In connection with the railway stations, wherever I traveled in Europe, there are “cloak-rooms,” in which the baggage of the travelers is stored away.  It costs 1 to 2 cents to have a package, parcel, umbrella or satchel deposited into one of these, and then the depositor receives a receipt or check for his luggage, which he must present when he wishes to have it again.  But Holland offers none of these excellent accommodations, else I would have spent a day more among these Flanders.  When I came to Amsterdam, I was immediately assailed by a herd of porters, each anxious to take my satchel into charge.  It had been my rule to carry it to the cloak-room myself, but here I could not find one!  After a vehement struggle with the fierce porters, one of them who could say “Yes,” in German, and who nodded his head when I asked him whether he would take it to a cloak-room, took it and carried it into the station, a distance of about fifty feet.  But they kept no cloak-room as I observed when it was not placed into a special apartment for the purpose.  It did not seem homelike at all to me, so I asked the agent whether he would give me a receipt for it.  “Yes, if you satisfy the porter, I will,” he answered.  This reply made me more tired of Amsterdam than anything else, for, thought I, if the agent of the would-be “cloak-room” is a party to such a set of fellows, I must indeed have fallen into pretty bad company.  I offered the porter 4 cents, which was twice as much as it cost me in other cities to have my satchel cared for a whole day, but he refused to take it.  Being unwilling to become the victim of their extortions, I took my satchel and carried it (almost three fourths of a mile) through town to the Oosterspoorweg on the other side of the city.  There I obtained good accommodations.  I had asked for lodging while coming through the city, but could not suit myself; so I decided to start that evening with the first train for Utrecht.  How different was the social atmosphere of the Oosterspoorweg Station!  Not only were the porters and the officers civil, but there was an excellent restaurant connected with it, and the waiting-girls of the coffee-room were tidily dressed in French costume, spoke German, and were social, polite and accommodating.

At 9:30, I left by train for Utrecht, which I reached at 10:35 p.m.  The station was a new and spacious one and the accommodations were again like those which I had been accustomed to, before I saw Holland; so I felt quite at home again.

Utrecht.

It is entirely wrong for the tourist to come into a strange city late at night, but I could not avoid it this time on account of my sudden determination in Amsterdam not to spend the night there, as had been my intention.  A clever and kind-hearted gentleman accompanied me through comparatively dark streets, and found a good hotel for me.

The next forenoon I ascended the high tower (469 steps, 321 feet in height).  In this tower, at the height of 124 steps, lives the lady custodian of this stupendous building.  She must have “high times” up there!  The tower is a large square structure affording plenty of room even for several families; but I was thinking that she must have quite a time of it carrying up her water and all the numerous other things necessary to house-keeping.