Putnam patriot., 1930-12-18


 face of the world
 1
 There is about The Hague itself a quiet charm. IL is a capital city. q residential city. a garrison city. 1 Manufactures and commerce play l little part in it's life. Three quarters of an hour to the North Is busy Amsterdam. Half an hour away k great Rotterdam. one of the richest | of the ports of the world. Here iu ] The Hague is quiet and peace. beau J itful residences with towering l gardens trailing down to quiet canals. In the buster streets there are cafes where one eats heavily and { plentifuily in the Dutch fashion and \ in pre-war days, heard the best of good music from excellent orehes- tras.
 Reminiscently We returned to one of these cafes which had been haunt of ours when the peace of 1919 was being made. 1t was a f huge place. There was an orches- tra of some thirty men, exceliently conducted. who played bits of Wag ner Schubert, now and then charming Strauss waltz. or some thing from the pre-war operettas of Lehar and Jaeoby. One sat over a glass of beer for an hour that was pleasant and relaxing and delight | ful
 On our first evening at The | Cafe Royal. incidentally one of the best restaurants in Europe. we wandered down to this particular \ cafe with not little anticipation. But 1t was all very disappointing. In stead of the excellent German or \ ehestra that we remembered, there was. instead. large jazz band, play inc the tunes of Irving Berlin and Cole Porter from last seasons New ork hits. and, worse still. there was a supposedly comic piano-player whose antics were not unlike those of the bushy haired, pasty-faced Leo Reisman, SO beloved of the younger visitors at the Central Park Casino, New York. We listened to a bari tone with a cracked voice sing. Let Me Kiss Your Hand. Nadine" through a megaphone and then went out and tramped through a Walk Street" and found another cafe that was quieter and much more amusing.
 Walk Streets" in the Dutch cities are necessity. One has to remem- bsr that practically every Hollander almost from the moment he Is able to stand on two feet, learns Co ride bicycle and he continues to ride a bicycle the rest of his life. He goes to school, to church, to busi- ness, to his every aetivity--on a bicycle. He cycles from town to , town, from nome to office. Only when he is going to marriage or to the cemetery does the Dutchman neglect his bicycle. True there are many beautiful automobiles-most of them of American make,--in Hol- land. but if you do not believe that tie bicycle is the favorite and na- tional mode of conveyance. then, we dnre you to deny terror in trying to cross a Dutch street at the noon hour, with it's flock upon flock of radaling citizens, on pneumatic wheels peremptorily ringing their tinkling bells as you try to escape their onrush. New York's most crowd ed corner cannot compare with 1t for s traffic experience.
 Walk Streets" are those ways through the cities where neither NitAEttr nor HtUiOIf Aft AiiONtu tp |. mass. Here everyone walks steadily ! in excellently divided columns on , the right and the left, past the shops, . mast the cafes, for commerce and business or simply for the pleasure . of walking. The walk streets'-- ! an appellation entirely our own, we , found a delightful innovation and , one that many American cities could ~f .g t.,E . sion of their residents.
 , The use of the bicycle in Holland !, Is but one of the sanities of the na- . tion. Holland is fatter than a i kpnsas prairie. The Dutch are fru- gal and industrious race, nor have ' they hastened to adapt themselves . t. all 0. the shoddy innovations and of the past two decades of mod ern life. In dress they are far from pretentious They go to work early and work late. They take a long time over their meals and at them i they laugh and converse and enjoy themselves. They save their money and they are happy people and | when the day is over. they mount their bicycles and wheel themselves 7 homeward.
 Stduu Iuf UlbFtn utiHutfo A1 bevh !, in front of the Riiks Museum at [ Amsterdam and watch the cyclists , 70 by There are focks of students . wheeling home to lunch Here is a naidservant with a market basket. , the tails of her cap floating behind. Here are two sedate nuns, the skirts , of their habits carefully tucked away l from the wheels A gentleman in a top hat, laborers with their picks over their shoulder, widow with her crepe veil free to the winds, all states and classes of the kingdom ; wheel home over bridge and canal. past cities and windmills and farms, . swiftly and surely. In fact, one can not but wonder in this country of charming simplicity. the reason for . that great gilded coach of the , Queens. How much more typical Of l her people 1t would have been had, } the Queen, at the opening of Psrlia- , ament, gathered her regal robes l about her. tied the orb and seeptre ! securely beneath the seat and with her speech to the Lords carefully i tucked in her bosom. wheeled her : way slowly through the lines of her