Birdseye Views of Far Lands

at Conquers t

. A million acres of the best land in Holland have actually been rescued from the water, and at this hour a large lake is bein

ey placed end to end, would make an immense dam more than fifteen hundred miles long and in some places from thirty to sixty feet high. Almost the e

h desperate straits that all they had to eat was dogs and cats. In derision they were called "dog and cat eaters." They replied to their enemies: "As long as you hear the bark of a dog or the mew of a cat the city holds. When these are gone

bordering upon fear must occupy every moment, both day and night! In a single century there were thirty-five great inundations which literally swallowed up several hundred thousand p

e time by water, they make the water serve them in numerous ways. Their fences are ditches filled with water. How their cattle and horses have been trained to stay in,

orld. Supporting a population of four hundred and seventy people to the square mile, every foot of the land of course is tilled carefully. The main agricultural product

er in the house when the weather is cold, washes and combs her hair more often than his own, and keeps her room as clean as the parlor. She chews her cud contentedly and the only thing about her which is tied up is her tail, which is generally fastened to a beam above to keep it fro

or the purpose, and almost every Dutch city has a pet colony of these birds. The Dutch folk-lore tells of the tragedy of the stork colony away back in the fifteenth century which occurred during the breeding season. The tow

the latter, of course, can only be indulged in during the winter time. These people become so skilled on the ice that they can beat an express train, and to skat

d bring them home safely in their mouths or pockets. The fair maidens try to waylay them and break these pipes. Likewise the maidens purchase brittle cakes and attempt

from snow, etc. Everyone must obey the rules laid down by this society, consequently accidents are rare. One week each year they have a great festival called the "Kermis," which is not unlike the old-fashi

the walls are water in the shape of canals. There are four of them, the outermost being called the Single or "Girdle."

e city has the appearance of being built on the water, canals serving the purposes of streets. The ground used t

ut of shape, but the people are so used to seeing the buildings lean, almost like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, that they think nothing about it. Once in awhile th

alace called the Dam has a hundred windows and only one little insignificant entrance. It has been called "the palace without a door." J

ox, and most of these live in the direst poverty and misery imaginable. However, just beside this Ghetto live wealthy

lf as wide, and used to be a great forest. Between seven and eight hundred years ago, this forest and some better lands consisting o

d. Hundreds of villages with their inhabitants were engulfed and destroyed. Geographical continuity was obliterated, and Holland found herself cut in two by an ocean eighty

ed August 28, 1913. Something like twenty countries contributed materials for this great building. The granite in the base of the walls came from Norway and Sweden, th

clock, and Belgium the iron work on the door at the main entrance. Our own contribution was a group of statuary in marble and bronze at the first landing of the great stairway. Russia and China furnished vases, Japan sent silken

to be ready for invasion every moment, yet trying to remain strictly neutral, she had the job of feeding hundreds of thousands of refugees. These were anxious months and years, but the Dutch di