THE MENTOR · DEPARTMENT OF TRAVEL · MAY 1, 1914 MENTOR GRAVURES THE RYKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM VEEN KADE, THE HAGUE STREET SCENE, ROTTERDAM STREET SCENE, AMSTERDAM MONTALBANS TOWER, AMSTERDAM SCENE IN HAARLEM Holland has been described as a “country of unpainted pictures.” That is the artist’s point of view; for his eye takes in the picturesque possibilities of the subject. To us it seems as if Holland is of all countries the one most often seen in pictures. While, no doubt, there are many “untouched pictures” in the miles of level Dutch landscape, art has surely shown a generous recognition of Holland’s attractive scenery, and has celebrated its picturesqueness to all the rest of the world. Holland is a country of dikes and level meadow lands, of windmills and canals. From the point of view of an aëronaut the Dutch cities look like a map of Mars. This is especially true of Amsterdam, which, viewed from above, appears to be a network of canals. These canals are an attractive feature of the cities. In some cases the whole street is canal; in other cases the street is both “wet and dry”--a canal flanked by a street. [Illustration: Copyright, American Press Association “THE HOUSE IN THE WOOD,” THE HAGUE This is Queen Wilhelmina’s favorite place of residence. It is located in the forest park about one and a half miles from The Hague, and was the meeting place of the first International Peace Conference, held in 1899] Imagine a country, in some spots lower than the sea, maintaining its existence only by constant vigilance and industry, fighting for its very life through the changing seasons against the one great enemy, water. The dunes or sand hills which line the coast serve as a barrier against the sea. These are reinforced by coarse grass, which holds the sand together. In some places the dikes are made of earth, sand, and clay, held together by willows, which are carefully planted so as to form a binder. In other places dikes are built of stone. The dikes are the fortifications against the inroads of the ocean, and also the floods in the rivers that flow through Holland to the sea. [Illustration: Copyright, American Press Association HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, THE HAGUE With the Queen’s Fish Pond in the foreground] When there are heavy rains in Germany the Rhine brings down a great additional volume of water, which has to be checked by the dikes and led away by the canals. Holland’s fight against water has been a warfare of varying fortunes. At times in the past dikes have been broken, great tracts of land have been inundated, and thousands of people drowned.