--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Thompson, W. F. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 16 number: 5 published: 1913-03 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Thompson, W. F., "Under the Sea Level in Holland," *Improvement Era* 16, no. 5 (March 1913): 421–425.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1605unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1605unse start_page: 421 end_page: 425 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1913-03) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1605unse publication_year: 1913 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1913, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Under the Sea Level in Holland Under the Sea Level in Holland BY W. F. THOMPSON As is well known, this country has been reclaimed from the sea the large rivers of Europe have carried down sediment which ; has formed a large delta, level with the ocean, and in many places far below. I asked an old gentleman in Groningen, "How far above the sea-level is the city of Groningen?" and he replied, "About sixty feet below, at high tide." Piece by piece it has been surrounded by dykes, and the water, being pumped out, has left a small, beautiful, fertile piece of land, now very productive. On a pleasant summer day, the landscape is very beautiful everything is nice, trim, and so clean and neat In the large cities they have ! lovely dwelling houses, the streets in THE DOG-CART front being beautiful with grass plots containing flower beds, in the center. On leaving the city, we travel along the country road, far into the farm dis- trict. The road we travel over is paved with brick. Along- each side we see a place for bicycles. On these brick roads we can travel miles upon miles A COUNTRY ROAD from one large city to another without getting off the bricks. This makes it very comfort- able for auto-riding. On either side of the road there is a large canal or drain ditch. These ditches are used to drain the pretty little farms which are likewise surround- ed with ditches which are also used in place of fences. The farms are well cared THE FAMILY BOAT for, nicely planted with differ- ent sorts of market vegetables. A horse is very costly in this country, so we see the farmer sitting on a heavily-loaded cart 422 IMPROVEMENT ERA while two or three dogs pull it along. The dog is therefore a very useful animal to his master. Here we come to a large canal. Canals are about as numerous here as water-ditches are in Idaho. Traveling along its banks we notice that the water is almost as thickly populated as the waterways of China. As we pass the boats, we see that nearly every boat has a family upon it, and our guide tells us that thousands of people are born, reared, and die, on these boats. Babies born upon these boats stay there till they are old enough to make a living for themselves. We frequently see children trotting up and down ONE OF HOLLAND S GIANT the roof of a boat within six WIND MILLS inches of the edges, and on many we see a little one tied to the mast with a rope, to keep it from falling into the water. Here comes a big boat now. The woman is cooking supper. On the boat just back of it we see a woman hanging out the wash. It is a great help to the boatman to have the wind blow in his favor when he has to travel, or otherwise he or his wife or children would have to pull the boat along. Here comes another. It is very heavily loaded. The mother and the daughter are at the end of a long rope, pulling with all their strength, and the father is on the boat with a long pole which he thrusts to the bot- THE MARKET tom of the canal and pushes. The baby, a little boy of about four or five years of age, is steering at the rudder. Weare surprised to see, almost within stone's throw, one of those giant windmills by the side of the canal. Everybody has heard of the large windmills of this country, which are very helpful to the people. This one is used for pumping the water off the land into the larsre canal which carries it to the ocean. UNDER THE SEA LEVEL IN HOLLAND 423 Further along we see one used for sawing lumber, and still another is a flour mill. Along some of the canals there are hundreds of them. They dot the farms everywhere but we notice ; that most of them are built on the outskirts of the large cities. They give a great charm to the landscape. Most of them are very old. It must have cost many thousands of dollars to build one. Their day, however, is rapidly passing and there are not many now being built. Steam is taking the place of the wind, and some day not far in the future it is possible we shall see Holland without her windmills. We arrive at the city of Amsterdam. Here the people are dressed like the people at home. Not many wooden-shoes are ELDERS OF THE AMSTERDAM CONFERENCE IN NATIVE COSTUMES Left to right, back row: Hansen, Thornick, Edmonds, White; centerrow: Richardson, McCullough, Noorda, Thomson, Hair, Nichols, Wade, Ostler; front row: Davis, Taylor (conference president), Eardley fmission president), Tiemersma, Thomas (secretary of the mission). worn in the large towns. Walking along the main streets, where most of the large stores are, we see many American styles. At length we come to the market where all the different kinds of dry goods, dishes of all sorts, and all knids of hardware are sold. Our guide takes us along a clean street, on one side of which is a large 424 IMPROVEMENT ERA canal and upon the other, an iron-paved sidewalk of which we see a great many in this country. We come to the cattle market, where it is very amusing to watch the people sell and buy cattle. The owner sets his price on his stock, which the purchaser thinks is a little too high. They slap hands with each other for a while and then finally the sale is made. Many people make their living at this business of buying and selling cattle. Leaving the market, we take a boat for the islands of Marken and Volendam. It is 10:30, the engine starts and the ship begins to move. We sail through a large canal to the sea, go first to Volendam and then to Marken. Here we behold the old Dutch style of people. They are not dressed like the people in the large cities,for they are the quaintest of all the characters of the Netherlands. They remind one of the pictures of Holland one sees in the picture galleries. The girls are clothed in large hoop-like dresses of dark blue, and colored waists. They have lace caps on, and wear a helmet of gold, silver, or brass with cork-screw gold horn, about the size of small bed springs, sticking out on each side near the eyes. It is not uncommon to see a young man, his hair cut straight off at the back, wearing a richly-embroidered shirt, trousers that resemble the American peg-top pants, made of velvet, and a velvet belt with enormous silver or brass buttons in front. Here are a lot of small children They are all dressed ! alike. We ask our guide how they distinguish boys from girls. He shows us a little boy who has a round mark on the back of his hood, while the little girls haven't. The Dutch are plain and simple in their ways. They are sober-looking, but can laugh upon occasion, and as a rule are very hospitable. As far as I can judge, the people are rather inclined to be slow and plodding; they take life very seriously, as if the physical features of the country had had their effect upon the character of the people. It is a misty, wet land, but not without its attractive features. The preaching of the gospel is carried on here in about the same way as in other fields ; walking from city to city ; selling books, in the larger cities tracting from door to door, and ex- ; plaining the principles of the gospel and the mission of the Church. Owing to the religious character of the people, it is not difficult to gain access to the people in this way. The people are wonderfully familiar with the Bible, requiring the elders to be well-posted on the Holy Scriptures. I am working, at present, in Haarlem, one of the prettiest towns in Holland, noted for its flower gardens. Hundreds* of acres of bulb-flowers can be seen in bloom every spring. The bulbs are shipped all over the world. Thousands of tourists from America and Germany visit these fields every year. I believe the Latter-day Saints have the finest company of UNDER THE SEA 'LEVEL IN HOLLAND 425 boys in the world laboring in Holland. They are doing their best to roll on the work of the Lord. We have at present large branches in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Dordrecht, Arnhem, and Groningen, all of which are growing rapidly. NYMEGEN, HOLLAND STREET IN A LARGE CITY