Page:Things Seen In Holland (1912).djvu/150

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Things Seen in Holland

in a sea-fight. The former were victorious, whereupon the vanquished ones paid them the following generous compliment: “We could not help being beaten by you, for you fight like steers.” “We do,” was the somewhat vainglorious rejoinder. Hence the Edam steer. It is not, as has been stated, a cow, selected because there are so many cows about the well-known cheese-town. Such an explanation verges on the ridiculous.

Art there is in the biers lying in the church at Workum, representing the various trades of the dead. The builder, the smith, the sailor, the farmer, the surgeon—each and every one was carried to his rest on the bier proper to his occupation in life. Art there is in Sneek's Water-Gate, in the Stadhuis steps of Bolsward, at Laren, the haunt of the American artist; and art there is at Volendam, where

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