In Rotterdam is situated the home of the greatest smoker that the world has ever known, Meinheer Van Klaes. His average consumption was one hundred and fifty grams of tobacco a day. Nevertheless he lived to be ninety-eight years old. His directions as to how his funeral should be conducted are interesting: “I wish that all my friends who are smokers shall be specially invited to my funeral. Each of them shall receive a package of tobacco and two pipes, and they are requested to smoke uninterruptedly during the funeral ceremonies. My body shall be inclosed in a coffin lined with wood of my old cigar boxes. Beside me in the casket shall be laid my favorite meerschaum, a box of matches, and a package of tobacco. When my body is lowered into the grave every person present is requested to pass by and cast upon it the ashes from his pipe.” It is said that these requests were faithfully complied with. There is also a report which says that at his funeral the smoke was so dense that a horn had to be blown to enable the mourners to find the door. Rotterdam suffered from a great fire in 1563, and also underwent great loss during the struggle with the Spaniards who occupied the city in 1572. Since 1573, however, its progress has been remarkable. [Illustration: SCENE IN HAARLEM] _HOLLAND_ _Tulips and Windmills_ FIVE Spring is the best time to visit Haarlem in Holland. The traveler to this city passes through wonderful fields covered with broad sheets of scarlet, white, and yellow tulips. It is a sight never to be forgotten. But, beautiful as the tulips are, it is not for this that the Hollanders grow them in such quantities. They grow the bulb not for the flower but for the “onion,” as it is called. The cultivation of tulips is a great business in Holland; but today only a small percentage of the population commercialize the flower, compared to the number that cultivated it in the seventeenth century. The tulipomania of that time was really a form of gambling, in which admiration of the flower and interest in its culture were secondary matters. In those days thousands of florins were paid for a single bulb.