JEWS IN AMSTERDAM.-FRENCH CONSCRIPTION. 239 impression as to their knowledge of the original writings of the Old Testament.

The females of the congregation are seated in the galleries behind tall screens, which shield them from the profane gaze of the multitude of men below.

On leaving the Synagogue, the crowded passages are slowly deserted, every Jew stopping successively in turn to apply his lips against the door of his temple, in some instance impressing an audible kiss upon the soiled pannels.

There are about 20,000 Jews in Amsterdam, as it is stated. Nearly one half of the inhabitants of this city are of the reformed Dutch church, and the Protestant from foreign lands derives sincere pleasure on visiting their churches, where rest the ashes of celebrated men, to see none of the gilded decorations, tawdry images and ornaments, commonly displayed in the Roman Catholic churches. To the credit of the city of Amsterdam, free schools are instituted here for the instruction of the children of the poor.

Although Napoleon's exactions were heavy upon the purses of the burghers of Amsterdam, to support the expensive wars in which he was engaged, yet according to the observations of a merchant of this city, of high standing, who had been a candidate for some of these pecuniary favors, his name continues to be mentioned with respect rather than with reprobation. Some of the old Dutch merchants laid aside their coaches and divested themselves of those external appearances of wealth, which had the effect to attract the keen eyes of the French Prefects, and of their coadjutant tax-assessors. Under the severe operation of the French Conscriptions, he observed, the sum of about one thousand dollars was frequently paid for a substitute; and nearly as much was required to furnish horses and equipments to each of the sons of the most respect

240

CULTIVATION OF MADDER.

able merchants of the city, who were honored by being selected as hostages by Napoleon to form a part of his Garde d'honneur.

MADDER forms one of the principal agricultural products of Holland. Large tracts of land are appropriated to the culture of this plant, and several millions of dollars in value, are annually exported. Being aware of the extensive use of madder for dyeing a fast red color, as well as of its value as an agricultural staple, I visited the establishment of a nursery man near Amsterdam, for the purpose of obtaining a hamper of the roots to make the experiment of cultivating the plant in the United States. There it will probably be consumed annually to the value of one or two millions of dollars or more, after works for printing cottons are generally and successfully established. The climate of the northern and middle States is well adapted to the growth of madder, which, it may be hoped, will one day be classed among the staple exports of the United States.*

NATIONAL EXHIBITION OF MANUFACTURES.

The exhibition of National Manufactures at Haarlem being arranged and open for the public, we rode out to view the show. The town was thronged with strangers, collected, as at a fair, to see the extensive collection of the best specimens of every branch of manufactures carried on in the country, from a mounted telescope with a barrel or tube eighteen feet long and two feet in diameter, to the finest Brussels lace, with fabricated meshes almost too minute to be discerned by the naked eye. The actual number of articles presented for exhibition or premium appears by the catalogue to be upwards of 5300. This

*After an experiment of four years, the Madder Plants procured in Holland have continued to thrive and multiply, and have furnished roots for transplanting in several parts of the country.

REWARDS TO PROMOTE MANUFACTURES.

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grand national exhibition is held only once in five years, when the king honors the occasion by his presence, and presides in person, to promote the manufacturing enterprise of the kingdom.

The exhibition is upheld by the government, and the expense of the premiums awarded, as well as the charges of transportation as before observed, are defrayed from the treasury of the State. The specimens of cutlery, and of the manufactures of cotton and prints, are of ordinary workmanship. Those of porcelain, glass, carpets and carriages made in Brussels, are each elegant of its kind. Fire places and stoves with ornamental columns of polished steel, and various other articles fabricated from this metal, glitter in one apartment; and in another, equally splendid articles of plated and gilded wares. In a third, you view fabrics of the loom, and in another, sculptured marbles of labored workmanship, and in still another spacious area, you behold carriages, harnesses, and fire engines. Indeed, as the visitant continues to rove from one hall to another, and to view successively so many various articles, all of superior workmanship, he feels almost lost as it were in a labyrinth of curiosities, and gazes with distracted attention on every side on the most brilliant, beautiful, and useful productions of human labor. All the proprietors, who feel disposed to sell their fabrics, allow of their being put into the scheme of a grand lottery, in which patriotic feelings combined with the hope of winning some of the beautiful prizes, induce the inhabitants of the country very generally to purchase tickets at a liberal price, thus encouraging their native artists by pecuniary rewards as well as by national marks of distinction and honor.

In passing the door of a private dwelling-house in Haarlem, I observed attached to one of the pannels a square piece of pink silk, with the edges trimmed with white lace. 22

VOL. II.

242

NOTICES ON DOORS.-GREAT ORGAN.

I inquired of a friend the reason for which this little badge was affixed in so signal a manner to the door of a private house. He observed, that it is customary in Haarlem to put upon the outer door of a house this silk badge, to indicate that the proprietor is blessed with a new-born child; and that the badge is allowed to remain until the mother is recovered. He also observed, that a practice somewhat similar is observed in relation to the sickness of members of the family. A small bulletin or notice in writing is posted upon the door to inform inquiring friends of the state of the patient's health. By this device, the noisy raps of the knocker, so annoying to the sick, are rendered unnecessary.

GREAT ORGAN OF HAARLEM.

After leaving the halls for the exhibition of manufactures, we went to the church to hear the great organ of Haarlem, celebrated as being the largest instrument of the kind in the world. On our entering the church, the organist was touching the softest keys, which yielded notes as sweet as the tones of the smaller instruments, and wholly disproportionate to what I had been led to expect from its magnitude. A powerful effect is produced when the organist artfully swells and increases the sounds from the soft treble of the dulcet flute, to the deep rolling peals of the clarion, trumpet, and the thundering bass. After listening for an hour to this organ, you feel rather pleased with its full rich tones than surprised by their stunning loudness.

STATUE OF THE INVENTOR OF THE ART OF PRINTING.

The statue of Costar, who invented the art of printing in 1430, is erected nearly in front of the house in which he was born in Haarlem. The statue is represented as

INVENTOR OF PRINTING.

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holding up in one hand a little block of wood with a letter cut upon it, this being the form in which types were first used. You might pass by this dusky figure, holding up to your view an equally dusky little block of wood, without pausing to survey it. But when the thought crosses the mind, that from this humble attempt at printing here represented, the spark was kindled which diffused the light of science, almost as copiously on every civilized region of the globe as the light of the sun, you continue to fix your strained eyes on the mystical type until it appears in imagination to expand in its outlines, and to be surrounded by a halo, with which an invention so important to the interest of mankind seems to invest it.

Flower Gardens, a few yards square, containing the choicest flowers, are laid out in front of many of the houses of Haarlem and of other Dutch towns. In some of the gardens of Haarlem, it is stated, the most beautiful tulips that are to be found in the world expand their richly mottled, particolored blossoms to the sun. Some of these tulips are undoubtedly descended from parent stocks, which in former times gave rise to the famous tulip mania, by which several of the first families of Haarlem were ruined. Even the merchants of Amsterdam for a time forgot their accustomed business, the sale of stocks, and of cargoes of East India ships, and became fascinated by absorbing discussions upon the relative merits and values of the particolored blossom of a tulip. They hastily made their profits by negociations for the sale of a single bulbous root, in some instances for a price equal to 1800 and 2000 dollars, whilst its gorgeous hues were unfolding, and before the expanded blossom had time to lose its bright tints and fragrance.*

* At the commencement of the seventeenth century, the taste of the Dutch for tulips became an actual passion, and accordingly these flowers reached an extravagant price. The tulip called Vive le Roi, was esti