The Sunday Oregonian., June 13, 1909, SECTION SIX, Page 2, Image 46

Bum
rip T"TF:p. having climbed all the hlgh
; Ljk e,Hl Peaks or the Alps the Duke of
' " m Abruzzi traveled to all the conti
nents of the -world, climbing St, Ellas In
Alaska, made an expedition to the North
Pole and climbed Rouwenzorl in Central
Africa.
On March 26 he started out from Italy
for Asia to explore the Karakoram
Himalaya Mountains, seeking to climb the
seoon-d highest mountain in the world, the
. mysterious Chogori, which reaches the un
j believable height of meters. Leaving
' their ship at Bombay th expedition will
ro as far as Rawal-Pindl by rail and from
that point they will start for Srlnagar by
means of two-wheel carts called "Ekkas."
At the capital of Kashmir they will stop
r several days to complete their prepara
! tlsna and to engage some hundred of coo
1 lies, as porters to carry the baggage.
1 Leaving Srlnagar they will camp out. In
coins through the valley of the Sind they
j will cross tfce Jozi-La ridge and will de-
i acend at Dras; and by way of Kargll will
nter Into the valley of the Indus, whose
left bank they will follow as far as Skar
i So. the capital of Baltistan. Here they
; will stop with the English Governor to
complete arrangements for their mail and
I supplies to b forwarded to them In the
connlalii? After having crossed the In
dus the caravan will reclimb the valley
, of Ehigar reaching In a week's march the
village of Asko)ty situated at a height of
3200 meters.
At some leagues from Askoley Is the
enormous glacier of Baltoro, 60 kilometers
long. In, a higher part is the Chigodi or
fiodwin-Austen peak for ascent of which
th lii ke of Abruzzl organized his expe
dition. Kor two or three months the
mountain-climbers will live in an altitude
of O0o meters, exploring the entire range
or mountains. They will take observa
tions on the glaciers, meteorologic and
the life of the men of these high alti
tudna, etc. The expedition expects to re
turn to Kurope the end of September,
The expedition Includes S. A. R, Louis
de Savole, luke of Abruzzi; his aide-de-camp.
Marquis Xegrotto, Dr. Philippe de
1'Hlppi, Vitorrio Sella, photographer:
Ouldes Joseph Petigax, de Courmayeur,
Alexis and Henri Hroeharel; the Porters
lAurcnt P.nisax, KrneKt Bareux, Humbert
Bavoie and rinile Brocherel, and Ermlnio
iiotta, assistant to the photographer.
Kaee Value.
t'pon her hand he pressed his lips
She said It wasn't right;
But he didn't seem to undenstand
Her hidden meaning quite.
I beg your pardon, then," said he,
"If It was out of place."
It surely 'was." the maid replied,
And then he hissed her face.
Gxchange.
HOjjfANDg PICTURESQUE SIDE
Dutch Life and Dress as Themes for Old Artists and New.
London Chronicle,
f'l EITHER Amsterdam nor The Hague
j 11 ! typical of Dutch life in its most
; characteristic aspects. At least one has
; St away from the big cities to see
i the Dutch people in their primitive sim-
puciiy. At siarken or Delft, for exam- 1
pie, one sees the pictures which still
1 attract painters to Holland, scenes so
quaint and picturesque and beautiful
that they seem almost unreal, like those
In a musical comedy.
I waa In Delft recently and wandered
tround the market-place. It was like
walking back into the Middle Ages.
Above was a cloudless sky. as blue as
that on the china which has made the
place famous to the world, and clear
against tilts perfect blue rose the won
derful tower of the Nieuwe Kerk.. the
'Mea-" church, which Is so old that the
body of William the Silent lies here.
On the other side was tha town hall a
mass of old masonry, crumbling with
ago. but still white and solid. And over
the tops of the little old houses, with
their pointed gable, and zigzag roofs,
red and yellow and brown and black.
Were other church towers and pinna
cles. Here In the market, filled with
tlie golden glamor of the Spring sun
shine. Dutuli peasants were selling
strongly-smelling rtsh. and wooden
shoes, and laces and ribbons, and books
tin open stalls. One saw the quaintest
and the prettiest types old men In
high-peaked caps and enormously
baggy trousers, and huge sabots; young
girls in snow-white" caps and bodices,
with short skirts which showed their
pretty ankles In shoes five sizes too
large for them. It seemed. A smart
cavalry officer rode slowly through the
square, saluted by soma young artll-
f3-men In blue, with orange facings.
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This was a' scene out of a Dutch picture
book.
Yet more picturesque was the scene a
few streets away, on the bridge where
five canals meet in a broad waterway.
A hundred or more canal-bouts were
moored there, brightly painted, with
Mowers on the poop, and their brass
work blightly polished, and others came
slowly under tlio bridge, with sturdy
Dutchmen pacing the .deck as they
plunged their long barge poles deep
into the stream. On most of the canal -boats
children were playing and sing
ing, and the sound of their voices
seemed to tloat on the surface of the
water, traveling far. Not Venice could
Ve more beautiful than this scene in old
Delft, with its streams of rippling gold,
and with a background of Dutch houses
or a windmill with yellow sails.
The canal folk are not the least inter
esting among the population of Hol
land. There are 50,000 of them, and
they are born, and married, and spend
their lives on tho barges. Very ignor
ant, many of them unable to read or
write, they are nevertheless a law-abiding
and worthy class. Crimes of pas
sion and violence rarely take place, and
the days glide on In their lives as the
barges down the streams. The greatest
pleasure of the men Is a big pipe and a
gla6S of Hollands, and the women seem
to spend their lives in knitting and
cooking and scrubbing and saving their
children from a watery death.
In the country districts the Dutch
women still retain their old national
costume, with full petticoats, one above
the other, according to their wealth: a
tight-fitting bodice, spotlessly clean,
with a red handkerchief folded across
the breast, and a close-fitting white cap
with a little flounce around it. In some
places I have seen many even in The
Hague the women's caps ar very
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAX. PORTLAND. JUNE
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elaborate, with white wings and gold
filagree work and "jewels" of glittering
glass. When they go to communion, as
they do at Easter, they wear long
shawls of black silk, w-lth fringes, worn
in a point down the back, and long gold
earrings fastened to the side of the
cap.
The peasants and workingmen earn
poor wages compared with those in Eng
land, but living is cheap and thrift is
a second nature to them, so that when
they reach middle age there are few
without savings in the bank upon which
to end their days in peace.
Queen Wilhelmina is one of the richest
sovereigns In Europe. Yet she lives in
a small, old-fashioned whitewashed pal
ace at The Hague, which is no more
imposing than a convent school, and her
bous&hold la much, mare simple In ital
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daily routine fhan that of many an
English nobleman.
Once a year only the Queen goes to
the great marble palace at Amsterdam,
built by the burgher Princess of the 16th
century, and. seated on a gilt throne
under the royal arms of the Netherlands,
holds her court with some -magnificence
and ceremony. Then there is a display
of military uniforms, and the wives and
daughters of those who bear the titles
of Graf and Jonkheer come dazzling in
diamonds which would make a Hatlon
Garden- merchant green with envy. The
Queen, In her court robes, with a crown
on her colls of fair hair, holds herself
with dignity and grace, but after the
week is over she is glad to slip away
again to The Hague or Het Loo, to put
on a simple dress and lead the quiet
lire or a-Dutch ladr of the middle class.
That la , characteristic of the people
13. 1909.
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themselves. They have their dignity and
their pride: they are a wealthy nation,
and they do not forget that in the old
days they played a leading part in the
history of Europe; but they do not in
dulge much in outward show, and their
ideal of a nation's happiness is a good,
solid, middle-class prosperity, with a
comfortable banking account which is
always mounting up.
That is true of the nation and true of
the Individual. The Dutch merchant with
a good colonial trade, the Dutch manu
facturer with a prosperous industry, the
farmer in the provinces and the shop
keeper in the towns are all ""well-to.-do"
and thoroughly satisfied with themselves.
The "gulden" keep piling up, and no
gambling instinct tempts them to launch
out into ambitious enterprises. Quietly
srnd ploddingly they do their business,
satisfied with moderate profits and grow
ing rich because they are always thrifty.
They do not waste money in the pemp
and vanities of life. The richest diamond
merchants in Amsterdam live in quiet
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bouses on the. canal sides and do not
wear their jewels in their shirt fronts nor
on each finger of each hand. The wives
of colonial planters, who, if In London
or American society, could dress like
Duchesses, go about dowdily and care
less of Parisian fashions. No magnif
icent carriages go rattling about Tho
Hague, which in provincial Holland is
regarded as a place of frivolous amuse
ment, and the home of the smart set
and the court circle here Is as quiet in
its. mode of life as a coterie In Clapham
Park or Hampstead.
The air of middle-class prosperity and
respectability is . characteristic of all the
Dutch towns. One feels that one Is
in the presence of a people who have
settled down Into a mature middle age.
In which they care 'no longer for the
ambitions and illusions of youth. They
have done with adventures, they have
been heroic, they have given great sol
diers and sailors, and poets and painters
and martyrs to the world's history, and
now they feel entitled to peace and com-
44
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fort, and to be good business men and
good fathers, and to enjoy the good things
of lite. Tney do not daonie in European
politics, they have no ideas of national
aggrandizement, they do not want to
grab anything belonging to anyone else,
and all they ask is to be left alone, and
to hold what they have. An admirable
philosophy, though prosaic!
Daring Feats of
a Steeplejack
CUMBING up slim, swaying wooden
poles, hundreds of feet in the air.
looking down Into canyonlike atreeta
from dizzying heights, performing dare
devil feats in midair, causing neck
craned pedestrians below to cringe with
fear of his safety, a career of hazard
and excitement, filled dally with flirta
tions with deatu, such la the life led
for the last ten years by J. H. Wilson,
of 44o Eleventh street, a Professional
steeplejack, who left Portland as a boy
to fight for a livelihood, and who has
returned to his old home for the re
mainder of his days. Wilson does not
expect, however, to give up his death
defying profession, but will continue to
ply It here.
Wilson is browned from contact with
outdoor life and is hale and hearty. The
only physical impression which his haz
ardous business has left on him is no
ticed in his speech, resulting from a fall
of So feet from the side of the Del Prado
Hotel, in Chicago, while he was painting
a sign. This is the only fall he ex
perienced. It was caused, he says, by
reason of the fact that he borrowed a
fellow-woVker's paraphernalia, which was
faulty. He talks with great difficulty
and hesitates, as if In pain.
Wilson claims to be the champion
steeplejack of the worlc The only man
who can rival him. he asserts, is George
Clark, of Chicago, who in several in
stances has called upon Wilson for as
sistance in his more dangerous and dif
ficult Jobs. He gets good pay for his
work and has saved considerable money.
"I am not through yet," he said.
There will come a time when I will
have to quit. I can feel it coming on
me now sometimea when I am up in the
air. with nothing near to reach for sup
port but a thin pole around which my
legs are twined."
In the life of every steeplejack, Wilson
cays, there comes a time, when he must
quit- He feels a strange dizziness com
ing over him. The air is light and the
blood rushes to the head. After that
there must be no more ascents. The
steeplejack's work Is done for all time.
It is a sure warning, and if he escapes
from the first attack without falling he
had better beware. If another attempt s
made to reach any great height he is
sure to lose consciousness and fall. It
is this moment that Wilson dreads. He
looks forward to its coming as being in
evitable as death itself.
Oh. I am not afraid. I will keep on
until that time' comes and then I will
quit. That's all," he declared.
Wilson's mother and father died in
Portland ten years ago. At that time
ha wefs 16 years old. From here he went
soon after to San Francisco to shift for
himself. Entering ihe employ cf a
painter, his ability at scaling to great
heights was soon discovered, and he was
given 60 cents an hour to paint church
spires, flag staffs, smokestacks, guide
wires and the like. "I discovered that
my boss was getting from t25 to $100 for
what I did and went In the business for
myself." h said, "and have been at it
ever since." Soon after he went to New
York and has since worked in all of the
principal cities of the United States. He
returned to Portland two weeks ago with
the intention of making this city his per
manent home.
According to Wilson his is the most
dangerous trade in the world's work.
"There are SCO per cent more steeple
jacks killed yearly while . engaged In
their business than any other trad. We
are not permitted to take out insurance
or join a lodge which has an Insurance
feaure." he said.
During his life Wilson has made sev
eral ascensions in balloons with his
friend. Leo Stevens, a famous Eastern
aeronaut, and he declares he liked the
sensation very much. He regards the
probable success of the aeroplane with
alarm and says that if It ever attains
general uee In America it will he the
death of his profession.
But for the interference of the New
York police, Wilsons wonderful feats
would have been long since portrayed
on the moving-picture film. He signed
a contract with a New York concern to
clim the flagstaff on the Flatiron build
ing, in that city, and was half way up
the 200-foot pole when the police inter
fered and commanded him to desist.
One flagstaff which he painted fell
down five minutes after he finished. This
was on top of an 18-story building, and
Wilson regards It as his most miracu
lous escape. Had th pole fallen while
he was standing with one foot on its
summit, he would have been precipitated
Into the street below and mangled.
Wilson has a large collection of pho
tographs and newspaper clippings to
Substantiate his own story of the life of
danger he has led. In his hesitating
voice he concluded b$- saving he waf
proud of it.
In ' elementary cfcooli SWt per cent of th.
children of th United State9 are tn roedu
cationsl school: in seconi&ry achools th
proportion for coeducation t per cent: of
coUeeres an4 universities attended by men 68
str cent admit woman.
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