y a few miles from Rotterdam, where there are more than two hundred
distilleries. To give an idea of the quantity made, it is sufficient
to say that thirty thousand pigs are fed annually on the dregs of the
distilled material. The first time one tastes this renowned Schiedam
he swears he will never take another drop of it if he lives to be a
hundred years old; but, as the French proverb says, "Who has drunk
will drink again," and one begins to try it with a great deal of
sugar,--then with a little less,--then with none at all, until,
_horribile dictu_! under the excuse of the damp and the fog one tosses
down two small glasses with the freedom of a sailor. Next on the list
comes Curacoa, a fine feminine liqueur, not nearly so strong as
Schiedam, but much stronger than that nauseating sweetened stuff that
is sold in other countries under the recommendation of its name. After
Curacoa there are many others liqueurs, of every gradation of strength
and flavor, with which an expert winebibber can indulge in every style
of intoxication, slight, heavy, noisy, or stupid, and whereby he can
dispose his brain to see the world in the manner most pleasing to his
humor, much as one would do with an optical instrument by changing the
color of the lens.

The first time one dines in Holland a curious surprise awaits one when
the bill is paid. I had eaten a dinner which would have been scanty
for a Batavian, but was ample for an Italian, and, knowing how very
dear everything is in Holland, I was waiting for one of those bills to
which Theophile Gautier says the only reasonable answer is a
pistol-shot. I was therefore pleasantly surprised when the waiter
said I was to pay _forty sous_, and, as all kinds of money circulate
in the large Dutch cities, I put on the table forty sous in silver
francs, and waited to give my friend time to correct me if he had made
a mistake. But he looked at the money without giving any sign of
correcting himself, and said with the greatest gravity, "Forty sous
more." Springing from my chair, I demanded an explanation. The
explanation, alas! was simple. The monetary unit in Holland is the
florin, which is equal to two francs four centimes in our money, so
that the Dutch centime and sou are worth more than double the Italian
centime and sou; hence the mistake and its correction.

Rotterdam at night presents to the stranger an unexpected appearance.
In other northern towns at a certain hour the life is gathered wi