Garden.
The time OF year in which TO see Holland best
Sc In the spring-April preferably, when all
about HARLEM the country is glory of tulip
blossoms and when the days are still cool and
fresh For, as the author reminds us, this land
of canals and of little shade is not for hot
weather The cultivation Of tulips and hya-
einths is now strictly affair Of business as,
strange to say, the people now appear to care
little for flowers as flowers. Their cottages
have no pretty confusion OF blossoms, as in our
villages You never see the cottager at work
among his roses: once his necessary labors are
over. he smokes and talks TO his neighbors; to
grow flowers for aesthetic reasons were too or
rarnental, too unproductive hobby. A1stheti-
caIiy the Dutch are dead or alive only In
the matter OF green paint which they use with
such charming effect their houses. their
mills and their boats" And Mr.. Lucas ends this
strain with upturning of nose at modern
Dutch architecture and modern Dutch porcelain.
All foreign artists in search OF the picturesque
go to Marker: author admits that the
picturesqueness Is there. but he thinks It is OF
- design. and suggests opera boure. The Ia