The Idaho Springs siftings-news. (Idaho Springs, Colo.) 1905-19??, 1915-09-24
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9kMARTN CONWAY

GW days fell within the limits OF the
seventeenth century. Then ships
OF Holland sailed all the seven seas and brought
home wealth and tales of adventure. Then its
sailors hammered at the arctic ice-pack and
pushed their trade among tropical spice islands
Then it was that De Ruyter sailed up the Thames
with a broom at his masthead; then, too, that
Rembrandt painted and vondel rhymed. That
also for Holland = great building age. when
prosperity caused cities to grow, canals to be
dug. ports to be built and the multiplex activity
OF Dutchmen to manifest itself in all kinds of
makings and shapings upon the surface Of their
amphibious land-half EARTH half water. Thus
It is the Holland of Rembrandts day and there
about that remains most interesting to the trav-
eer and it is the buildings then erected that
most worthy of study and presentation within
her towns.
Amsterdam. when Rembrandt went to settle
there about 1881, passing INTELLECTUALLY
through period OF transition. The small
OF the city, where everything small
scale, still retained many remnants of the
dleval age. The canals in it were narrow, the
accommodation for ships exiguous. grow
ing population and expanding trade were finding
themselves horribly cramped.
Amsterdam grew like onion, by layers
rounding layers about center. From time to
time new rings OF canals were added, with radial
connections. and then rings outside them.
or course fortified walls we're erected round the
whole at different dates but they never lasted for
long and had to be replaced by circuits
became canal within the next. Those who were
responsible for the important changes made at
the beginning of the seventeenth century had the
good sense not to destroy every memorial Of
medieval days. In particular they spared some
OF the old fertilization towers, applying them to
new purpose and reftting them accordingly Thus
the tower called Montelbaanstoren. which still
stands by the old Schans, of the largest
basins of the earlier canal system. part Of
the medieval Notifications They turned It into
q picturesque ri a
superstructure set up in the year 1906 Though
this was done before Rembrandt's day, he omitted
the steeple in an admirable drawing he made of
it. thus giving among countless instances
that might be cited, of his attachment rather to
the past than to the coming taste of the people
of his day. The only other high tower at Am
sterdam drawn by him the Westertoren
tower Of the Westerkerk on the Prinsengracht.
which unfortunately, we cannot produce in this
place. That tower favorite with the folk
of Amsterdam. and have more than once found
1t referred to. in narratives Of Dutch exploration.
as a measure of height. as. for instance. when a
glacier cliff is said to have stood out OF the
about as high the Westertoren 1t is stored
tower. composed of four retreating rectangular
stages. each with columns at the angles not
unlike some of Wren's towers in the city of Lon
don.
The Westertoren. however, carries US down
rather too late when Paladian ideas were af-
fecting Dutch architects. This was feature of
the change of TASTE which made the art Of Rem
brandt old fashioned and terminated his pros
perity. The Mint tower Of 1910, and the others
shown in illustrations, are examples Of Am
sterdam steeple architecture of Rembrandt's own
generation. II they must be called fantastic they
are certainly picturesque. and admirably suited
to enliven a canal vista or to poke up out Of a
foreground Of crowstepped gables.
These the typically Dutch towers these
buildings of the great days of Dutch romance
Earlier towers find in Holland. but they
are Gothic. and re-echo the style elaborated in
France. France also set the key Of architectural
atyle in the eighteenth century. In the seven
teenth century Holland stood on her own feet
and other folk initiated the work Of her artists
The Dutch style affected England it was fmi-
tated in the remarkable buildings erected in Dem
mark for Christian ~. 1t penetrated to the ends
Of the earth. 1t went with Dutch adventurers to
New York. to Ceylon. to the Cape Of Good Hope.
where examples of 1t may still be hunted out by
patient searching.
Our illustrations include few of the earlier
towers OF Holland. about which q word or two
must be said Here. for instance, the Cathe-
dral and of the medieval gates of Maastri.ht
neither Of them in any sense Enthusiastically
Dutch. for the Holland that the world admires
was created in the fire of the Reformation wars
The cathedral church Of st. Servatius at Mas
tricht is Of early Christian foundation. and it Is
even claimed that portions of the existing walls
date back to the sixth century. The building as
see it, however. is a great romanesque
church Of Rhenish style. with restored eleventh
century LOWeTs HI tHe angles OF NS 0p6e and
later Gothic bell tower adjacent to a side aisle
Utrecht and Delft have bell towers of a like kind
the upper story being manysided and many
gabled. Another such tower Is In Paradise ITSELF
II we are to believe Hubert Van Eyck's picture of
that delectable land. the famous altarpiece still
at Client unless the Germans have carried II or
Medieval Maastricht not large place
The Cathedral was in the center Of it; not more
than five hundred yards away are the remains Of
the city walls of 1890. The exigencies of war
~nS1AA
everywhere much the same. Thus the tower.
nanked south gate Of Maastrfcht is not different
In design from many another that can be found
IN the old cities Of Europe. But Though It had