it, for it is neither bonnet, hat, nor cap, nor any combination of these;
but it is an apparatus for the head that baffles description, and which,
for want of a better name, we must call a _tremendous thing_, both in
magnitude and in design! I have seen women with straw hats that must have
been well nigh a yard in diameter! In The Hague, I saw little girls,
however, (from 6 to 12 or 15 years of age) that were dressed as tidily and
looked as fair and as sweet as any of our American school-girls.



Public Highways.


In Holland, these are _highways_ in fact as well as in name. They run in
perfectly strait lines through the country, are about a yard higher than
the meadows at their sides, and are lined by thick rows of willow-trees.
They are turnpiked of course, as are all the roads in civilized Europe.
From these roads the traveler has always the same field of vision--a
circle around him that is about 8 to 5 miles in diameter. Towering spires
may be seen in all directions. I visited Dordrecht, Rotterdam, The Hague,
Amsterdam, Utrecht, Arnheim and intermediate places.



The Hague,


In Dutch 'S Gravenhage or 'S Hage, in French La Haye, is the capital of
Holland as well as one of its finest towns. "It was originally a hunting
seat of the Counts of Holland (whence its name, 'S Graven Hage, 'the