They all profess the reformed religion, and all know how to read and write.  In the schools more than two hundred boys and girls are taught history, geography, and arithmetic.  The fashion of dress, which has not been changed for centuries, is the same for all, and extremely curious.  The men look like soldiers.  They wear a dark gray cloth jacket ornamented with two rows of buttons which are in general medals, or ancient coins, handed down from father to son.  This jacket is tucked into the waistband of a pair of breeches of the same color, very wide about the hips and tight around the leg, fastening below the knee; a felt hat or a fur cap, according to the season; a red cravat, black stockings, white wooden shoes, or a sort of slipper, complete the costume.

That of the women is still more peculiar.  They wear on their heads an enormous white cap in the form of a miter, all ornamented with lace and needlework, and tied under the chin like a helmet.  From under the cap, which completely covers the ears, fall two long braided tresses, which hang over the bosom, and a sort of visor of hair comes down upon the forehead, cut square just above the eyebrows.  The dress is composed of a waist without sleeves, and a petticoat of two colors.  The waist is deep red, embroidered in colors and costing years of labor to make, for which reason it descends from mother to daughter, from generation to generation.  The upper part of the petticoat is gray or blue striped with black, and the lower part dark brown.  The arms are covered almost to the elbow with sleeves of a white chemise, striped with red.  The children are drest in almost the same way, tho there is some slight difference between girls and women, and on holidays the costume is more richly ornamented.

THE ART OF HOLLAND[A]

[Footnote A:  From “Holland and Its People.”  Translated by Caroline Tilton.  By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, G.P.  Putnam’s Sons.  Copyright, 1880.]

BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS

The Dutch school of painting has one quality which renders it particularly attractive to us Italians; it is of all others the most different from our own, the very antithesis, or the opposite pole of art.  The Dutch and Italian schools are the two most original, or, as has been said, the only two to which the title rigorously belongs; the others being only daughters, or younger sisters, more or less resembling them.  Thus, even in painting Holland offers that which is most sought after in travel and in books of travel; the new.