DUTCH HOME LIFE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5384, 29 June 1878, Page 3

DUTCH HOME LIFE.

(From the Argosy.)

One of the great charms of Dutch life, its chief characteristic, is its simplicity. A Dutchman will not materially alter his mode of living with the increase of wealth. The love of display, of spending money, is not one of his failings. Not so much, perhaps, from the love of the money, a wish to save and accumulate, as that he finds his happiness in quiet unosteutation. An affection for everything that is simple and gives no trouble is inherent—a part of his nature. Where an Englishman would launch out in display and all the luxury that wealth can procure, a Dutchman will continue in the same quiet, respectable, undemonstrative manner to which he has always been accustomed. His dependents will not increase in number, or his table groan under the weight of dainties. He dispenses often with a carriage, simply because he has hitherto done without it, and can do so still. There is no attempt to outvie his neighbor in magnificence. These ambitions are unknown amongst them. Their hours are almost universally the same. Breakfast at Bor halfpast 8 o’clock. Coffee and bread and butter ; not a substantial meal as in England. About 12 o’clock luncheon. This they call taking coffee ; and when inviting a friend to this midday meal it is always to take coffee. It consists of that beverage, or wine and beer for those who prefer them, bread and butter, and a dish of hot or cold meat. Eive o’clock is the general dinner hour. After this they take tea or coffee ; and the last thing before going to bed many sit down to a heavy supper. Such is the kind of life they lead. Simple in their ways and ideas. Infinitely pleasant and refreshing after the wealth, and ceremony, and display of other countries. It has its charming side. You -will find amongst them refinement of feeling and cultivated minds, and a due appreciation of all things necessary to the higher life. A Dutch lady will wash up her best china tea-things, rather than trust them to the tender mercies of her servants, in the presence of her guests, and put them away, and be as much of a gentlewoman, as refined and courteous, as a fastidious and highlypolished Englishwoman. In a somewhat different way, perhaps. But it gives to their surroundings that real atmosphere of home and homeliness, that sense of the good housewife looking after hei household, that is so delightful an experience to live with. They live a simple true life. They are what they seem.