New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1909-10-16
THE DUTCH.
Friendly Notes on the People and
Their Country.

HOLLAND OF TO-DAY. BY George Wharton Ed
wards. Illustrated by the author ANo' PIP A'
2l7. Maffat. Yard & Co
It is in the natural order of things that Mr..
Edwards should make book about Holland
He has known the country for years ana the
pictures he has painted there have shown now
sympathetically he has looked upon the Dutch
Landscape and the figures enlivening IT, Sooner
or later he was bound to put his impressions
together. using both pen and brush. He has
waited a long time, but this has only Increased
the merit of his book. Here is no sheaf OF
trifng notes. gathered by scurrying and
ecstatfc tourist, but volume touched with the
trIle spirit OF Holland, a volume filled with
sound information, and. at the same time, writ
ten easily and lightly, only man familiar
with his subject could have written it. The
Illustrations I'm colors and in black and white,
are clever picturesque drawings, but this is
one of those holiday books in which text and
decorations are of equal value. Mr.. Edwards
is alilful in the presentation of his facts.
Baedecker himself would hardly be in
structive vet nowhere is there any hint of the
euidebook Historical and statistical matters
are made readable and it is in the most casual
manner that the author teaches you to pro-
nounce Sneek, the name of village. though
il We're spelled Snake and tells you that Gouda
is pronounced Hooda, and is sometimes called
Ter Cow. We wonder, by the way, how Ter
Cow is pronounced?
We wonder. also, what a Pinke Wad is Mr.
Edwards himself would like to know He was
warned of its dangers by a Dutch friend, and
! through these he may have passed without
knowing il, but he is still unable to describe a
Pinke Wad. Nevertheless, he wise to men
ton it, His book is the more nteresting the
more Dutch, because he spills into it all the
! little things. all the odds and ends that taken
together. somehow help to make us feel the
! oh. Ta-fa Of toa
this allusion to life on the canals when their
freezing turns them into streets and the entire
population puts it's skates:
The sounds OF discordant organs from the merry,
So-ronnd are heard everywhere, and over ali is the
bungent od9r o! INC stale grease from the "Pof-
| ierJcs and 'Wafeen' booths. presided over bv
i65, nafe-aImed Erouwes, who make them with
Ihe first are little round pancaItv blobs twisted
sugar The Watcher are oblong Wafeps ad
ulnly in al iron mould fried, and also butteTed
eltjes ard two of .'Wafeleni at the tirst order
Afitefward you may eat many you wish A
lLlN, sour beer Is drunk with them, or a sicklv
SWfe6 tem"1ad 3 To eat them is ones duty. 10
by hundreds al over brisk Charcoal '' fTn
The cook huses herself in twisting the little dabs
those that cooked One may see pct ins out
crIi Gums painted by Jan Steen showing the
1t is far better to be thus introduced to tho
daily habits of the Dutch than to listen to en-
thusiastc talk about the costumes and tultD
I fields that have been, as a matter of fact nrett,
/ nearly done to death. Mr.. Edwards speaks Of
these things, of course but he is at greater
pains 10 tell you why you seldom find a pood
dish of mutton on Dutch table or how dim
cult IL is 10 obtain a glass of ice water in y
Dutch restaurant, or how seldom YOU see an
open "lndo" IN a private house in the Neither
lands even in the summer time In short no
never loses sight of the Dutch people He has
! found them, it may be added very friendly and
ikeaoe' though tenacious of their habits and
quick to resent careless intrusion He has
uroi story of Whistler, with whom he and Van
5 Gravesande once went sketching in bort The
distinguished painter. left to himself, got into
tremendous row with crowd of fishwives. who
threatened TO throw him into the canal His
friends found him holding the crowd at bav nv
calmly waving his brush. The story continues
as follows.
II seemed that Whistler had discovered a little
shop near the canal the window Of which ~ t,',i
of oranges and lemons. and this with the green
paint OF the shutters and the brilliant purple of
the slsnbOgrd formed scheme of color which H.
10 the Arrangement OF the oranges in the window
ana insisted upon changing them TO his own salts,
keeper. When Whistler had almost finished his
picture. very small one by the way. the angry
spelling Whistlers view and ne unable 10 sfraL
Dutch. Dad insisted ia English that the cum ain
went up and down and finally The alteration he
came so serious that the neighbors part in IT,
Peace was soon arranged for adventures in
Holland always end peacefully. II is a happy
land for the traveller. Mr. Edwards makes that
plain, and those who read his book will want
to follow in his footsteps