90 THE LAND OF PLUCK

“Tn all our travels we have found no race so sturdy
and independent as this, so healthy and seemingly so
happy. Not a beggar have we seen in Holland, but we
have seen the origin of many of the best characteristics
of New York life. I never realized till now how much
our big city owes to the Dutchmen. . . . And these people
are not only the tidiest folk in the world, and among the
bravest, cheeriest, and most upright, but they also have
an inborn, genuine love of art. It is a significant fact that
the only place in Europe in which we have seen the peo-
ple of the country actually enjoying their great pictures,
was in the Ryks Museum at Amsterdam. The great
building was crowded with Dutch folk of all classes, and
of a hundred different types— all really interested in the
pictures. It was a study to watch them.

“And the pictures themselves! The Dutchmen of to-
day may well appreciate them. You remember Rem-
brandt’s famous ‘Night Watch’ and his portrait of an old
woman, at Amsterdam, and his celebrated ‘Anatomist,
here at The Hague. I have seen now many of the most
famous paintings in the world, but for perfection of tech-
nical skill these of Rembrandt’s surely are equal to the
best. True, he did not paint ideal subjects, nor enter
the spiritual realm —in which the Italian masters were ©
so great. But as a portrait-painter he seems to me the
greatest of all the masters.

“... But I must restrain my enthusiasm, and tell you
briefly that we have ‘done’ also the Amsterdam ‘ Zoo’ (one
of the finest zodlogical gardens in the world), have heard
the great organ of Haarlem, have seen two rich private gal-