By the Zuyder Zee-Where Petticoats are Fashionable

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6667, 21 July 1928, Page 8 (Supplement)

By the Zuyder Zee-Where Petticoats are Fashionable

“My dear, they eat, sleep and cook all in the same room!” Can’t you imagine the pity and distaste expressed in that sentence?

Yet that is what the fisher folk of Holland have done for generations. The one room is so intriguing, however. that it makes one almost wish to settle down to life on the Zuyder Zee.,

Everything in a Dutch home, from the frying pan to the linen basket, is ornamental. The plates that the family use every day hang on the walls doing their share of decoration. The pots and pans, ranged in a row on a shelf, shine like new, and the little oil-stove made for the most part of copper, is as bright as a looking■glass., -",. ‘, • , Built into the wall is a huge bed that looks quite capable of holding the entire family. The square downy pillows are spotless and most inviting, and the patchwork quilt a thing .of.beauty. In a cupboard with tiny leaded windows are shelves piled high with pretty oval papier m&clie boxes of every conceivable colour. , In these are stored the clothes of past generations. One holds the quaint baby

garments that Slave been used in the same families for hundreds of. years: Here are the tiny caps and bonnets, the wide pants and small full, skirts, minute replicas of what the grownups, wear. In other boxes are the family wedding garments; ; different, indeed, to bur ideas of bridal array. There is the bride’s wide; navy blue skirt, and the eight coloured petticoats that go under it. The thick scarlet bodice, all hand-embroidered; on its back are worked seven roses in silk, the symbols'of thei bride. The dainty 'coloured apron, too;; is. fashioned by hand, and the little lace cap, starched so stiffly that the points turn back off the face without .wiring, ;ls a marvel of daintiness. Another box holds the bridesmaid’s attire. This is similar to that of the bride, except that her apron is of spotless white, and on the back of the bodice are embroidered five silken roses, instead of seven. All the clothes In these boxes are spotless and smell of lavender. Cleanliness is the watchword of the Dutch, for even the floor, which in a one-roomed house might be expected to be dirty, is clean enough to sit on. Indeed the children sit them more naturally than iff' the little carved, hand-painted wooden chairs provided for them. The windows V and doors of these homes look out over the loveliest

views of blue sea and sky. Against the horizon are the brown sails of fishing smacks, and away in the dis-. tance are" the long' black" lines of the dykes, and the spires and squat■ outlines of other villages., ,In the summer most of the cooking-is done out of doors, and it is not . unusual to see mother giving the .youngsters /their, mid-day meal from an earthenware pot on the . straggling brick pavement in front of their one-roomed home. Dutch children are lovely. They have wide, very blue eyes, and soft curling fair , hair. They are eventempered and sweet. One. sees little girls of eight years or -so, • knitting with the air of old. women, while they keep watchful, eyes on the. younger members of the family; \ / The women look very picturesque In their national costume, for tho wedding dress described above is only a more elaborate edition of their ordinary attire. All have pretty • hair, which is cut into a fringe along the forehead. This is oiled until it stands out stiffly like a tiny shelf, the rest of the hair hanging over" their shoulders in two luxuriant strands. The men wear the wide; pants, pudding basin caps and. wooden sabots,that one

always connects with the word “Dutch." Their thick stockings are hand-knitted,/and have Rouble spies which are needed, as everyone removes his or her sabots, before; entering a house. It seems queer to see the. row of boat-like shoes iff varying- sizes; standing outside the doors of the dwellings. The fishermen are big fellows/ bronzed and healthy-looking; some -of them still, affect ? small gold ear-rings, which give, therff a staggering air, reminiscent* of/buccaneery ing days. They smoke evil-spelling pipes with evident enjoy.pent, . and amuse themselves by leaning oyer the, bridges telling long-winded yarns, The city-bred Dutch map or girl is smart and up-to-date. City-dwellers speak several languages,,'-and , have homes as comfortable and,'convenient as any in the world. The Dutch, style of architecture is unique, : and it ■is easy to see-that ’the Boors of South Africa brought their ideas of wide stoeps and • sloping roofs from their native Holland. The city man Is. in closep-touch with the outside world than his, brother on the Zuyder Zee. but he is-ho happier for. that. The fisherman has an air of peace and prosperity that testifies to'a contented mind. He~ takes life as It comes, without unnecessary frills and thrills —and he enjoys’it! ELLIE MAGUIRE.