Part 15

Two years ago, I devoted my time to viewing the city, so now we resolved to see somewhat of the country beyond the limits of the town. Thus it happened that we boarded a taut little boat in the midmorning and all day long steamed through canals, with many locks, passing above picturesque farmsteads and villages, down upon which we looked from the higher level of the diked-up waters, and floated at last upon the Zuyder Zee. We later visited the Island of Maarken with its fisher-folk in quaint and ancient costume. Once "simple peasants," but now, alas! ruined by the staring, money-shedding tourist. We had scarcely set foot upon the Island, when we were stormed by a horde of men and women, boys and girls, each demanding "mooney," and imploring us to snap the kodak at them for the cash; begging us also to visit their particular homes, where we would be allowed to look inside the door, and perhaps inspect the house, for more Dutch _cents_ and even _gulden_. So persistent were these "simple fisher-folk" that I almost fell into dire mishap. H suggested she should take my photograph, whereupon I arranged myself before the camera, when, just as the kodak clicked, a _vrow_ and several _kinderen_ rushed up and took position by my side, thus necessarily appearing in the picture, as you will see. The lady backed by her brood thereupon demanded, "Mooney, mooney, mooney." Naturally, I refused to pay for what had been given without request. The little company immediately raised a loud lament, at sound of which an immense and bow-legged fisherman appeared upon the scene, lifting a great oar and threatening my annihilation, unless money were put up. However, I was firm and fearless, and finally convinced him that I had not requested the family to stand before the lens, while I showed him I had already added half a _gulden_ to his chest for inspection of the home. Comprehending this at last, his anger then turned upon his spouse, and he sulkily drove her and the _kinderen_ within their door, using language that sounded much like the English damn.

Leaving the Island, we came home across the Zee and passed through the huge new locks of the River Amstel, the "_Dam_" of which, keeping out the waters of the Zuyder Zee, gives to the city its name,--_Amstel-dam_.

The little boat we sailed upon was chiefly filled with Holland folk, for we were behind the tourist season. They were a quiet, undemonstrative company and, on the deck, sat about in little groups and were served with Schiedam _schnapps_ in small glasses by white-aproned waiters and smoked long, light-colored Sumatra cigars. The proverbial Hollander, fat and chunky with an enormous pipe, is now a mere tradition. The Dutchman of to-day, like his English cousin, is long and lean, and might almost be taken for a New England Yankee.

An hour by rail brought us to "Den Haag." We passed among broad meadows, marked by wide black ditches from which gigantic pumps incessantly suck out the seeping waters and pour them into the sea. These meadows were once the bottom of the ocean, the soil being composed of the rich alluvial silt which the continental rivers have for centuries discharged. Indeed, Holland may be said to consist of the submerged deltas of the rivers Scheldt and Rhine, which the indefatigable industry of man has rescued from the sea. These lands are of inexhaustible fertility and upon them, everywhere, we saw grazing herds of black-and-white Holstein cows, whence come the butter and cheese for which Holland is famous, and the delicious milk which is so abundantly offered us at every meal. The roadbed ran high above the meadows, down upon which we looked. Here and there we espied a cluster of neat farm buildings, reminding me much of the Dutch homesteads along the Hudson River valley, and stretching from Albany along the Mohawk, in New York,--with this difference, however, that here, each house and barn and garden lay surrounded with its own diminutive canal, where were little foot-bridges and skiffs fastened near the kitchen door, even a large canal boat being often moored against a barn, the better to float away the loaded hay. The Dutchman finds life intolerable unless he has his own canal right at his threshold.

Farther along, the landscape was marked with innumerable windmills turning their ponderous arms slowly to the breeze which crept in from the sea; we counted I do not know how many, there seemed never to be an end. The people we saw were stout and rosy-cheeked, and moved with less alertness than do the Norwegians, nor did they have about them that air of busy-ness which the modern German begins to show. The impression made by the Hollander is that of sureness and deliberation. The cocky strut of the Frenchman, who moves ever as though on dress-parade, is entirely wanting to the Hollander, whose demure exterior gives no hint of the wealth, the talent, the high importance hid within.

The journey from Amsterdam to The Hague takes scarcely an hour, and before we knew it we drew in to the large station of the Dutch capital. The soldierly-clad porters are not here as numerous as in Germany, nor did those who served us move with so self-conscious and self-important a gait. Men in quiet, dark-blue uniforms quickly put our baggage into an open _fiacre_ and we drove to the hotel of the "Twe Stadten," a comfortable inn facing a large well-shaded "_park_." We were given a commodious chamber looking out upon a pretty garden and dined, at a later hour, in the long, low-ceilinged dining room. The guests were few, only one other party beside ourselves dining thus late. They were two tall and white-haired dames, gowned in black silk with much old lace round about the throat, and with them a petite and pretty Señorita, who spoke in Spanish and insisted upon puffing cigarettes. She led the way from the dining room smoking jauntily, the two chaperones following respectfully behind.

In the morning we spent delightful hours in the national picture galleries looking at the priceless collections of the Rembrandts and Rubens, which the Dutch government has here assembled; in the afternoon we strolled about the clean, quiet city, beneath the over-spreading elms; and then we supped at Scheveningen, where we saw the sea again and the last of the season's fashionable folk.

A moment before leaving our hotel to take the train, which would carry us to The Hook, I had my last adventure among the canny Dutch. Upon the table in our chamber lay an attractive little ash-receiver, which any smoker must needs long to own. Quite naturally, it became entangled with our sundry purchases and scattered belongings and with them was inadvertently put away. Just as we were quitting the apartment, the head waiter of the inn, in whose charge we seemed to be, burst in upon us with wild anxiety in his eye and explained in broken English, that he instantly observed, upon scrutinizing the chamber, that a most valuable piece of Delft ware had mysteriously disappeared. Perhaps we had broken it? At any rate, it was gone and he would be held responsible for its loss. Two _gulden_ would barely replace it! "What should he do?" Naturally, I explained that my wife by mistake had probably packed it up, and begged him to advise the office that, upon settling my bill, it would give me pleasure to deposit two _gulden_ against the loss. At a later time, when exhibiting this relic to wiser eyes, I was forced to recognize that the little ash-receiver was merely common ware, of value perhaps ten Dutch _cents_! So much for the knowing Dutchman who traps the traveler in search of souvenirs!

Two hours after leaving The Hague we were upon the ship which would carry us to England. By early morning we were again at Harwich, and we arrived in London by mid-afternoon. Our only fellow passenger upon the train was a tall, dark, silent man, who carried with him an enormous overcoat of fur. We thought him a Russian, and wondered if he also had come directly from the Empire of the Czar.

We are now returned to London, whence we departed five weeks ago. We have crossed the North Sea, and journeyed through Denmark, and Norway, and Sweden, and visited their capitals. We have voyaged across the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland; we have caught a passing glimpse of Helsingfors, and looked upon St. Petersburg and Moscow, and traveled many hundred _versts_ through the Empire of the Czar. We have sped through Germany and felt at home in the noble cities of Berlin and Hamburg. We have tarried in Amsterdam and Den Haag, where we felt the strangely familiar atmosphere of Dutch New York. We have looked upon many peoples of the Teutonic races and, when among them, have felt that subtle throb of kinship, which common blood and common origin awake; we have also plunged a moment within the mediaeval and yet semi-barbarous dominions of the Slav and found ourselves upon the threshold of mysterious Asia.

We have everywhere been thankful in our hearts that we were born and bred beneath the Stars and Stripes in the great Republic of the West, where hope and opportunity are not merely our own, but are also the loadstars which beckon thither the youth and vigor of these older peoples of the World.

INDEX

Aabo Elv, 89 Alexander Nevsky Monastery, 156 Amagertorv, The, 22 American Belles and Viking Beaux, 119 American Dollars and Norse Farms, 111 American Emigration from Norway, 113 American Influence on Norway, 48 American Navy, Norse Sailors in, 53 American Spirit, 112 Amsterdam, 223 Arctic Twilight, The, 115 Ash Receiver, Incident of, 227 Aurdals Vand, The, 60

Baegna Elv, 60 Baltic Sea, Crossing the, 138 Baltic Sea, A Storm on,140 Bandaks Vand, 108 Belts, Big and Little, 11 Berlin, City of, 216 Berlin, Hotel at Moscow, 169 Bier Garten, Berlin, 218 Blagoveschensk, 211 Boerte Dal, 107 Borgund, Ancient Church of, 72 Breifond, Hotel, 93 Bruce Fjord, 75 Brute, A Titled, 82 Brzesc (Brest), 199 Buarbrae Glacier, The, 89 Bug River, 199

Caste, Influence in Russia, 207 Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, 175 Cathedral St. Basil the Blessed, 175 Cathedral St. Savior, 173 Churches and Schools in Norway, 104 Churches, St. Petersburg, 155 Climate of Western Coast Norway, 76 Coasting Down the Laera Dal, 71 Condit, Mr. and Mrs., 138 Copenhagen, 13 Cossack Hordes, 217 Cruelty of Ivan the Terrible, 176 Cruelty of Peter the Great, 187 Cruelty of Past Czars, 174 Cruelty of Modern Russia, 210

Dalen, 106 Danish Friends, Our, 11 Democratic Trend in Sweden, 126 Denmark, A Small Country, 28 Dinner Party, An Evening, 36 Dining Service at Ed., 44 Discontent of Russian Masses, 153 Dogs of Copenhagen, 24 Dutch, Impressions of the, 226

Eida, 84 Eids Elv, 110 Eikon, The, 171 Elsinore, 33 Esbjerg, 9 Etna Elv, Along the, 56

Fagernaes, 63 Farming in Norway, 71 Fat Farm Lands of Russia, 197 Finland, 142 Finland, The Gulf of, 145 Flaa Vand, 110 Fleischer's Hotel, 82 Fog, The, leaving Harwich, 3 Folgefonden, Ice Field, 89 Fosheim, 63 France and the Jews, 202 France, Modern France, Contrasted with Russia, 198 French Fellow-travelers, Our, 90-97 Frydenlund, Night at, 58-60

Gammel Strand, The, Fish-market, 23 Geok Tepe, 210 German Bride, The Lovely, 43 German Fellow-travelers clamor for Bier, Our, 97 German Car, In a, 200 German Ogre Hungry for Denmark, 19 Germany, We Enter, 214 Germany, Journey to Hamburg, 218 Gors Vand, 92 Government Monopoly in Russia, 207 Graft, Mulcted for Passports, 150-159-195 Granheims Vand, 62 Gravens Vand, 84 Gribski, General, 210 Grungedals Vand, 106 Gudvangen, 78 Gulden at Den Haag, Two, 228

Hague, The, 228 Hamburg, 220 Hamlet's Ghost and Grave, 35 Hangoe, We Make Port, 140 Hardanger Fjord, The, 85 Harvesting in Norway, 65 Harwich, Departure from, 1-3 Harwich, Return to, 228 Haukeli Fjeld, The, 97 Haukeli Fjeld, Descending from the, 107 Haymow Flying Through the Air, 71 Height of Land, Crossing above Nystuen, 69 Helsingborg, 41 Helsingfors, 143 Herring Catch at Elsinore, 38 Hoch der Kaiser, 189 Holger Danske, Legend of, 35 Holland, Passing Through, 225 Hollander of Today, The, 225 Hook of Holland, The, 227 Hotel Berlin, Moscow, 169 Hotel Breifond, Horre, 92 Hotel Continental, Stockholm, 122 Hotel Dagmar, Copenhagen, 13 Hotel de'l Europe, St. Petersburg, 149 Hotel Fleischer's, Voss, Norway, 82 Hotel Haukelid, Norway, 97 Hotel Kristiania Missions, 46 Hotel Savoy, Berlin, 214 Hotel Sleibot, Elsinore, 38 Hotel Stalheim, Norway, 75 Hotel Twee Stadten, The Hague, 227 Hotel Victoria, Amsterdam, 223

Imperial Apartments, St. Petersburg, 155 Imperial Mail Train, Russia, 158 Ivan the Terrible, 176 Izvostchiks, 147-149-168

Jew, Cultivated Citizen of the World, 204 Jews' Opportunity, The, 206 Jewess, Russian, 202 Jewish Synagogue, Moscow, 203 Jotunheim, 61 Jutland, to Funen and Zealand, 13 Juno, A Viking, 70

Kilefos, 78 King Oscar II, an Incident, 134 Kischineff, Massacres of, 210 Kremlin, The, 173 Kristiania, 46 Kristiania to Stockholm, 49 Kronborg, 34 Kronstadt, Fortress of, 145

Laera River, The, 72 Laerdalsoeren, 70 Lap Dish-wiper, A, 109 Life and Color of Swedish Capital, 129-132 Loeken Upon the Slidre Vand, 63 London, Departure, 1 London, Return to, 228 Lotefos and Skarsfos, 90 Lubin, The Eating Room at, 162

Maarken, Island of, 223 Maarken, In a Tight Place, 224 Maidens Milking Goats, 101 Maristuen, 69 Militarism, in Germany, 217 Military Guard, 160-163 Minsk, 199 Moscow, En Route to, 158-161 Moscow, Arrive at, 167 Moscow, 168 Moscow, Our Guide in, 169 Moscow, Street Life, 178 Moscow, We Leave, 195 Mujiks, Frightful Poverty of the, 197-208 Mujiks, Hatred of Bureaucrats, 187

Naeroe Fjord, 78 Nelson, U. S. Senator, 81 Neva, Entering the River, 146 Nordsjoe Vand, 110 North Sea, Crossing the, 3 Norwegian Bride, A, 119 Notes and Comments on Norse Life, 103 Notice to Police, 150 Novo Dievitchy, Monastery, 191 Novogorod, 125

Odda, The Voyage to, 87 Odda to Horre, 91 Odnaes, 55 Ole Mon, Our Driver, 56 Ole Mon, I Fall into Rhyme, 74 Opheims Vand, 80

Pageant of Russian Mass, 182 Palaces of St. Petersburg, 154 Passport System of Russia, 136-146 Peat Beds in Norway, 114 Peter the Great, 185 Petrovsky, Chateau, 193 Pixies and Sprites, 100 Poland and the Poles, 199 Police at St. Petersburg, 149 Problems of Russia Economic, 212

Raaben, General von, 210 Railroads--Danish, 10-31 English, 1 German, 218 Norwegian, 41-81 Russian, 160-163-195 Swedish, 118 Rand Fjord, Upon the, 55 Recruiting Farm Hands for America, 113 Red Square, Moscow, 174 Religious Feeling in Russia, 180 Rembrandt, 227 Revolution in Russia Inevitable, 199 Roldals Vand, 92 Roosevelt, Russians Admire, 166 Rubens, 227 Rundals Elv, 82 Rurik, House of, 125-176 Russians Barbarians, 179 Russian Dirt, 200 Russia, How We Entered, 136 Russia, Mediaeval and Pagan, 185

Sandven Vand, 89 Scandinavian State, United, 19-127 Scheveningen, 227 Schools, in Norway, 104 Schools, Lack of, in Russia, 156-165 Seljestad Hotel, Our Hostess, 91 Seljestad Juvet, 91 Serfs, in Russia, 206 Ships, on North Sea, 3 Ships, on Gulf of Finland, 138 Skansen Park, 131 Skien, 108 Skjervefos, The Roaring, 83 Skodshorn, The Legend of the, 65 Skogstad, The Night at, 67 Sleeping Car, Swedish, 118 Slidre Vand, 63 Smidal Fjord, 75 Smolensk, 195 Snow, The First, 191 Snows, Distant, 60 Sogne Fjord, On the, 75 South African Trooper, Incident, 2 Sparrow Hills, 177 Staa Vand, 97 Staavanger, 88 Stalheim to Vossvangen, 81 Stars, We are the, 105 Stockholm, 129 Stockholm and the Swede, 123 Stockholm, The Hotel at, 122 Stockholm, Life and Color of, 128 St. Peter and St. Paul, Church of, 156 St. Petersburg, 148 Stranda Vand, The, 60 Summary of Impressions, 229 Sund, The, 32 Sund, The, Crossing to Sweden, 41 Swede and Norsk, Differentiation of, 124 Swedish Coffee House, A, 133 Swedish Sleeping Car, A, 118

Telemarken Fjords, The, 108-110 Teutonic Kinship, 189 Thier Garten, Berlin, 216 Three Continents, 184 Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, 26 Tomlevolden, 56 Tonsaasen, Sanitorium of, 57 Trolls and Pixies, 65 Trolls and Witches, 98 Tver, City of, 163 Tvinde Elv, 81 Twilight, the Arctic, 115

Ulivaa Vand, 97 Utro Vand, 69

Vangs Vand, 81 Vangsmjoesen Vand, 60 Valdai Hills, 163 Volga River, 125-163 Voss or Vossvangen, 81 Voxli Vand, 106

Warships, Incident of American, 53 Wealth of Churches, St. Petersburg, 156-157 Wealth of Few, Poverty of Many, Russia, 148-152-157 Wealth of Few, Russia, 209 Wedding Party, A, 120 Wein Stube, Hamburg, 220 Western Alps of Norway, 88 Winter, Preparation for, 115 Workingmen's Square, 187

Zuyder Zee, 223