The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-03-12
ALL HOLLAND GOING
ABOUT ON SKATES
Not for Years Has the Ice Been So Firm
and So Smooth-Famous Races
Have Taken Place.

The Hague, Netherlands, March 10
Holland is at the moment one big skat
ing rink. From sovereign to humbIes,
peasant, from aged grandmother and
grandfather to the tiniest toddlers, the
nation is gliding serenely, merrily along
on skates.
In striking contrast with the last three
or four mild winters, mostintense and
continuous cold spell has set in, and de-
spite brilliant sunshine from clear
! sky every lake and canal in the land OF
canals is now frozen as hard as the
| cobbled streets. 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 is
lands are islands no longer and travel.
ers passing to and fro, instead of book
ing their steamboat passages, buckle on
their skates. The mail is even being
conveyed to the famous island of Mark
en-, on the Zuyder Zee, by the same
means. One can 90 from the Hague to
Amsterdam. to Rotterdam, to practically
any part of the country on skates. The
countryside, ordinarily so deserted and
quiet, on the sabbath in particular is
dotted everywhere with fleeing Holland
ers of all ages; and in the towns them
selves he who will need 60 no farther
than the canal just outside his door
to indulge in the pastime.
The lakes outside the royal house in
the wood at the Hague resemble nothing
SO much as a fair, with their stalls and
seats and barrows and endless kaleidos-
copic crowd whirling up and down and in
and out, in ones, twos, three and tours,
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 shout
ders with officers; indeed a Tristan sol
der was Mortified 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 Julisna. Mounted on Tristan
skates, she glides and shuffles and slips
among the other small "krabbelaars"
"scratchers" or "scrapersF) as the begin
ners are dubbed Glowing with health
and laughing heartily at her own and
her companions comical efforts, the lit
tie heiress goes up and down the run,
Queen Wilhelmina occasionally coming
to watch her progress. A day or two
ago the royal family went up to see and
join in the skating in the northern prov
ince of Friesland, so famed for the sport, |
the little princess helping to present the
prizes awarded at Leeuwarden and be-
ing the recipient of bouquet when she
went TO join the Frisian children on the |
ice.
It is in the Friesland that the famous |
eleven towns tour and race has Just
taken plaee-one Of innumerable races /
and figure and other competi- |
tons of all kinds that are taking place i
in every part of the country. The tour /
dates back TO antiquity. That the Frisi.
ans used to take l25-mile skating trips /
N the dim past when ox-ribs served them
rs skates, seems little improbable, but /
he eleven towns tour is certainly very,
very old, and has become a Tristan in
,titution that is the subject of innumer-
lble family traditions. One country
nan proudly related that he had done
he tour four times--twice as a young
elbow with a couple OF friends, then as
young married man with his wife, who
vas likewise fleet on skates. and next
n the company of a grandson. This
lime forty-six actually took part in the
which started from Leu
warden before five o'clock in the morn
ng. and los others participated in the
our. including six women. The winner
'roved to be sturdy young fellow
AIMED c. G. j. de Koning, haihng from ,
small place called Leur, near Breda, ,
he same man won the last such race
n the winter of 1912, but in more favor :
BILE conditions he now beat his own rec
rd by nearly two hours, covering the
'hole l25-mile course in eight hours
fly three minutes two-fifth seconds, and
IRVING back at the starting point fresh
nd fit. His closest rival. Swierstra of
was nearly half an hour be-
ind him. Yet another well-known tour
the fifteen villages trip of the Ak
laar region, wherein l5l persons, in
hiding thirty-three women. this year,
The championship of Hol-
md. which was decided at Veendam, fell
j. H. Baker, who won the queens
edal on points in races of varying dis
lnces. He covered 5000 meters in ten
inutes thirty seconds, and 100000
eters in twenty-five minutes, nine one
fth seconds.
The modified troops of Holland have
zen carrying out various exercises and
'mpetitions on skates, for the army
liberties consider it in the eountry's
terest that the men shall be thor.
ughly at home on the ice. The prob
m of Hollands defense normally based,
it is. on the method of flooding
rtain protective zone known as the
w water line, would be entirely trans
rmed should invasion occur during such
frost spell as the present. The Meth
lands have to this day not forgotten
eir forefathers' dismsy When their
alter gates were in the year l795
rown open to the invading French
my by such another frost, which en-
led the enemy to easily cross the riv-
; and other water barriers on which
bland had been counting. Hence the
esent exercises being carried out on the
), here and there under the eye OF the
cen herself talso mounted on skatesl,
q for which her majesty has offered