The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-03-16
.HOLL AND SKATING. HAPPILY THROUGH
 .SEvEREST WINTER
From Queen to Cobbler all Classes Enjoy Ice Sports
 on Lakes and Canals.
The Hague, Netherlands. March 10.

The Hague, Netherlands. March 10. is at. the moment one big skating rink. From sovereign to humblest peasant. from aged grand mother and grandfather to the ,tiniest toddlers, the nation is gliding sereneiy along on skates.
 Tn striking contrast with the last three or four mild winters, a most in- tense and continuous sold spell has set in, and despite brilliant sunshine from a clear sky every lake and canal in the land of canals is now frozen as hard as the cobb1ed streetF. Even the big North Sea Canal leading from the sea to the port of Amsterdam is only being kept open by icebreakers. Many of the islands are islands no longer. and travellers passing to and fro. tn- stead of booking their steamboat pas- sages, buckle on their skates. The mail is even being conveyed to the famous island of Marken, on the Zuy- der Zee, by the same means. One can go from the Hague to Amsterdam, to Rotterdam, to practically any part of the country on skates. The country side, ordinarily so deserted and quiet, on the sabbath in particular is dotted everywhere with fleeting Hollanders of all ages; and in the towns them- selves he who will need go no farther than the canal just outside his door to indulge in the pastime.
 The lakes outside the royal hous. in the wood at the Hague resemble nothing so much as fair, with their stalls and seats and barrows and an endless kaleidoscopic crow dwhirling up and down and in and out, in ones, twos, threes and fours, sometimes with joined hands. sometimes in chain fashion. On the big rink of the Ice club nearby may be occasionally seen the Queen herself, on skates among the throng, for skating is decidedly @ democratic sport. Private brushes shoulder with officers indeed, Fris- ian soldier was hprrified a day or two ago to recognize general in the skater he had accidentally overturned.
 Down in the children's corner at the Ice club rink is the little seven year old Princess Juliana. Mounted on Tristan skates, she glides and shuffles and slips among the other small "krabbelaars'' ("scratchers" or ''scrapers" as the, beginners are dub bed. Glowing with health .and laugh ing heartily at her own and her com panions' comical efforts, the little heiress goes up and down the run, Queen Wflhelmina occasionally com ing to watch her progress. A day or two ago the Royal family went up to see and join in the skating in the nor. thern province of Friesland, so fam ed for the sport, the little princess helping to present the prizes awarded at Leeuwarden and being the recipi- ent Of bouquet when she went to join the Frision children on the ice.
 It is in the F'riesland that the fa- nous eleven towns tour and race has just taken place-one of innumerab1e races and figure-skating anR other competitions of all kinds that sare talk ing place in every part of the country. The tour dates back to antiquity. That the Frisians used to take 125-mile skating trips in the dim past when ox-ribs served them as skates, seems a little improbable, but the eleven towns tour is certainly very, very old, and has become Tristan institution that Is the subject of innumerable1 family traditions. One countryman proudly related that he had done the tour four umes-twice as a young fel- low With a couple of friends, then as a young married man with his wife, who was likewise fleet on skates, and next in the company of a grandson This time forty-six actually took part in the competition, which started from Leeuwarden before five o'clock in the morning, and 10S others participated tn the tour, inncluding six women. The winner proved to be a sturdy fellow named c. c. T. de Konig hailing from a small place called Jeur near Brsda-