Part 5 (1/2)
The feast ended, the young folk went their homeward way lighted by the moon, or, late in the century, on dark nights by a lantern hung on a pole from every seventh house. When the curfew rang from the belfry ”eight o'clock,” lights were put out and all was made fast for the night, while the children's minds were set at rest by the tramp of the _klopperman_, who shook his rattle at each door as he pa.s.sed from house to house through the dark hours, a.s.suring the burghers that all was well and that no marauders were about.
If winter offered sports and pastimes, spring, summer, and autumn had each its own pleasures, fis.h.i.+ng and clam digging, shooting and trapping, games with ball and slings, berry picking, and the gathering of peaches which fell so thickly that the very hogs refused them. The market days in New Amsterdam offered a long procession of delights to the young colonists. But merriest of all were the holidays which were observed in New Netherland after much the same fas.h.i.+on as in the old home.
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I do not know how to account for the fact that while the struggle of the Dutch people with the Papacy had been as bitter as that of England and the throwing off of the yoke by the Dutch fully as decided, they still retained the holidays which the Puritans eschewed as dangerous remnants of superst.i.tion. Perhaps it was on the principle of robbing Satan of his hoofs and horns but keeping his cheerful scarlet costume, or perhaps they thought, as Rowland Hill remarked, that ”it was poor policy to leave all the good times to the Devil.” In any case it was all grist to the children's mill.
On the 1st of January all was arranged for the greeting of the New Year. Mighty bowls of punch were brewed, cordials prepared from long-cherished family recipes were brought out, and the women, in their best apparel, seated themselves in the seldom-used _ontvangkamer_, where wine was handed to their callers to be received with the wish of a ”Happy New Year!” While these stately ceremonies were in progress the young people amused themselves with turkey-shooting, sleigh-riding, skating, and dancing.
After New Year's Day the most characteristic national and local holiday was _Pinkster_, coming in the seventh week after _Paasch_, or Easter, and {115} falling generally in late May or early June. The orchards were then white with blossoms and the gra.s.s thick with dandelions and spring flowers. Children set out early to gather boughs from the green woods. These boughs they sprinkled with water and left over the doors of late sleepers that the sluggards might be drenched on opening the door. At first all was innocent merriment, gathering of Pinkster flowers, and picnicking; but for some unexplained reason this festival was gradually relegated to the negroes. Apple-jack was freely consumed, barbaric dances began, and fun so far degenerated into license that the white people and their children shunned the festivity.
The _Kermis_, an Old World festival, was one of those early introduced at New Amsterdam. It originated centuries before and had taken its name from the _kerk mis_ or church ma.s.s. In the olden days it was celebrated with pomp and solemnity, but it early developed a more festive character. Booths and stalls were erected for a market, and dances and processions were organized. The first stroke of the clock at noon opened at the same moment the market and the first dance. The last stroke saw white crosses nailed on all the bridges across the ca.n.a.l and on the market place. It was {116} indeed a festive appearance that the market presented, with its double stalls filled with eggs and gherkins, its booths hung with dried fish, its _poffertjeskraam_ dispensing the tempting batter-cakes, and its _wafelkraamen_ offering the more costly and aristocratic waffles. The youths and maidens were given full license to parade arm in arm along the streets singing ”Hossen, hossen, hossen!” and making the town ring with their mirth and laughter. The first _Kermis_ held at New Amsterdam was in October, 1659. Booths were arranged on the parade ground, and barter and sale and merrymaking went on gaily for six weeks, to the unspeakable joy of the little Hendricks and Jans and Annetjes who wandered from booth to booth.
But keen as the delight of the Dutch children may have been, there was in their minds the hope of even better things to come a few weeks later, at their own especial, particular, undisputed feast of St.
Nicholas, the beloved Santa Claus, patron saint of children in general and of young Netherlanders in particular. The 6th of December was the day dedicated to this genial benefactor, and on the eventful night a white sheet was spread on the floor. Around this stood the children singing {117} songs of welcome, of which the most popular was the familiar
Saint Nicholaes, goed heilig man, Trekt uw'besten tabbard aan, En reist daamee naar Amsterdam, Von Amsterdam naar Spanje.
If the Saint would ride forth thus accoutered and if he would do what they asked of him, the children explained that they would be his good friends, as for that matter they always had been, and would serve him as long as they lived. At last the fateful moment arrived. A shower of sweets was hurled through the open door and amid the general scramble appeared the Saint in full vestments attended by a servant known as _Knecht Ruprecht_, and, after the Dutch settlements in America, a black man, who added much to the fascination and excitement of the occasion. He held in one hand an open sack into which to put particularly ill-behaved children, while in the other hand he carried a bunch of rods, which he shook vigorously from time to time. The good Saint meanwhile smilingly distributed to the children the parcels that he had brought, and, after these had all been opened and the presents had been sufficiently {118} admired, the children dropped into their trundle-beds to dream of all the glories of the day.
When the dust-sheet and litter of wrappings had been removed, the older people gathered around a table spread with a white cloth and set out with chocolate punch and a dish of steaming hot chestnuts, while the inevitable pipe, ornamented with a head of St. Nicholas, made its appearance and the evening ended with dancing and song in honor of the ”goed heilig man.”
Besides these stated anniversaries, home life had its more intimate festivities such as those celebrating the birth of a child, whose christening was made quite a solemn event. Every church owned its _doop-becken_ or dipping bowl from which the water was taken to be dropped on the baby's head. One beautiful bowl of silver dating from the year 1695 is still in existence in a New York church. About a week after the birth of the little New Netherlander, the neighbors were summoned to rejoice with the proud father and mother. In the early days of the colony and in the farming region, these gatherings were as rude and simple as they were under similar conditions in Holland. The men were invited at noon to partake of a long pipe and a bottle of gin and bitters. The women arrived {119} later to find spread for their entertainment dishes of rusks spread with aniseed and known as muisjes or mice, accompanied by eggnog. As society grew more sophisticated in the colony, these simple gatherings gave place to the elaborate caudle parties, where the caudle was served in silver bowls hung about with spoons that each guest might ladle out for himself into a china cup the rich compound of lemons, raisins, and spiced wine. It is evident that there was no lack of material good cheer among the colonists of New Netherland, and we may be sure that the boys and girls secured their share of substantials and dainties. I fear they were rather rough and rude, these young burghers, for all the reports which we have of them show them always in conflict with law and order. The boys especially, owing to deficient schooling facilities, were quite out of hand. They set dogs upon the night watchman at New Amsterdam and shouted ”Indians!” to frighten him in his rounds. They tore the clothes from each other's backs in the schoolroom where the unfortunate master was striving to keep order. In Fort Orange sliding became so fast and furious that the legislators were obliged to threaten the confiscation of the _slees_, and it was no doubt with a keen realization of the {120} behavior of their offspring that the inhabitants of Flatbush inserted these words in the articles of agreement with the new schoolmaster: ”He shall demean himself patient and friendly towards the children and be active and attentive to their improvement.”
However little learning from books entered into the lives of the young colonists, much that was stimulating to the imagination came to them by word of mouth from the _wilden_, from the negroes, and from their elders as they sat about the blazing fire in the twilight, or _schemerlicht_. Then the tales were told of phantom s.h.i.+ps, of ghosts walking on the cliffs of the Highlands, and of the unlucky wight who found his death in the river where he had sworn to plunge in spite of the Devil, a spot which still bears the name of Spuyten Duyvil in memory of the rash boast.
We may find it hard to reconcile the reputation of the Dutch as a phlegmatic and unimaginative people with the fact that they and their children endowed the Hudson with more glamour, more of the supernatural and of elfin lore than haunts any other waterway in America. Does the explanation perhaps lie in the fact that the Dutch colonists, coming from a small country situated on a level {121} plain where the landscape was open as far as the eye could see, and left no room for mystery, were suddenly transplanted to a region shut in between overhanging cliffs where lightning flashed and thunder rolled from mountain wall to mountain wall, where thick forests obscured the view, and strange aboriginal savages hid in the underbrush? Was it not the sense of wonder springing from this change in their accustomed surroundings that peopled the dim depths of the _hinterland_ with shapes of elf and goblin, of demons and super-human presences?
At any rate the spirit of mystery lurked on the outskirts of the Dutch settlements, and the youthful burghers along the Hudson were fed full on tales, mostly of a terrifying nature, drawn from the folklore of three races, the Dutch, the Indians, and the Africans, with some few strands interwoven from local legend and tradition that had already grown up along the banks of the Hudson.
It was a simple but by no means a pitiable life that was led in those days by burghers and farmers alike on the sh.o.r.es of this great river.
Never does the esteemed Diedrich Knickerbocker come nearer the truth than when he says: ”Happy would it have been for New Amsterdam could it always {122} have existed in this state of blissful ignorance and lowly simplicity; but alas! the days of childhood are too sweet to last.
Cities, like men, grow out of them in time and are doomed alike to grow into the bustle, the cares and the miseries of the world.”
[1] In 1657 the burgomasters and _schepens_ were authorized to create a great _burger-recht_ the members of which should be in a sense a privileged cla.s.s. It was set forth that ”whereas in all beginnings some thing or person must be the first so that afterward a distinction may take place, in like manner it must be in establis.h.i.+ng the great and small citizens.h.i.+p.” For which reason the line of great burghers was drawn as follows: first, those who had been members of the supreme government; second, the burgomasters and _schepens_ of the city past and present; third, ministers of the gospel; fourth, officers of the militia from the staff to the ensign included. The privileges of this caste were open to the male descendants of each cla.s.s; but as they could be secured by others outside the sacred circle on payment of fifty guilders it is difficult to understand wherein the exclusiveness lay. The small burghers were decreed to be those who had lived in the city for a year and six weeks and had kept fire and light, those born within the town, and those who had married the daughters of citizens.
A payment of twenty guilders was exacted of all such. This effort to promote cla.s.s distinctions was soon abandoned. In 1668 the distinction was abolished and every burgher, on payment of fifty guilders, was declared ent.i.tled to all burgher privileges.
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CHAPTER VII
THE NEIGHBORS OF NEW NETHERLAND
Machiavelli observed that to the wise ruler only two courses were open--to conciliate or to crush. The history of the Dutch in America ill.u.s.trates by application the truth of this view. The settlers at Fort Orange conciliated the Indians and by this means not only lived in peace with the native tribes but established a bulwark between themselves and the French. Under Stuyvesant the settlers at Fort Amsterdam took a determined stand against the Swedes and crushed their power in America. Toward the English, however, the Dutch adopted a course of feeble aggression unbacked by force. Because they met English encroachments with that most fatal of all policies, protest without action, the Empire of the United Netherlands in America was blotted from the map.
The neighbors of the Dutch in America were the Indians, the French, the Swedes, and the English. {124} The earliest, most intimate, and most continuous relations of the Dutch settlers were with the Indians.