THF IDIOSYNCRASY OF THE DUTCH.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 285, 7 May 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

THF IDIOSYNCRASY OF THE DUTCH.

The conceit of the Dutchman is excessive. He regards the reputation of his ancestors as his own. He revels in the thought that he is in the land of William of Orange and De Witt, of Tromp and De Ruyter, of Erasmus and Grotius.of RemIrandt and Paul Potter. With such forebears he cannot fail to be, so he considers, a very tremendous fellow. Without tyinte for art, or sculpture, or music, he stands to-day on a pinnacle of his own construction, looking down upon his neighbours with a conscious superiority. " J'y sitis,f>/ rcsle " has become his motto. He never knows or cares what the outside world is doing. Salisbury is nothing but aname. Of President Faure rumours alone hive reached him. Even that European firework, the German Emperor, fails to command more than a pissing notice. Criticism the Dutchman cannot endure. A young diplomat who had spent several years at the Hague warned me of this trait in the national character. I had remarked that the canals sme't dreadfully. " That is true enough,'' ho said, " but you must never mention the fact in the Hague ; or, if you insist on choosing it as a subject for conversation you must say that, though an odour certainly exists, it is romarkabl/ pleasant and doubtless healthy."

I laughed, for I thought he was joking. '"lt's no laughing matter," ho continued, "as I found for myself. When I first came to Hague I was careless, Now I know better. I* or instance, one night at the Kurhaus at Scheveningen, which is little more than two miles from the capital I was laugning with a friend over a patriotic newspaper that had been defying the German Empire. Suddenly a round little citizon rose from a rmghbouring table and strutted up, fairly bristling with anger, to where I sat. " I could not help overhearing your remarks, mynheer,'' he said, in rumbling Dutch, " and I must ask you to retract statements which infer that the soldiers of Holland are not in every way superior to those of Germany." You may not know the Dutch Boldier. 1 do. It was so ridiculous that I am afrud I could not resist a smile. And before I realised what he was about ho had d*sho:l off to the management and demanded my expulsion from the Kurhaus ! They soothed him down somehow, but it was a la'son that I never forgot." But I must give tho Dutchman his duo. He may be stolid and unemotional, but he is a kindly soul. Though he may never reach those mount tin tops where, as Carlylo tells us, dwell the shining spirits of the dawn, ho has many of the domestic virtues. One may forgive much to a good father and a faithful husbaad. His tastes are simple, and he pursues his colourless existence with much quiet satisfaction to himself. His surroundings ara scrupulously clean ; ho washes everj thing but himself. The Dutchman has hUlo faculty for organising amusement. In this respect he resembles the majority of our nation. At a carnival, for instance, ho walks stolidly about, trying to appear jovial, but looking and feeling ridiculous. Even in the midst of the season in the Hague the round of sooial functions can nevot be described as a " vortex "or a "whirl" of gaiety; it is merely a promenade. Dutch amus' ments are simplicity itself, occasional bills and concerts, a goodly number of substantial dinners, rides or drives in tho woods—that is all. It would be difficult for the most dashing yo'ing Dutchman to become dissipated, cv3ii were ho so inclined. Club lifo is almost as popular as in England, and Club life invariably deals a death-blow to merry littlo family outings and supper at <wfcs, such us you see in France and Ger-< many. The proprieties aro moro rigidly inspected even than in England. An elopement would cause as muuh horror and consternation as tho bursting of tho local dyke-. Scheveniiigan, the fashionablo watering place, is but two miles from the capital, and there, indeed, there is plenty of jollity to be found. Otherwise the stranger, without introductions, could ootiiu as much amusement in a small provincial town in England as at tin Hague.