Brave Little Holland (1901) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER HI. HOW A DAM BECAME A CITY. In this water-logged country a dam is the foundation and beginning of a city. We note that the names of all the ships of the N. A. S. M. Company end in dam. The suggestion of profanity is only in English and when mispronounced, with a short a. The word does not sound at all improper uttered in Dutch, with a as o in Tom. Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Spaarndam, Edam, Schiedam, etc., were originally the dams on the Amstel, Rotte, Spaarn, E, and Schie rivers. We are in a country built like a ship, in water-tight compartments, and the dykes and dams are the partitions. To study the evolution of a Dutch town, let us pass by " the new city " on the south side of the Maas where we land, the foundries and docks on the Noorder-eiland in mid river, and even the gay parks, elegant avenues, and smart shops of modern Rotterdam. We move at once to Hoog Straat, or High Street, in the old town. Near the great cathedral, with the open market-place close at hand, we shall find the place of beginnings. If we are to climb up to the High Street we must ascend the steiger, stages or steps. At the base of the raised ground we shall also find a dale or valley. Let us read the street-signs. Yes, there they are, ? Steiger, and Boeren-steiger, or Farmer's steps. Long since, however, the stairs have become an incline. Sloping to the canal is Groenen-daal or Green-valley. From the top of High Street we look down on Kip Straat, another old and quaint street. To the north the land is flat, with scarcely one canal until we reach the Singel, or outer moat; while to the right, towards the Maas, is low land with many water-ways named canals, gats, vests, havens, grachts, and sloots. These are the Dutch words for ditches, drains, locks, trenches, etc. Occasionally we read on ...