DWARS STREET, AMSTERDAMBUILDINGS IN AMSTERDAM FACING RAILROAD STATION
part of the life of the Latin merchant. Big breakfasts in Holland form a culminating link in similarity to America —a happy contrast to the sip of coffee and molecule of bread in the other countries to the south.
In Holland one is quite willing to award the people the same attribute of politeness in which the French are supposed particularly to excel.One may be told by a Holland friend that it is because his countrymen are anxious to display their linguistic ability or to practice a
foreign tongue, but the very apparent kindliness of everyone’s manner can hardly be explained on such a basis. Being treated courteously makes one feel more at home, but hardly less so than by the cost of living. Guilders or florins, call them as you will, cost forty cents in American money, and try as you will, disappear as quickly as in the native haunts of the penny. Living is somewhat less than in the United States, but not a great deal, and is probably
equal to or more than anywhere else in Europe 1 except Great Britain.
This varied number of influences makes Holland seem familiarly homelike to an American. In almost any town one might readily imagine himself in one of our nondescript cities, were it not for the bicycles. The nation seems to live on them. They are the chief traffic problem. Cycles are the means of attending to business and pleasure, as well as creating both. Fine physiques and innumerable bicycles seem the rule—as opposed to our national “debutante” slouch and use of the auto to cross a street. Bicycles rather than wooden shoes should symbolize Holland’s means of locomotion.
Either Holland has become less clean or the rest of Europe more so, but at the present writing the windmill nation can scarcely claim an uncontested right for any scrub-brush honors. The canals offend an American nose most, particularly with their un
THE BOURSE, AMSTERDAM
REAR ELEVATION
part of the life of the Latin merchant. Big breakfasts in Holland form a culminating link in similarity to America —a happy contrast to the sip of coffee and molecule of bread in the other countries to the south.
In Holland one is quite willing to award the people the same attribute of politeness in which the French are supposed particularly to excel.One may be told by a Holland friend that it is because his countrymen are anxious to display their linguistic ability or to practice a
foreign tongue, but the very apparent kindliness of everyone’s manner can hardly be explained on such a basis. Being treated courteously makes one feel more at home, but hardly less so than by the cost of living. Guilders or florins, call them as you will, cost forty cents in American money, and try as you will, disappear as quickly as in the native haunts of the penny. Living is somewhat less than in the United States, but not a great deal, and is probably
equal to or more than anywhere else in Europe 1 except Great Britain.
This varied number of influences makes Holland seem familiarly homelike to an American. In almost any town one might readily imagine himself in one of our nondescript cities, were it not for the bicycles. The nation seems to live on them. They are the chief traffic problem. Cycles are the means of attending to business and pleasure, as well as creating both. Fine physiques and innumerable bicycles seem the rule—as opposed to our national “debutante” slouch and use of the auto to cross a street. Bicycles rather than wooden shoes should symbolize Holland’s means of locomotion.
Either Holland has become less clean or the rest of Europe more so, but at the present writing the windmill nation can scarcely claim an uncontested right for any scrub-brush honors. The canals offend an American nose most, particularly with their un
THE BOURSE, AMSTERDAM
REAR ELEVATION