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".

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The Dutch Dickensian | 1959 | | pagina 1