FOUR-FOOTED PRIZE-FIGHTERS. 2 6l 



sport are the burghers of the Dutch seaport towns. 

 " A sad comment," etc. ; but, as Mr. Bruce's boy re- 

 marked, " People wants to have some fun." North 

 Holland is getting rather barren of out-door sports ; in 

 a land of truck-farms fox-hunts are out of the question, 

 wild ducks are getting scarce, and every game-preserve 

 is watched like a young ladies' seminary. And, besides, 

 though the Hollanders have ceased to be a conserva- 

 tive nation, many of their by-laws still date from a time 

 when prize-fights were patronized by princes and priests, 

 and the Amsterdam jonkers need not go very far out of 

 town to indulge in things which in England could be 

 explained only by the sheriff's " connivance with both 

 eyes." 



"Sog, wo zal kij stryten f" (" Where is he going to 

 fight, I wonder?") is a frequent remark on meeting a 

 fair specimen of the gryffhond, a sort of mastiff, no- 

 body doubting that the hond is kept for fighting pur- 

 poses. A rendezvous in Muidenhaven means generally 

 an invitation to a dog-fight. Northeast of the main 

 harbor extends a long line of private wharves, flanked 

 with promenades and villas and here and there with 

 public restaurants. A special variety of these restau- 

 rants is the gardenhuys, a tavern licensed to dispense 

 refreshments, but without a sign-board, and therefore 

 safe against the intrusion of unintroduced strangers, a 

 sort of club-house, with a factotum president. The pro- 

 prietor of a gardenhuys generally keeps a ten-pin alley, 



18 



