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6 Letters From Abroad. tie; Holland's Unique Revenue lll< Raising System?How Taxes are Levied?And How A Justice is Dispensed-The bei Dutchman and his Cart and Th Dogs?Other Matters of Inaft terest Observed by the Mon- }qi roe Lawyer. m? by foi IJY A. M. STACK. (Copyrighted, ltHM, by K. F. Ueas'.ey ) . CIS NO. 4. f0, The Dutch do some very 6eriou* na matters iu a funny way. In pij nothing are they so funny, per- to haps, as in their methods of wi raising revenue for public pur- cai poses. They tax bicycles? which art * % - * - I) is all ngtit?Out tins tax is not du uniform oil individuals. The on amount of a person's bicycle tax mt depends upon how much house cei rent he pays. His house rent art depends upon how many win ro< dows and doors in his house, ma The person with four windows in Po his house pays four times as wi much tax on his bicycle as the ro< person with one window. The p? window and door taxes are paid an by the tenant and not by the tir< owner of the house. The door ab tax causes many business houses bli to be singu'arly constructed. Of- lef ten you see a business house in it which are several tenants, each mi dealing in a separate line of goods, th with only one front door. This Di door on the street opens into a cei small hall, then a door to the ti\ right will go into one snop, a is door to the lett into another, and tw a door straight forward into pli still another. The tax is only on a door opening on the street, a J The occupants upstairs and those '*c on the ground lloor apportion to< this front door tax among them- itij selves. For some reason or other we unknown to me, they call this in| a personal tax. If you a id an- nn other window or enlarge an old bi; one in a house, it requires a pet- an mit. The owner pays no real sp estate tax unless his property is Gi worth over $5,200* He then in- to eludes that tax in the rental. It ?u ? j> v is easy to see wnat class 01 peo i < pie has to bear the burden of Hi taxes under such a system. It in is no wonder, then, that "de bet- te ter man*' can drina gin, beer and sp wine instead of water. wt There is another amusing fea- m ture of their revenue laws. Every co person who earns over $240 per wj year must pay an income tax. th The rate varies in different local- co ities or cities, but in Amsterdam as the rale is per cent, ol allien one's annual income. Buttheman se with a large family gets a reduc- tn tion, the amount depending up- nc on how many children lie hasiBa under eighteen years old. lie i gets a reduction or abatement i er in hi9 taxes tor each and every co child under eighteen. ( Under! wi such a system, I know some men co who would not only be exempt w: from taxes altogether, but who tic would draw a bonus from the vc government ) Then, also, there ci is another tax which is intended T! to encourage the growth of popu- dr lation. It is a tax on aged tin- at married men. This tax i9 levied gi for a specific purpose and must le be so used. It is devoted en H tirely to the public edcoation of dt THE LAN f? children of Holland. Thi u see President Roosevelt ;?s about the lurge family ai aroughly Dutch. They belie* encouraging marriage, an iy *ie the knot so it will sticl person must bo married twic lore it is a valid marriag? ere is a civil ceremony in tli >rning and a religious in th eruoon. The former is pe: med by the secretary of tli tyor of the city and the l?.tt? a preach r. On Sunday b< e the names of the contrac i parties must be publicly pr< timed at the town hall, an ' a week afterwards the; mes are posted up at the sam ree. If persons are not abl pay tor the ceiemonies the 11 be performed tree. In sue ses, otten ten or fitteen couph } married at the same tim it they can only get marrie Wednesday. People of mear irry on any day. When tl emony i6 to be paid for, fin ? made up and the marriat om made comfortable, if th irriage occurs in the winte or people must be contei tli no fire. # In the marriaf >m ot the town hall are elegm lutings illustrating marriaj d married lite. Just over tl eplace is a beautiful worn a out to marry. She is painte udfolded, as marriage is ip in the dark for her. Whi is uncertain as to whether tl irriage will be a happy on ere are some events which tl itch look for with reasonab rtaintv : jnet over the prospe re bride and a little to the rei painted a pair of tat, chufl ins. On each side ol the fir ace is a brass stork. 1 was very anxious to witne Dutch lawsuit and went to ti ourt of justice" one day. :>k my stand outside the rai g near the door, where the ire a number of people stain g. Pretty so?n a burly polic in, with many buttons and g mili'ary cap on, came u d touched me on the art oke a few words that we "eek to me and nodded for n come on. 1 felt innocent y crime and declined to go, lidn"t like his looks anywa it he insisted. I called for nr terpretor and ordered him ii me omcer mai i was omy ectator, but if my presen is objectionable then I wou ake myselt mighty rare in li urt He told my parrot that ] iis taking mo to a good seat < e inside ot the railing where uld hear better. I thanked hi best I could in several diffe it languages?but I tailed e any benefit there was in g< lg near the court, as I cou >t understand a word that w id. It was judgment d?y for se al who had been previous evicted. The judgments a ritteu out and read by t urt to the prisoner, who stan hile the doom is being pi >unced. The judgments a iry lengthy, and evidently i to the evidence in the cai le first unfortunate was a w* eased woman. Slie hadtosta least five minutes, and w ven three years in prison. 8 ft the room weeping bitter! er crime was permitting lughter under fourteen years c CASTER NEWS, JANUARY 16, is to engage in immorality. The 's next was convicted of begging e and wag sent to the work house e for three years. The Dutch be(1 lieve in industry and ' virtue. i. Then came a tellow whohad had a :e fight. He got fourteen days in *. prison, several judgments were le read by the court and the fine ie culled out into and adjoining r room. These^were students and ie people able to pay fines; they jr are not required to go in the 2- tombs for sentence. These part ties had been tried several days a- before, perhaps thirty days bed fore. The court takes time to ir prepare the judgments and often ie there is an interval of thirty or le forty days between trial and seny tence?and the defendants In ih jail all that time. And impri3on?s ment before trial is at the please. ure of the court. There is no id writ of habeas corpus in Holland is and no way to force a speedy ie trial. An instance was told me ?s of one man lying in prison two ;e years before he could get a trial, e This happened within the last r. seven years. Ihere is 110 trial by it jury and no such thing as a grand :e jury. Prosecutions are set on it toot by the officers, the court or ;e at the instance of a private or ie aggrieved party. The judges try in all issues of fact. Their laws are d mainly taken from the civil law a of Rome, introduced by Louis le Napoleon when he was King of ie Holland. The Dutch are not e, troubled with a multiplicity of ie courts. Their system is simplicle ity itself?the canton or distric' c courts anu the appellate court at *r The Hague. The first has origin fy al jurisdiction and trom it ap e- peals are carried to The Hague Supreme Court. There are no city ss courts. ie After the judge had read all 1 his sentences, I straightened up il- to witness a trial. The only thing ? !? . J . 1 1. re i witnessed was anotner great (1- American principle go down e- Trials are not public in Holland "k and we had to get out. The mills ip of justice grind in private, only n, the sentences are pronounced in re public They have imprisonment ie for debt. A creditor may keep of his debtor in jail as long as he as will pay the board bill in ady. vance. The only property ex iy empt from execution is one bed, to one table and a chair tor each a member of the family, ce There is only a limited sufld frage here. A man must pay so lis much tax before he can vote, lie The poor man is simply not in an it. There is but one law-making i 1 body in the kingdom, the Nation m al Assembly. The upper cham. ;r- ber was not in session, but J to visited the lower or second chain. 3t ber and heard a fat, sleek Dutch Id man make a speech. The othei as members were writing, talking to each other and paying no at v- tention to ids jabber. A meinbei ly gets only $800 per year. Nobodj ,re seems to p iy much attention t( he the government or to politics. Tin ds great mass of the people havt o never had much to do with tin re administration of public afFairs e- and they take things as a mattei te. ol course and attend to their own )J1 private atrairs. The Dutchmar nd loves a dollar too well to wash as his time on politics. He loves t he dollar as well as the American ly. does, only he does not chase il a as fast as the American, dd The Hague is the capital anc 1907 is the cleanest, neatest city in the En| whole country. Near it, are many Le) I interesting places which can be'the i? i ? I i ira^'liru *jy cirV/U it ?uu Btcniii uuii trains. Only a short distance is for Scheveningen, the famous sum- the mer resort on the sea. It is strictly Am for the ,4four hundred '' To enjoy cliu the ozone of 'he s*h there you 4ibi] must have''a pile." In one of the neb grand hotels a room alone costs poii $250 per day. I should want only boo a few minu'es at that house. and The first Peace Conference at sucl The Hague met in an old palace den erected in 1647 by the grand war mother of William of Grange.? the The palace is beautiful on the in- the side, one room fit'ed up and fur- her : nislied by China, one by Japan nev and one by India. The exquisite I w needle work and hand carving ami bailie desori nt inn It. was in this mei house that John Lothrop Motley in e wrote the Rise of the Dutch Re* waj public, while he was amb isBador yea to Holland. in t In passing through Holland one sou is reminded ot the days of Span- I di ish rule and the Inquisition. In beg an old prison you can see the in- me. strumentsof torture used by them, stic Almost everything which could boy inflict pain may be seen. There the are those which have caused hor- tha rible pangs; those with which tie arms and legs were broken; those sori that were heated red hot and san upon which baro feet have trod- to t den; instruments that have sev- wai ered many a head from its body ; for the blocks upon which the vie- A tirns lay, with the indentations of reai tVi? 5? vp in flip wnnrl In nnr lanit hut of political and religious free- abo dom, the people do not, aud can- J not, conceive of what awiul bar- lan barities were enacted under the dog Inquisition. In looking at those are old ius'mments of torture, one one has the satisfaction to believe that pul those who iniiicted such cruel woi sufferings are still roasting in der Hades. car In visiting the parks in The dog Hague one runs upon a notice har which has become classic in har America. It is this, "Verboden old over de grasperken te loopeo.''? Th( That embodt s the same tamous the command which was given to his , Coxe.v's army, "Keep off the arr: grass." par From The Hague it is but ten P^e miles to Leyden an old city ot me i historic interest. Tne guide books wr i i t. i:i i , _ not uraxKeu very iiiuuii auuui lijtuu i?b 1 t]U . noted sights, especially of an old ^ church called St John's church, , established by English Separa idl tists and from which the Pilgrim tht ; Fathers set forth on their voyage a8 to the New World, a voyage that in| . marked an epoch in religious [ history. I reached tho city in the ln^ . afternoon and it was pouring arr down rain. But I cared very lit on r tie lor that just[so I saw the startt ing point of the Pilgrim Fathers. ^ I waded through the streets en r quiring ol everybody I met for r St. John's church. Noone knew. > I kept this tip till dark, when I for i concluded tint if St. John was th< ) known in that town i' whs under Je< s another name. I dropped into a al) An , nice hotel to ^et supper, tor I t ^ ^ r wis hungry, tired and mad. The tj,( i w.iitj-r, a tine looking man in etc i evening dress, let fall a word or th< s two ol English. Said lie, "We ' i spoaRs Ingleesh here in de sumi mer time,not in de winter," That I befuddled me and 1 eiupiired why fou English would not hibernate in Di II Ley den. Hia meaning was that : c e'ieh speaking people visited 'den only in the summer and residents had occasion then y to talk English. I enquired -i 1, e U;^U Qi. J on II s cuurun, lruni wmuu Pilgrim Fathers started for erica. He knew where the rch was (and it was nearby.) it doee Bilgrim Fadders I ber hear ot dem before ." I ited out to him what the guide k said, but he shook his head declared that a mistake, no h people were ever in LeyThat was the limit. I had' lea tne streets 111 tne rain an afternoon, out of reverence to memory of those old religious oes, only to find that they had er been in the place at all.? ent to the church anyway, exined it by gas light, took a ntal picture of it and started learch of the depot. On the r a small boy of five or six rs ran up with me and asked, ? most pathetic voice, about le 4 straat." I told him that d not know what he said. He ;an to cry and trot along with He continued to cry and k to me, until we met a big I interested the big boy in little fellow and found out t he was lost. I told the litfellow that I was awfully ry tor him but I was in the le fix, and that I would love ;>ve him information but that 3 the very thing I was hungry myself. Vhen I get back home I shall d more of the Pilgrim Fathers, 1 am no longer concerned iut where they started from, ilucli of the hauling in Hold is done on carts drawn by a ; in harness. Sometimes there two dogs, or even three, to j cart. Most of the carts are led or pushed by a man or man with a dog harnessed un the cart helping. I saw a t full of sand drawn by a big ; in the shafts, a smaller dog messed to his right, a man messed to his lett and the woman pushing behind. 3re is a heavy tax on dogs and y must work. "Every dog ha9 day," but that day has not ived in Holland yet. In one 'ticular at least dogs and peoare alike: the idle ones are an, trifling and commit ongt. The dogs here which do t work are "sassy*' and look; lor trouble, while the labor; dogs are well behaved, hum) and make good citizens. The e dog considers himself better tn his working brothers and, a consequence, is always try? to "show off." In Rotterdam, at the outside most of the windows of dwell: houses, are small mirrors so anged as to enable the ladies the inside to see all that is ingonin the streets without mg seen themselves. In that y they can witness the sights d still wear mother hubbards any other old thing, in the same place are schools teaching English. The meld is the peripatetic and ob;t lesson. The teacher walks out the city with his pupils d points out objects to them, Uing the names in English: it is a man, that a horse, a dog :. I have a poor opinion of i method. I have tried it and does not work well. They point t a dog to me and call the itch word for dog. When I see log again I know he is a dog, t I don't know what he is in itch. Rotterdam, Holland.