having been disappointed in seeing a magnificent city, and smelling one, i am rapidly running down the rhine to the netherlands—holland among the dutch. these boats are hardly worth mentioning, more than to say they have steam and a crew. the crew are very stupid looking; mind you i say stupid looking, but i don’t mean to say they are stupid. they have nothing to say or do with the passengers. they don’t leave their watch and come to the cabin to sit a minute and talk with passengers, and occasionally “take a hand” at a game, as they do on our inferior boats running the yazoo, arkansas, red and black river, until the boiler hisses, or the boat snags. they are slow but sure.
in the cabin, which is below, is a sufficient number of small tables in restaurant style, and whoever eats does it a la carte. if you eat what is worth only fifteen grochens, you only pay fifteen grochens; but, if you eat one hundred grochens’ worth, you will pay one hundred grochens; not one cent over or under is required, for the dutch, as a class, are a reasonable, just and inoffensive people, therefore wish nothing but fair understanding and dealing. they always keep an interpreter on a cheap scale, to enable them to get along without difficulty. he was either a waiter, dish washer or potato-peeler, but on a no more expensive scale. they are the last people i am acquainted with to count unhatched chickens.
captain husenhork, i understand, is a gentleman and a good humored man, but the eye of a lynx would have a task to catch a smile upon his hickory countenance. he brought an old dutch musket on deck for me to amuse myself with, shooting at snipe along the dykes. i shot into their midst several times, but they all flew up, circled around and lit at the same place. i never before saw so many of this style or genera of bird. their bills was the most conspicuous part of them.
the boat is now turning to land at a pretty large town called arnheim; but holland is so low that a man cannot see the spires of a city until he enters its walls.
holland is one vast marsh. it is dyked so as to drain each acre, but it is the richest soil in europe, and its productiveness is so profitable that its owners would not swop it for the land of goshen. it has nourished a people that seem to be well adapted to its nature; the forbearance of the dutch people is not to be equalled by any. the labor required to till such soil as holland’s, has been the best friend to the hollanders, for no people on the earth enjoys the labor as does a holland farmer, and no people could make it so profitable. in taking a hack ride a few miles in the country around arnheim, i can say the nurseries are unsurpassed by switzerland, the hanse states, or france.
having gossiped in arnheim two days, i called for my bill, paid it, packed my trunk for amsterdam. wine being such an extravagant item i thought i would enquire into it, as i might get some information why it was so much more in holland than the other parts of the rhine. i found that wine was an imported liquor, consequently, the duty made the difference between wine on that side of the rhine and the other. a swilly beer is most universally the beverage of the netherlands. the clerk supposing that i was not satisfied with the length of my bill, took it in his inspection and examined it carefully, and said, “sir, you eat snipe.” “well is that any reason you should make my bill like a snipes?” “yes sir,” said he, “it is extra.” “all right, sir, i did not ask you about any part of the bill except wine.” next day i was in amsterdam, the wealthiest city of holland. it is a city of canals; they run through all the main parts of the town, leaving a large side-walk on each side. some pretty large ships are in the heart of the town. bridges run across the canals, but they revolve on hinges and are easily turned.
the gayest time of amsterdam is dead winter. then the zuyder zee and all its canals are frozen over, when ladies and gentlemen are skating night and day. vessels sail charmingly on the ice, but their bottoms are made for the ice instead of water. balls and pic-nic parties are numerous in winter. the amsterdam ladies are all healthy looking. i saw half a dozen ladies yesterday shooting snipe, when i rode out to saandam. they had on nice little boots and moved among the high grass like skilful hunters. at saandam i registered my name in the little “book of names,” in the house of peter the great, emperor of russia. he ran away from russia and came here and rented this little house with only two rooms, and lived in poverty here, to learn to build ships. hollandaise builders worked with him a year at a time, but knew not that it was peter the great, of the russias. the little frame hut is three hundred years old, but has been preserved on account of its strange and novel history.
26th of september, and i am at the capitol of holland, the hague. the king lives here, about a quarter of a mile from my hotel, the “bellevue.” but i just dined with a king. the father of the queen is the old king of wurtemburg, and he is putting up here, and we have a guard of honor at our door. he is going out—he bows to me.
