HOLLAND TO-DAY 101

male descendant of a glorious and highly respected race:
the House of Orange. The Oranges are loved by the
Dutch because they can boast of many a valorous and
wise ancestor, but principally because the head of the
house, Prince William, who was murdered in 1584, freed
the people from the Spanish tyrant whose despotic reign
had become unbearable.

“The sole descendant of this long list of princes and
kings is our little Queen Wilhelmina, much beloved by
the people, who cherish her as something very precious.
The government is now in the hands of her mother, who
is queen regent until the little one is eighteen years old.
Queen Emma is a very superior woman, kind and wise,
giving her little daughter a sensible education, and quite
capable of filling her difficult position and of executing
her duties exceedingly well.

“Of course you, like a true American, do not feel any
enthusiasm for kings and queens, but our government is
constitutional and liberal, and I don’t think the people have
in reality much more freedom in any of the new republics
than in our kingdom. The two queens live in the Hague.
As yet, of course, everything is very quiet at the court, but
the mother and daughter can be seen daily when driving
out, looking very happy together. They pass our house
nearly every day. I would not be a queen for anything —
would you? Fancy not a bit of freedom, not being able
to move a step without the whole land, so to say, knowing
of it; their sorrows and rejoicings public sorrows and
rejoicings! Seemingly rulers of the land, but in reality
dictated to in their slightest acts!

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