The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1913-07-24
Having visited this country few

tives still living there, | thought
that this might be an interesting
subject to some of you.
Upon first entering this country
one is almost Immediately impressed
by it's beauty and picturesqueness.
| wish it were possible to take you
all back and live over again that
first afternoon. While on huge
dyke, the Schiedamsche Dyke to be
exact, this dyke runs all the way
from Rotterdam to the North Sea, a
distance of thirty miles, directly
parallel with the mass" or ship
canal of the Lower Rhine, one can
see the country for miles around.
The rich and fertile meadows, in
terwoven with it's network of ca
nails, and dotted here and there with
cattle and sheep; the tall church
steeples which signify some village;
the large. and picturesque wind
mills, slowly churning in the after
noon breeze and, above all, the
slowly setting sun for back
ground to this picture makes it al
most soul inspiring, and to my idea
no artist has ever given it justice.
Along the dyke just mentioned
are one large city and four small
towns. Rotterdam being the far
thest inland with Schiedam next.
This town by the way is the manu-
featuring center of the famous
Holland Gin" Vlaardingen next,
then Maasluis and the Hookvan-
Holland, the latter three being
small towns where the people de-
rive their living chiefly from fish
ing.
Some people are under the i'm
preston that Holland and Neither
lands mean the same, but this is en-
tirely erroneous, for there is as
much difference as there is between
day and night. Holland signifies
the two provinces of North and
South Holland, that lie along the
North Sea coast in the west of the
Netherlands. When the natives
speak of the Netherlands they mean
all OF the provinces together, in
Guiding North and South Holland,
the southern provinces of iceland,
North Brabant and Limborg, the
centaal provinces of Utrecht and
Gelderland, and the northeastern
provinces of Overijssel, Drenthe,
Friesland and Groningen, which
are eleven in all, and together form
the United provinces of the Meth
erlands. SO when a person speaks
of Holland they generally mean
the provinces, North and South
Holland.
The people Of the different prov
inces have distinct dialect and it
is quite difficult at times to under
stand the people of these provinces,
but the hardest of all to under
stand are the people living in the
province of Groningen. Their
language is a mixture of German
and Holland.
The two principal cities are Rot
terdam and Amsterdam. Amster-
dam is called by the Dutch the
queen city Of the Netherlands, but
to the tourist and sight-seer it is
unkept, dirty and crowded, COM
mercial in spirit and mercantile to
the very mud in it's canals. It's 90
as you please life is very unpop-
ular to the sight-seer. The clang
and rush of it's electrics and auto
mobiles, lovely Vondel Park backed
by docks and also used as a dump
ing ground for a huge dredge that
seems to be working day and
night, all seems to spoil the de-
light of the tourist and many of
them leave the Metropolis of the
Netherlands in disgust. In fact the
only points of interest / found
worth mentioning are Rijks Mu-
scum and the ancient Tower of
Tears. In the Rijks Museum one
can spend whole day, in fact a
week, if one..is lover of art, for here
are found some of the most famous
paintings of the last century. Here
one may find the works of Rem
brant, Goyen, Ruisdael, Albert
Cuijp and numerous other famous
artists. The ancient Tower of
Tears was once used as a lookout
station. The people gathered here
to await the return of the fishing
fleet, and here it was that they
heard that some of their loved ones