Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1891 — Dutch Windmills. [ARTICLE]

Dutch Windmills.

You scarcely can stand in Holland without seeing from one to twenty windmills. Many of them are built in the form of a two story tower, the second story being smaller than the first, with a balcony at its base from which it tapers upward until the cap-like top is reached. High up, near the roof, the great axis juts from the wall; and to this are fastened two prodigious arms, formed somewhat like ladders, bearing great sheets of'canvas, whose business is to catch the mischief maker and set him at work. These mills stand like huge giants guarding the country. Their bodies are generally of a dark red; and their heads, or roofs, are made to turn this way aud that, according to the direction of the wind. Their round eyewindow is always staring. Altogether they seem to be keeping a vigilant watch in every direction. Sometimes they stand clustered together; sometimes alone, like silent sentinels; sometimes in long rows like ranks of soldiers. You see them rising from the midst of factory buildings, by the cottages, on the polders (the polders are lakes pumped dry and turned into farms); on the wharves; by the rivers; along the canal; in the cities—every where! Holland wouldn’t be Holland without its windmills, any more than it could be Holland without its Dykes and its Dutchmen.— St. Nicholas. Perhaps the easie-t paper to edit is the wall paper. The more it is suspended the more successful the proprietor. ■ >• It is mighty hard for a politician after having had his goose cooked, to be obliged t* dine off crow.