Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1907-09-27
IN RURAL HOLLAND
4 DAYS TRAVEL IN THE LAND
or DYKES.
From Amsterdam Through the Won
derfuI Country Mrested from the
Sea by Sheer Courage and
Resourcefulness.

Here Is pretty description Of a
days travel through Holland: AT
Amsterdam | left the train and board
ed boat bound for the Helder. the
northernmost point OF North Holland.
where the low-lying islands curve
round to the horizon. looking as If
they had been appointed ocean out
posts to Friesland. The voyage might
take day, but what OF that? There
is only one way to travel in Holland
by water. The boat glides through
the trimming canal passes the clean
towns and the many windmills. Life
persists; passengers and cargoes come
and go. but you are no longer at war
with the world or in trouble with II.
You are a spectator. idiing through
summer day. wrapped In aloofness.
content merely to be moving through
the moist and luminous air When the
environs of Amsterdam are left be-
hind and the waterside houses give
place to the reeds that bend as the
backwash overtakes them and the fac
tories fade into vast, bright meadows.
the spirit of this land. wrested from
the sea, obsesses the traveller. l for
got to count the windmills. was indif-
ferent to the locality of the hut where
Peter the Great studied shipbuilding
and was content with pretending to
choose a habitation from among the
dwellings whose gardens are washed
by the waters of this great north
canal.
We passed through Alkmaar. On
one side Dutch farmhouses. compact,
foursquare stretching in an endless
line along the waterway; on the other
side the meadows and beyond them,
far away, the sweeping line of the
dunes. They rise above the North sea
and on their sandy sides and heights
men are forever on the watch against
the entertainments of the ocean; they
plant the shrub called helm. that
binds the sand together. making a bull
wark against the rage of the waves.
God gave us the sea, but we made the
Shore says the Dutchman. These
fower-fruitful and pastoral meadows
that outstretched as we glided north.
ward were once submerged in water.
The fight against the sea never ceases.
AS We moved northward the three
great dykes doomed out. I gaZed out
at these high bulwarks, patrolled and
watched by day and by night. and
unused on the legend that at Amster-
dam there is one master key a turn Of
which. in times of peril from foreign
invasion, will drown the land again.
And as l unused there swept past a
barge. The great sail was hoisted
The family-a mite Of the $4,000 canal
population who live out their lives on
these floating houses-were gathered
round the tiller. where mynheeI
smoked and steered. A barge-the
symbol of this sea-conquering people
Below the Helder | landed. Beyond ii
the fort, with the fringe of islands out
posting Friesland. the fishing feet and
the gunboats, and the channel between
the mainland and Texel opening to tht
world. AS l crossed the bridge saw
the sight of sights. There was no fuss
no shouting, no splitting of wine al
that launch. The barge moved from
her cradle. shot downward took this
water in rush, pretended to capsizt
and all at once acquiesced. She haC
found her master"