620 



The National Geographic Magazine 



vehicles cannot easily pass, and hence to 

 avoid blockades all teams must go in the 

 same direction. 



It is unfortunate that people ignorant 

 of the language of a country should un- 

 dertake to enlighten others regarding the 

 habits and customs of that country. The 

 mythical cleanliness of the town of 

 Broek owes its origin to the wrong 

 translation of the simple sign on the 

 bridge at the entrance to the town — 

 "Stapfoets rijden." To those who know, 

 it means "Walk your horse over the 

 bridge." To the imaginative describer 

 of this fabulous village it signified that 

 here the streets are so clean that you 

 cannot take your horse through the 

 town, but must go around it. Broek is 

 clean. So is every Dutch town. 



Opposite my window is a letter-box, 

 a two-storied one, the lower being for 

 parcels, while the upper part is the re- 

 ceptacle for letters. It is just around 

 the corner. All letter-boxes seem to be 

 in nooks and corners, affording a con- 

 venient blind, behind which the servant 

 girls read in safety the postal cards that 

 were given them to mail. Postal cards 

 are in great demand in Holland. A 

 mistake in addressing one is not expen- 

 sive, for an uncanceled postal card is re- 

 deemed for the value of the paper, while 

 a spoiled envelope is hopelessly lost. 

 There is nothing which so strikes terror 

 to a Dutchman's heart as loss, and with 

 the hope of gain he will venture much. 



A HAPPY SOLUTION OF THE TRANSFER 

 QUESTION 



He — sometimes a she — will secure the 

 permit and peddle postage stamps, call- 

 ing at business houses at regular inter- 

 vals to supply their demands for a com- 

 mission of one-half of one per cent; he 

 will stand at street corners and trans- 

 fer stations and sell street-car tickets, 

 receiving as his profits the difference 

 between wholesale and retail prices. 

 The car lines rather encourage this 

 business. The hawkers frequently sug- 

 gests the idea of riding, and travel has 

 increased through their efforts. There 

 was a custom in Amsterdam — possibly 



now in disuse since the electric company 

 controls the transit system — of not giv- 

 ing transfers, but by paying an addi- 

 tional one-fourth fare the passenger 

 would receive a coupon that would en- 

 title him to a trip on any intersecting 

 line or a return on the same line at any 

 time during the day of issue. This was 

 a happy solution of the transfer question. 

 The natural thrift of the Dutchman 

 suggests many ways for making money. 

 He is found in all of the recognized vo- 

 cations and trades, every possible variety 

 of trade and every imaginable differen- 

 tiation thereof. It would be far easier 

 to specify what he would not do for gain. 

 The catalogue would be: Change his re- 

 ligion, cheat, and give up smoking. To 

 stop smoking would be like giving up 

 breathing. He smokes at all times and 

 in all places — no, not quite all; never in 

 church, though one writer at least has 

 said so, and not in the marriage hall of 

 the municipal building. Why should he 

 not smoke? He enjoys it, and never in- 

 terferes with any other person's enjoy- 

 ment. 



EVERY MAEE SMOKES EROM INFANCY 



I have been trying to find out at what 

 age boys begin to smoke. It is one of 

 the things that has attracted attention 

 here since the genial Thackeray sketched 

 the three small plump Dutch boys smok- 

 ing their big cigars on the little Dutch 

 steamer. 



They all smoke cigars. The artists 

 in the future, in depicting Dutch life, 

 must omit the traditional pipe and sub- 

 stitute in its place the more prosaic cigar. 

 But when do the boys begin? Nothing 

 but death stops them. I have seen a 

 father and his family of boys enjoy their 

 smoke together, a youth in knickerbock- 

 ers handling his cigar like a practical 

 smoker, and boys on their way to the 

 primary school doing full justice to a 

 good-sized cigar. 



But when do the boys begin? Per- 

 haps it is with them as the lifting the 

 dress is with the misses, it comes nat- 

 ural, and it is as difficult to point to the 

 exact time for that as it is to specify 

 when spring begins. 



