Dutch Life in Town and Country | Page 3

the Netherlander.
[Illustration: A Zeeland Woman--The Dark Type.]
All other towns are provincial in character and akin to the county-town
type. Even Amsterdam, the capital of the country, is only a commercial
capital. The Court is only there for a few days in each year; Parliament
does not meet there; the public offices are not situated there; and
diplomatic representatives are not accredited to the Court at Amsterdam
but to the Court at The Hague; and so Amsterdam is 'the city,' and no
more and no less. This Venice of the North looks coldly on the pleasure
seeking and loving Hague, and jealously on the thriving and rapidly
increasing port of Rotterdam, and its merchant princes build their villas
in the neighbouring and pleasant woods of Bussum and Hilversum, and
near the brilliantly-coloured bulb-gardens of Haarlem, living in these
suburban places during the summer months, while in winter they return
to the fine old houses in the Heerengracht and the many other 'grachten'
through which the waters of the canals move slowly to the river. But to
The Hague the city magnates seldom come, and the young men
consider their contemporaries of the Court capital wanting in energy
and initiative, and very proud, and so there is little communication
between the two towns--between the City and Belgravia. One knows,
as one walks in the streets of Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, or
Utrecht, that each place is a microcosm devoted to its own particular
and narrow interests, and in these respects they are survivals of the
Italian cities of the Middle Ages. There is, indeed, great similarity in
the style of buildings, and, with the exception of Maestricht, in the
south of the country, which is mediæval and Flemish, one always feels
that one is in Holland. The neatness of the houses, the straight trees
fringing the roads, the canals and their smell, the steam-trams, the
sound of the conductor's horn and the bells of the horse-trams, the type
of policeman, and above and beyond all the universal cigar--all these
things are of a pattern, and that pattern is seen everywhere, and it is not
until one has lived in the country for some time that one recognizes that
there are differences in the mode of life in the larger towns which are
more real than apparent, and that this practical isolation is not realized
by the stranger.

The country life of the peasant, however, is much more uniform in
character, in spite of the many differences in costume and in dialect.
The methods of agriculture are all equally old-fashioned, and the
peasants equally behind the times in thought. Their thrifty habits and
devotion to the soil of their country ensure them a living which is
thrown away by the country folk of other lands, who at the first
opportunity flock into the towns. But the Dutch peasant is a peasant,
and does not mix, or want to mix, with the townsman except in the way
of business. He brings his garden and farm produce for sale, and as
soon as that is effected--generally very much to his own advantage, for
he is wonderfully 'slim'--he rattles back, drawn by his dogs or little
pony, to the farmhouse, and relates how he has come safely back, his
stock of produce diminished, but his stock of inventions and subtleties
improved and increased by contact with housewives and shopkeepers,
who do their best to drive a hard bargain. In dealing with the 'boer' the
townspeople's ingenuity is taxed to the utmost in endeavouring to get
the better of one whose nature is heavy but cunning, and families who
have dealt with the same 'boer' vendor for years have to be as careful as
if they were transacting business with an entire stranger. The 'boer's'
argument is simplicity itself: 'They try to get the better of me, and I try
to get the better of them'--and he does it!
If, however, there are these differences between city and city and class
and class, there is one common characteristic of the Dutchman which,
like the mist which envelops meadow and street alike in Holland after a
warm day, pertains to the whole race, viz. his deliberation, that
slowness of thought, speech, and action which has given rise to such
proverbs as 'You will see such and such a thing done "in a Dutch
month."' The Netherlander is most difficult to move, but once roused he
is far more difficult to pacify. Many reasons are given for this 'phlegm,'
and most people attribute it to the climate, which is very much abused,
especially by Dutch people themselves, because of its sunlessness
during the winter months; though as a matter of fact the climate is not
so very different from that in the greater part of England. The
temperature