3T>utiïi IMtftenafan Jktas
Good morning, dear Dickensians!
CONTRIBUTORS: GODFRIED BOMANS, J. J. DE GELDER, E. HELDRING, OLGA HELDRING, OLGA VAN MARLE, MARIA WELKINS.
Tuesday 19th May 1959
This is the last time we can greet you
in this way and our friends RIVIERA,
the Cheeryble Brothers amongst the
bulb-growers, have insisted on saluting
the ladies and this time the gentle
men too all round before they would
permit them to retire.
There is an unmistakable vacuum for
the hosts at the end of the Conference.
When you are gone, this town, for all
its million inhabitants, will seem an
empty shell to us.
You will not be plagued by the same
hang-over and, moreover, many of you
intend to stay in Amsterdam for an
other four or five days.
Most probably you have already pro
fited by the assistance of the AMSTER
DAM HOSTESSES at the INFORMA
TION-DESK in the reception-hall of
the Conference-Hotel. This group of
ladies with varied interests and back
grounds have formed a committee with
the purpose of helping visitors from
abroad. They would be glad to receive
such visitors in their own homes to give
them an idea of dutch family life.
You will also find in the hall of the
Conference-hotel a special POSTOFF
ICE where members can mail their
letters and postcards adorned with the
DICKENS POSTMARK only valid on
this day.
As regards the remainder of your
visit to our country we may make the
following observations.
Most of you will have visited Holland
before now, not because of any special
beauty of the scenery or charms of the
inhabitants, but because it generally is
in the way when you have to go from
England to Central Europe. In fact the
only man who certainly never was in
Holland is the reporter who ventured to
write that the Isle of Tristan da Cunha
has the worst climate in the world.
For most of you, however, eight or
nine days will be much longer than you
ever thought of staying in a town like
Amsterdam.
Although it is not for us to boast the
wonders of this town, we may point out
that it has some buildings of greater
antiquity and venerability than for in
stance the Eden Settlement, U.S.A. and
that our nightlife is more hectic than
that of Dotheboys, Yorkshire.
Quite an amount of folders and book
lets concerning all that is considered
worth seeing in Holland will be thrust
upon you during the next few hours and,
if you like to give them the lie, you may
test their likeness to reality.
You have already seen Volendam and
Marken and without doubt you will
have been told there like Martin
Chuzzlewit in America that you
have come to visit those regions at a
season of great commercial depression,
at an alarming crisis and at a period of
unprecedented stagnation. The simila
rity goes even further, for time and
again you will have been told: „This is
one of the most remarkable souvenir-
shops in our country".
Possibly we feel more depressed than
usual we have reason for gloom be
cause you are leaving us but we
wonder if the Genius of Despair and
Suicide would not have been more
succesful if the Baron of Grogzwig's
castle had been situated on the Isle of
Marken.
However, you will have found this
out for yourselves.
The main thing for us will be that
you have enjoyed the time you were
With this number goes to-days em
bodiment of philosophic thought:
Take us along and watch: from
us will sprout
the news that Spring is in and Winter out.
Ugle we are - but from our plainness grows
aglow as fiery as Mr. Stiggins' nose.
here and still will enjoy the next days
and that you will feel as happy as we
were to have you here.
Heard at the conference:
„What surprises me most, Mildred,
is that this man at Volendam, who look
ed so utterly foreign, knew all about the
value of pounds and shillings".
„There was a slight mistake in that old
curiosityshop on the isle of Marken;
the girl looked more like Mrs. Gamp
than little Nell".
Miss X. at a stable on the street: „Can
I have a herring?"
Vendor: „Certainly, Madam, green
or marinated?"
Miss X: ,,Eh medium, please".
