The Pioche record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1908-1925, 1919-06-13
THRIFTY DUTCHMEN TURNED
INTO DESPERADOES BY WAR
Genuine Shock Has Come to Those Who Old Days Admired Indus
trious Honander Whose Only Occupation Now Is in
Deeds Of Daring and Robbery-Couty Is
Now Paradise for Thieves


the Hollander before the war as
quiet. we!l-behaved, thrifty and indus
trious soul. content 10 pursue the even
tenor of his way and sticking religi-
ously to orderliness and good belav-
ior. mis- transformation since the sign
Ing of the armistice last November
Will come as genuine shock.
Crime. in the prewar days, was ut
Its minimum In Holland Her stand
Ing army of some $4,000 was COM
posed of young men who served their
allotted time in the military service
OF their country with the minimum Of
grumbling. returning cheerfully to the
pillow, or the dairy. or the fisheries, as
soon as their term of army service
was over.
Except for an ever watchful eye on
her frontier. Holland lived a calm,
contented existence. turning out her
world-famous cheeses and her per-
haps. more infamous gins, her citizens
secure in the feeling that theirs was
a land where the law was observed,
where their chattels were safe even
though their front doors rema;n ned I'M
locked and where the infrequent Of
fender against the penal code could
not hope to get his full name In the
papers, much less his photograph with
q pretty border around 1t.
Today all this is changed From q
land of safety Holland has been trans
formed into land of danger and the
Hollander-that Is, he who is repre-
sented in the ranks Of the pillow boy
the driver Of the horse or donkey
along the tow path, the churner of the
butter and the cream, the farm han(
or the miller's assistant-has beer
transformed into a shiftless, lazy. dis
orderly ne'er-do-well, whose principa
occur alton is burglary!
It ls a New Crime.
Burglary in Holland was not a usua
rime In the pre-war days. That fac
makes the present wave Of lawless
ness all the more striking. The grea
truth that has dawned upon the coun
try is that the 100000 Hollanders VIII
have been doing military service a
non-combatants since the beginning o
the war have come to hate work an
to hate having to provide for thei
own living, after enjoying food, clotf
Ing and shelter Mt government expens
for nearly five years.
When Holland modified her youn
manhood, middle-aged manhood an
full-grown manhood during the fir.
six months of the war, when ther
was momentary danger Of German
suddenly getting 1t into her disorders
brain to invade and despoil the Net
erlands as well as Belgium, the DutC
government provided for the suppo
of the families Of the soldiers who
she modified as wei, as for the SUI
port Of the soldiers themselves.
In her well-ordered house, Hollar
could not see 100000 families in wal
because 100000 male supporters we
taken for the defense of the fathe
=. land. She provided this support /,
punctiliously and as carefully as 81
. provided for the thousands of Belgi,
i and French refugees, who have liv,
on the country's bounty from the d,
!, Of the siege Of Antwerp to the d'
u that Marshal Foch handed his fou
tain pen to the German armistice col
uissioners and said: "Sign!"
. With the rehabilitation that beg
:, during the latter days Of last Move
- Der the discharged soldiers found
: itksome to resume their duties as ia
lily providers instead of letting w