DUTCH HOME LIFE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 354, 22 April 1911, Page 3

DUTCH HOME LIFE.

Rika, the sweet-faced Friesian maid, with eyes like gentian bells, shining bronzed hair, and skin like milk and roses, smiled as "Me Vrou" entered her kitchen shortly after seven one morning. The milkman and the baker had just delivered their wares, and a quiet flirtation had taken place with the latter, who was dressed in white linen, and brought the rolls for breakfast on a long box, set on a barrow, which he trundled up to the step where the maid was hard at work. "Clean," said the girl, with a face of astonishment, "why, we would not have it any other way." The red tiles of the kitchen were dazzling as the sun fell on them, the copper and brass of the utensils hanging on walls of absolute whiteness made one sigh at the thought of English culinary appointments in the average household. Charcoal or anthracite burns in the stove, however, which accounts for much of the perfection of cleanliness in Holland, and if one is cold a charming maid brings a picturesque little footstool, with hot charcoal inside it, on which the feet are placed, and there is no smoke to sully the tidiness of the parlour. Long before eight o'clock of a morning the maids have neat hair, and are dressed in cotton gowns in pink, white, blue, or grey cheeks, and aprons that in themselves are MARVELS OF DOMESTIC CAREFULNESS. The folds are seldom out of the aprons, so frequently are they renewed, and the small cap that is the sign of domestic service is a round ruche of white muslin, always crisp and fresh. They are charming persons to meet at a morning, or from whom to ask any little favour.

The Dutch maid thinks nothing of running out, even in the aristocratic Hague, with her print gown and her cap strings flying, .She has not yet learned, as have the English, the necessity of curling her hair and dressing herself, even to her gloves, simply to go as far as a pillar-bos. She has been out early, no doubt, for in the morning she must wash the hall, the steps, the windows, the door, and even goes the length of polishing the stones of the house as far up as ever she can reach. A long stick, with a clip, in which a sponge is held, is used to add to the length of her arm, and often she has

THE ADMIRING AUDIENCE

of the rival milkman and baker as they chatter to her.

The brilliant polish of the Dutch milk cans is something to look at, and people are so eaivful that at almost every door sterilised milk in patent-stoppered bottles is delivered, in no small supply, but by the dozen, even for a modest household.

The Dutch are generally supposed to know something of the importance of good food, and a Dutchman once merely laughed when some reproach on the subject was made to him. "Why," said he, holding out a brawny arm, he was at least six feet high, "I am a credit to my feeding, am I not ?" Vegetables arc freely used, and at certain seasons prices are exceedingly moderate. A bunch of asparagus will ccst 6-i-d., when the same amount is realising fully a shilling in London. FRYITS AND VEGETABLES. are brought to the door of the house, and offered by clean,, well-dressed men. The system of delivering is the same in London, but the cleanliness and the white jackets of the vendors are more attractive than the rig-out of the average coster here. Vegetables are always cooked with butter, Dutch cooking being, on the whole, even richer than German, and certainly more substantial. In a Dutch boarding-house or hotel, even at The Hague, prices are by no means exorbitant, and accomodation is excellent. As in Japan, tea is considered a beverage which might be wanted at any moment, consequently -in most rooms there is a little "TEA STOVE." This is a quaint little pail of rosewood or mahogany, with a brass pan inside containing a por with charcoal, on which is a copper kettle for the boiling water. The china in use would perhaps be blue Delft, often of fine quality : the maid brings milk and sugar, and then the, visitor helps herself. Such appliances as charcoal tires, !r i KtriiT-:. npi! spui! l footstools 1j,.!.-h m ; »i'! :■■ .i'.'-usiomed to hard ■ami-';, because -if the standard ol <:b