have always existed between Holland and America. I am sure the General is delighted with his visit to the Hague. It is true there is much sight-seeing, but in keeping with the Dutch character matters are not driven-or rushed-as in France or even Italy. We feel for once more than pleased with this most welcome Dutch slowness, and look forward to its continuance even in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Some of us go to Scheveningen, a fashionable sea resort not far

distant from the Hague. Dare I call Scheveningen the Coney Island of the Hague? Heaven forbid! Scheveningen is the most aristocratic of watering places. Here come fine ladies and gallants from all Europe. Bath houses are plenty, and those peculiar lumbering machines which are driven into the Promiscuous bathing is hardly à la mode in Europe, and though the North Sea, at least off the coast of Holland, is of the most outrageously democratic character, patrician and plebeian dive, dip, and duck in different waters. Scheveningen, though the Long Branch, the Atlantic City of Holland, is a

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great center of fisheries, and from this port there sail innumerable craft which plow up the North Sea in pursuit of herrings, turbots, etc. Fish is of quite as vital importance to Holland as it is to Norway and Sweden, and the greatest attention is paid not only to ichthyology, but to all the economical methods of preparing fish. If it is to Frenchmen that is due the method of preparing champagne, it is a Dutchman who first pickled and smoked a herring. Dutchmen are intrepid sailors, for there is no coast more tempestuous than their own, and the Zuyder-Zee, with its shallows and drifting sands, makes alone a thorough school for seamen. It was these very fisheries which originally gave Holland her supremacy over the waters, and from her seamen sprang the Piet Heins, the Tromps, the Ruyters, and the Everstens. There was for centuries no mart in the world which was not visited by Dutch ships, and it was these fishermen who brought back to Holland the tea, the coffee, the spice, the sugar of the world. We have not yet seen enough of Holland to compare her present condition with the magnificence of her past. The most conservative of all countries, since Belgium was wrested from her, she has escaped all internal strife, and has probably under good rulers made the most of the occasion. Still as the ocean beats resistlessly against the sands at Scheveningen we think again of the toil and trouble which is ever going on to preserve the country from the inroads of the water, the millions of money which must ever be spent on this same endless task. One cannot but think that this amount of human energy, if it might be turned to some other end, might have rendered Holland a mighty country rivaling England. It is true that a people who, living in a semi-temperate zone, by fighting against the inclemency of a climate, engender habits of industry and thrift. Looking back to the geological conditions of Holland, and viewing this limitless sea at Scheveningen ever thundering on, threatening to crumble away the land piecemeal, one is led to admire more and more the dauntless courage of these honest Dutch people which has overcome not only man's violence, but arrested even the extraordinary attacks of nature. You cannot help reverting again

and again to this fight between land and water, for from Scheveningen to the Hague extends a wonderful embankment, a miracle of engineering skill. We notice this work, but an officer of engineers who is with us tells us that though good in its way, it is insignificant in comparison to other methods of protection.

Our visit, the one of ceremony, having been paid to the Hague, after a pleasant stay at the capital we take our departure for Rotterdam. We pass Delft, famous for its pottery (of course we have a pottery and porcelain maniac collector in the party), and soon reach Rotterdam, famous for its commerce. And at once we commence making the rounds of the city. We are amazed to find that there are so many Americans who reside in Rotterdam, and who declare that it is the most pleasant city of Europe. We notice now the real true Dutchman ; and certainly he is an inveterate smoker, for never by chance does he let his pipe go out. He is busy enough, however, and seems to have a certain amount of business hurry. We hope to see houses which will recall to our mind the old mansions. which the Dutchmen built in New York. We do find some resemblance as to outline with the houses which used to exist on Manhattan Island, on the Hudson River, even on Staten Island; but as to color, we are quite shocked, as the Dutch have a queer taste for painting all their old houses with the most vivid colors. The streets are, however, quite picturesque, and the effects are heightened by the numerous canals. In fact, Rotterdam seems like a continuous seaport-a city with water fronts lying on all sides of it, and in the middle of it. It is an assemblage of houses and vessels. In Venice, the canals are spanned by bridges, which cannot interfere with the gondolas, but here it is a good-sized vessel, with moderately high masts, that has to go through the town. Drawbridges are constant, and communication for foot passengers is often cut off. But your Dutchman is patient, and he knows how to wait. One thing which amused many of the party was the use of dogs as beasts of burden. I cannot help remarking that some of the poor brutes looked very much overworked, and we wished that

a Dutch Bergh would arise. Rotterdam with its 122,000 inhabitants shows on her docks and quays the commercial character of the people, and there is no better place to judge of it than near the Boompjes, where the steamers are massed, some just coming in, others going out, bringing in and taking away

morning when a party of us saunter along the streets. Busy women servants, no light ephemeral creatures, but heavy solid girls, are cleaning the outsides of the houses. There is water now not only in the canals, but on the sidewalks. We escape

a drenching from a bucket just in time to be bespattered by a suction tube worked in a pail. "It is delightfully familiar,' remarks a Philadelphian who is of the party, as he catches a shower from a mop. Our destination is the Church of St.

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Lawrence, the Groote Kerk, and we are shown the monuments sacred to the memories of many Dutch worthies. The Boymans Museum contains a superb collection of pictures, where we spend many hours. The visit of the General is made agreeable in every way, and a grand dinner was given in his honor by the burgomaster of the city, which was numerously attended. We become more and more conscious from the toasts given at this dinner how sincere is the relationship between America and Holland, and how the Dutchman is not only proud of the settlements he has planted in our New World, but believes that with the increasing commercial prosperity of the United States even closer ties can be made.

Our journey from Rotterdam to Amsterdam is a short one, for there are no great distances to be covered here. The country through which we pass is very characteristic of Holland, for without man's constant care and vigilance the ZuyderZee would burst bounds and sweep these wonderful farms and blooming gardens into the North Sea. As we near Amsterdam we notice all the appearances of a great city. If the Hague is the court capital, it is Amsterdam which is the commercial center. Here are forests of masts, for this great Dutch city rises from the bosom of the sea. Once where Amsterdam stood there was a marsh, so that the city, like Venice, stands on piles. This is the mart which has kept up for a thousand years her commercial prestige. Italian cities in whose market places were once heaped the treasures of a world, have passed away, but despite time and circumstance Amsterdam will ever hold her own. We at once appreciate one of the peculiarities of the place, and that is the bad smell. It may be fish or anything else; we are told it is the drainage. We think that if Coleridge had ever visited Amsterdam he would not have maligned Cologne. We visit the various quarters of the city, and easily distinguish the great social differences which exist. Here is a commercial quarter, a manufacturing district, a portion thronged with ships; here the Jews' quarter, and there the most fashionable quarter. Amsterdam is wonderful in its picturesqueness. There are tall,