The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1908-08-18

Holland is essentially the land of
color, and, owing to the splendid facil-
tiles of travel, is becoming increasing
ly popular with artists and the arts
tically inclined in all parts OF the
world.
Among the important buildings in
art at Dordrecht the Stadhuis comes
first; then the Win STRAIT, with it's
medieval houses, plainly denoting
the former wealth of it's merchants
when enjoying the privilege of the
Staple. The next great feature is
the Groote Kerk, containing choir
stalls of worldwide fame and beau.
tifully carved pulpit of white marble
Cdate 1850 In this town were born
the two brothers John and Cornelius de
Witt; but bort is specially noted as
the place where the states of Holland
held their first assembly and declared
the prince of Orange stakeholder and
the only lawful governor of the coun-
try. The Groote Kerk is the subject
of Albeit Cuyp's notable painting in
the Ryks museum at Amsterdam. Sew
eral artists were at work on the sub
iect of the great church from differ
ent points of view. We next took
the steamer to Gorkham, or Gorin
chem, an old walled. town with ancient
wooded houses and picturesque canals.
On our way we steamed through a dis
trict called the Biesbosch, where Gin
a terrible inundation in 1921, 70 vii
lagos and 100000 human beings were
swallowed up by the waves; S5 of the
villages were irretrievably lost, so
that no vestige, not even of the ruins,
could afterwards be discovered" We
now retraced our steps to Rotterdam,
en- route to North Holland and the
dead cities of the zuyder Zee.
The train was left at Gouda to see
the world-famed painted glass win
dows in the Jams kerk; it was raining
so that we were glad of the shelter
the church afforded, and greatly
wished for more time to study these
really wonderful windows. However
the train to Amsterdam would not
wait, and we meant to get through
that day, so very reluctantly tore our
selves away and through heavy rain
made all haste to the station. On
the journey the wind and rain could
not have been worse; the canals were
greatly swollen and the land mostly
under water, so that we seemed like
vessel at sea. The water poured
from door to door of the railway car
riage like ships deck in bad wealth
er. We stayed the night in Amster-
dam, intending on the morrow to
move on to the noted fishing village of
Volendam. The next morning. still
in the rain. we crossed the ferry to
Tolhuis and trained to Edam via
Brock and Monnikendam.
Here we experienced rather novel
mode of travel by Trekschuit. which
was the only means of travelling to
Volendam prior to the railway being
built. The Trekschuit is a rather com.
modius barge. usually towed and
pushed by the two men forming the
crew. On the occasion of our visit
the wind serving, a curiosity in the
way of a sail was set which took ms
along gayly, permitting the men to
remain aboard. The weather was
very squally, and every moment
fully expected something to carry
away; but by clever seamanship-in.
herent in most Dutchmen-we got
through safely till, nearing Volendam.
we were nearly overpowered by the
horrid smell from a duck farm situ.
ated on the windward side of the
canal. This was something new in
the way of smells, and on relating orr
experienced in the hotel at Volendam we
were greeted with roars of laughter
they having had some" evidently. AT
any rate, it was a useful initiation
and for the remainder of our stay we
carefully avoided approaching a duck
farm and tackled, If possible, or held
our breath while hurrying past These
duck farms are an institution of this
part of Holland, and contain from