GLIMPSES OF HOLLAND 



29 



United States. Its exports amount to 

 $203.69 per capita, as compared with 

 $24.66 for the United States. Of course, 

 a great deal of this is to be accounted for 

 by the amount of international business 

 that passes through Holland, but which 

 neither originates nor ends there. 



It is a matter of history that many 

 of the greatest men the world has known, 

 in every branch of art or knowledge, were 

 Dutchmen. 



To the world of art Holland gave Rem- 



brandt, Jan Vermeer, and Ruysdael ; to 

 the world of navigation and exploration 

 she gave Tasman and Hartog; to the 

 world of theology and philosophy Eras- 

 mus and Spinoza. She founded the 

 greatest city in America and called it New 

 Amsterdam, and established trading posts 

 on the sites of what are now many lead- 

 ing American cities. Everywhere and in 

 every line of human endeavor Holland 

 has a history creditable to herself and 

 worthy of the admiration of her friends. 



THE CITY OF JACQUELINE 



By Florence Craig Albrecht 



Illustrations from Photographs by Bmil Poole Albrecht 



IT WAS Motley who sent us there. 

 "Little need to tell the story of fair 

 and ill-starred Jacqueline," he said. 

 But we thought that there was much need, 

 for we didn't know it and Jacqueline was 

 such an invitingly romantic name. The 

 "Joan of Arc of the Netherlands" and 

 various other charming things he called 

 her, while still evading her history. 



That epitome of all wisdom, the Ency- 

 clopedia Britannica, was quite "mum" 

 on the subject. Delving through stacks 

 of old books for any crumbs of informa- 

 tion, flavored with frequent disappoint- 

 ments, was not inviting on summer days, 

 so we sought the elusive lady upon her 

 native soil. Perhaps had we known at 

 the start that the lovely Jacqueline had 

 had four husbands before she was thirty, 

 and that her fellow-countrymen called 

 her Jacoba, we might not have been so 

 keen on the quest. 



There is little romance about Jacoba or 

 four husbands. Jacqueline's historians 

 are a little divided as to the responsibility 

 for the many misfortunes that beset her 

 short life, and were it not that her early 

 death draws a veil of pity over her ca- 

 reer, opinion of it would be expressed 

 more sharply. 



Countess of Holland and Zeeland by 

 birthright some five centuries ago, there 

 is scarcely a town of note in either prov- 

 ince which has no souvenir, sad or glad, 



of this ill-fated lady. The "Quest of 

 Jacqueline" took us up and down the land 

 from pretty Hoorn, the town of many 

 gables, to charming Middelburg, ringed 

 round an abbey's walls. 



mt STORY OF JACOUEWNi; 



In Holland, Jacqueline comes in for 

 much sharp criticism. Hoorn tells a story 

 of her, not in the least pretty, but none 

 the less true, of a young man done to 

 death at her command because he had 

 ventured regretful comment upon some 

 of her wanderings deserving of harsher 

 censure. 



And yet such is the romance which 

 veils a female ruler, above all if she be 

 young, pretty, and charming, that in spite 

 of Jacqueline's vagaries and husbands 

 she is yet enshrined loyally in Holland 

 hearts, while in Zeeland, her best-beloved 

 home, she dwells half saint, half martyr 

 in loving memory. 



She stands in carven stone upon Mid- 

 delburg's charming town hall. She looks 

 out over your head with far unseeing 

 eyes, and such is her distraction one may 

 venture to stare rudely and remark that 

 she is neither so lovely nor so fascinat- 

 ing as one had expected her to be. Jacoba 

 is written upon her pedestal, Jacoba it is 

 who stands there ; but the bewildering, 

 elusive Jacqueline, who turned men's 

 heads and hearts with her white fingers. 



