HOLLAND TO-DAY 91

leries, have heard the ‘Mikado’ sung in Dutch (fairly well
sung, too, but with some nightmare words fitted to the
music), have seen ‘Peter the Great’s hut’ at Zaandam,—
and to-day an auction of fish on the beach at Schevenin-
gen, with the fishermen and white-capped fisherwomen
thronging about in their odd costumes and big wooden
shoes. . . . To-morrow we return to Amsterdam.”

Holland speaks for itself, and every traveler is its inter-
preter. But here is an inside, home letter straight from
the land of dikes. Its writer, a bright and patriotic Dutch
gil, is in herself the best evidence one can have of the
advantages of education her country offers to all.

It cannot but be encouraging to young Americans try-
ing to master a foreign language to note how admirably
this young Hollander expresses herself in English. Not
a word of her clearly written letter has been changed :

“ SCHEVENINGEN, Feb. 28, 189-.
e The winter has been, as probably everywhere
else, exceptionally cold; an old-fashioned winter, and one
that will be recorded in the annals of history and not soon
forgotten. Of course, it has been the cause of much pov-
erty and misery, and every one was thankful when, after
weeks of severe frost, the thaw fell in; but much has been
done to soften the sufferings of the poor, and those who
went round to ask for help did not ask in vain. On the
other hand, the whole country was alive with wholesome
merriment, caused by the skating that was practised over
the whole length and width of our watery little land.