Junius Henri Browne

“ Holland, more than any region under the sun, illustrates the power of industry and perseverance. It shows, from the first to the last, that to the active hand and steady will nothing is impossible.
Such a land as Holland exists nowhere else. It is not merely the most singular of kingdoms ― it is the only one of its kind. You may travel the world over, and yet be unable to form any conception of the Netherlands. You may live there your life long, and have no adequate idea of the remainder of the globe. Nature is responsible for the planet, but man created Holland ”

“ If a stranger to Holland, Rotterdam will interest and entertain you vastly. You will be struck by the odd combination of canals, bridges, trees, and shipping in the heart of the town; with the tall, quaint buildings, whose gables face the street and overhang the foundation; by the numerous sledges ― used instead of wagons—which are often facilitated in their motion by jets of water from barrels carried in front. Why these sledges are employed, when wheeled vehicles would be so much better, is something an American can hardly comprehend. ”

“ The Holland maiden or housewife can sit in her chamber with her knitting or sewing ― to be idle in Holland is deemed the blackest of sins ― without losing precious moments in looking out of the window. ”

“ The most conservative citizens, who, under ordinary circumstances, looked as unemotional as a clam, were heated and florid, swinging their arms about like windmills, and screaming at the top of their voices. These Dutch solos, duets, trios, and quartettes, with a many-tongued chorus of all the other European countries, impressed me like the roaring absurdities of the opera bouffe. ”

“ They lean forward, and lean backward; they lean to the right, and lean to the left ― conveying the impression to an unfamiliar eye that the only reason they do not tumble down is that they haven't made up their mind which way to fall.
Amsterdam - the Amstel I have observed nervous foreigners walking along the edges of the canals, and constantly looking up at the monotonous brick piles, as if expecting to see them momentarily topple over. ”

“ Almost every body is disappointed in the activity and hustle of Amsterdam. Its quays are thronged, its streets are crowded, its shops are full, and its warehouses are always busy. It bears on every hand the marks of industry, perseverance, and prosperity. No man, woman, or child seems to be idle. Whatever it may be in theology, idleness is socially the unpardonable sin in Holland ”

“ A view from the tower is much more remunerative than a ramble through the interior of the building, as from that elevated position you get at a single glance a correct view of the wonderful city, with its wilderness of narrow streets, its countless canals bordered with trees, its crooked houses with projecting gables, its crowded shipping, and thronged and bustling quays. ”

“ It seems a little odd to have children and cattle, wives and pigs, infants and ducks, with barn-yards and household furniture, all under one roof; but the Dutch don't mind such things, and, on the whole, manage their domestic affairs very adroitly. They keep their live stock in one part of the boat, and their family stock in another. Those get fat, and these are content, and both contribute to the profit and comfort of the heads of the family. Among the peasantry and working people in Holland, the women labor quite as much as, if not more than the men. ”

“ In this boat life the women do all the domestic offices, and garnish their cabins with tulips, hyacinths, and dahlias ― for which the Dutch in all grades of society have an unconquerable passion ― giving an appearance of refinement and comfort to what would otherwise seem a narrow, sordid, and dreary existence. All the members of the family, without regard to age or sex, take part in the management of their floating dwelling. ”

“ But still she is great in her dwarfed proportions; great in the industry, perseverance, and spirit of her people, whom all the surges of the sea can not daunt, and all the strength of the Spaniards in the height of their pride could not overcome. She is small, but she is firm and free, and has taught both hemispheres by her example what earnestness and determination may accomplish. ”

“ Delfthaven Delft is as dull and drowsy as any place of twenty thousand inhabitants comfortably can be. Once known for its pottery ― Delftware ― it has even lost distinction in that branch of manufacture. Hardly any one is to be met in the streets, and you marvel where people enough can be found to occupy the spacious and often handsome houses you see around you. But Delft has two or three objects of interest, the first of which is the New Church, containing the costly but tawdry monument erected by the United Provinces to William I., Prince of Orange. ”

“ It is a very slow and tedious mode of journeying, but yet so well adapted, as it would seem, to the Dutch nature, that I have often wondered it felt the need of any other. No one can be said to have seen Holland properly who has not been somewhere on a trekschuit. I have made a number of short journeys on those singular barges, and would have gone all over the kingdom on them, could I have been assured that I had five hundred years of life to spare. The trekschuit is usually drawn by only one horse, and the distance made averages about four miles an hour. ”

“ If time, however, be money, as we Columbians believe, no Amsterdam banker can, with all his wealth, afford the luxury of a snail-rivaling trekschuit. The lad (het jagertie) who rides the towing horse enjoys himself exceedingly on these lightning-like expeditions. He receives at each stage a few cents (a Dutch cent is less than two-fifths of the American cent) , and at the end of the journey is blessed with a stiver, which so elates the youth that he immediately rushes into prodigality. ”

“ The Dutchman seldom owns an acre of land without having a fish-pond. He so delights in still and semi-stagnant water that, not content to be surrounded on every side by canals, ditches, and sluices, he must have an additional pool as impure as odorous under his very nose. In the neighborhood of all the large towns the tradesmen and merchants, having their shops and counting-houses in narrow streets, own a little garden in the outskirts, where, if they have no house, they can at least retire after business and spend a few hours with their families. ”

“ The Hague is one of the best built and least Dutch towns in Holland. Paris has sensibly influenced it, as can be seen by the manners and customs, the arrangements of the shops, and the style of living among the upper classes. French is extensively spoken, as you will observe if you frequent the pleasant promenade of the Voorhout, the Vyverberg (a well-shaded square) , or the animated quarters known as Prinssengracht, Kneuterdyk, and Noordeende. Many of the streets are broad, brick-paved, and bordered with trees. The city has grown and is growing rapidly. ”

“ In respect to church-going, and the rigid observance of forms, the Dutch are the Scotch of the Continent. They recognize the Deity in every thing, especially in the thing that happens to fall out as they desire, and all matters of moment they associate with special providences. They are most vehement Protestants ― their Protestantism often being a sectarian form of anti-Catholicism, as is natural after their long and bitter contests with the Spaniards, and their heroic defense of their political and religious rights. ”

“ Situated at the confluence of the river Amstel with the Y, an arm of the Zuyder-Zee, it is shaped somewhat like a crescent or bow, the string representing the Y, and the curve the boundary on the land side. Though of much less commercial importance than it was two centuries ago, it is still a great centre of traffic and trade, and its population, which is constantly growing, is now over two hundred and seventy thousand. Amsterdam is built on piles driven into the sand, which lies about fifty feet below the morass the city stands on. ”

“ The arms of the Hague are represented by a stork, which, throughout the country, especially by the peasantry, is held in a sort of veneration. This bird (ooyevaar) is never disturbed or injured, and to kill one is reckoned little less than a crime. The storks are encouraged to abide in Holland; and as it is thought a good omen for them to select any dwelling for their habitation, great pains is taken to induce them to build their nests on the roofs of farm-houses, and on the edge of a gable or near the chimney of a dwelling in town. ”

“ She has no dreams of glory in these days; but she steadily pushes her conquest of work in every direction, and girds, as she has ever girt, her honest brow with the unfading laurels of unfailing labor and unfaltering heart. ”

“ He does not wear his heart upon his sleeve, nor does his tongue babble to the wind. He is not graceful, nor magnetic, nor picturesque; but with a wise economy of his mental and moral forces he adapts means to ends, and by a careful study and use of little things builds for himself a firmness of purpose and a strength of character which time can not change and adversity will not shake.
The Hague ― called by the natives S' Gravenhage, meaning the Count's Hedge, or Grove ― is only four miles from the North Sea. ”

“ A sledge can be made by any body who has the wood and a few nails, while a wagon could not be bought for less than a hundred guilders, which to many a Dutch laborer is a sum he never dreams of possessing. The horses and the common people are shod so clumsily—the latter with wood—and make such a clumping and clattering noise over the pavements, that, with the grating sound of the sledges, the nerves of a sensitive person are apt to be disturbed. The natives are too phlegmatic to notice such trifles. ”

“ Holland is so moist, and the air is so dense, that men can drink a great deal of liquor without being injured or even affected by it. I have seen staid and venerable merchants swallow gin or brandy enough at a single draught to make an American decidedly tipsy, though it had no more effect on them, with their well-protected nerves and phlegmatic robustness, than so much tea or milk. ”

“ Water of a drinkable sort is so scarce as to be an article of traffic in Holland. Great pains is taken to catch all the rain which falls, and the contrivances to this end are many and ingenious. Most of the dwellings are provided with tanks, and the water collected is used for all culinary purposes. The quantity is not sufficient, however; and in the large cities, like Amsterdam, water is brought in stone bottles from Utrecht, which is comparatively high, and where there are flowing streams. But the main supply of the metropolis and of adjoining towns is from the river Vecht, above Weesp. ”

“ The process of manufacture is not materially different from that of other distilleries. As a stranger and an American, I was, of course, asked to taste the schnapps. It was very good for gin, which, however grateful to the English or Dutch palate, is not pleasant to mine. My only object in tasting the spirit was to form some notion of the flavor of the pure article, which is not likely to be had out of Holland. I seriously question if any body who has not been there has had an experience similar to mine. ”

“ The Museum, in the Trippenhuis, has among the notable paintings Van der Helst's "City Guard of Amsterdam" celebrating at a banquet the treaty of Westphalia, which confirmed the independence of the Dutch. The figures, twenty-five in number, are all portraits; and though none of them are of distinguished persons, they are so correctly drawn, are so well colored, and have such a marked individuality and life-like expression, that the picture has been called a miracle of the Dutch school. ”

“ A large part of the people, from motives of economy, have, like the Chinese, their homes upon the water. They build, buy, or hire a boat slender enough to pass through all the canals, stock it with poultry, hogs, and cows, construct a cabin for their families and so become independent of the outer world. ”

“ A considerable portion of the poorer citizens live in the basements or cellars of the houses whose upper apartments are occupied by persons in comfortable circumstances. Such residences are damp and unwholesome, and yet their occupants seem generally to be active and robust. The Dutch, as a people, inherit excellent constitutions, which their very moist and trying climate ― the thermometer varies from twenty degrees below zero to one hundred and five above ― their impure air, and noisome exhalations from ditches and canals, are not sufficient to injure to any permanent degree. ”

“ A Zeeland Peasant Woman The principal lion is the collection of paintings in the National Museum, the former palace of Prince Maurice. The pictures, almost entirely Dutch, have a combined excellence which can be found nowhere else. The most remarkable painting is Paul Potter's masterpiece, "The Young Bull," which, with the cow lying on the grass in the fore ground, the sheep standing near, and the farmer looking over the fence ― the figures are all life-size ― is as perfect an imitation of nature as I have ever seen on canvas. ”

“ When they are too poor to buy a horse, as frequently happens, not only the men but the women and children drag the boat along from one village or town to another, or to different quarters of the city, as suits their convenience or their interests. These amphibious families generally support themselves by trading or exchanging of some sort. They carry vegetables, poultry, butter, eggs, and cheese to the cities, and, after selling them, make excursions to the country to purchase more. ”