Rotterdam
FOUR
Rotterdam, the famous commercial center of Holland, lies fourteen miles from the North Sea at the union of two rivers, one of which is called the Rotte, and with the great dam erected on its banks gives to the town its name. To a visitor the most notable feature of this great Dutch city is its multitude of bridges, most of which are drawbridges, continually rising and falling like parts of a huge machine.
Rotterdam received its first municipal privileges in 1340. Its modern prosperity dates from the separation of Belgium from the kingdom of the Netherlands. The largest seagoing ships can now be admitted to the quays of the town. Great cargoes of oil, grain, coffee, tobacco, and coal pass through it, and its cattle market is the most important in Holland.
It is a remarkable fact that in Rotterdam almost every man one meets has either a cigar or a pipe in his mouth. The Dutch are great smokers. It is said that the boatmen measure distances not by miles, but by pipefuls. Many of the natives are believed to sleep at night with their pipes between their teeth, so that they may have their morning smoke without any delay. The Hollanders call tobacco smoke their second breath, and a cigar the sixth finger of their hands.
In Rotterdam is situated the home of the greatest smoker that the world has ever known, Meinheer Van Klaes. His average consumption was one hundred and fifty grams of tobacco a day. Nevertheless he lived to be ninety-eight years old. His directions as to how his funeral should be conducted are interesting: “I wish that all my friends who are smokers shall be specially invited to my funeral. Each of them shall receive a package of tobacco and two pipes, and they are requested to smoke uninterruptedly during the funeral ceremonies. My body shall be inclosed in a coffin lined with wood of my old cigar boxes. Beside me in the casket shall be laid my favorite meerschaum, a box of matches, and a package of tobacco. When my body is lowered into the grave every person present is requested to pass by and cast upon it the ashes from his pipe.”
It is said that these requests were faithfully complied with. There is also a report which says that at his funeral the smoke was so dense that a horn had to be blown to enable the mourners to find the door.
Rotterdam suffered from a great fire in 1563, and also underwent great loss during the struggle with the Spaniards who occupied the city in 1572. Since 1573, however, its progress has been remarkable.