"Engelish! Ja!" she said with a smile.
"I am an English--no, Scots teacher," I explained, "and I should like to see the school."
"I will ask the head-mistress," she said, and entered the school, while I stood and admired the bonny white dresses of the girls.
She returned shaking her head.
"The head-mistress says that it is not allowed to visit a school in Holland without a permit from the Mansion House."
"A rotten country!" I growled, and went away.
In the street I ran into a group of boys led by a master who was smoking a fat cigar.
"Speak English?" I asked, lifting my hat gracefully.
"Nichtenrichtilbricht," he said; at least that"s how it sounded.
"Thank you," I said, lifted my hat again, and fell in behind the boys.
I was determined to see this thing through.
I tackled him again when we reached the playground.
"I the head would see," I began, "the ober-johnny, the chef."
"Ja!" he exclaimed with an enlightened grin, and nodded. In ten seconds the chief stood before me. He could speak a broken English, and said he would be glad to show me round. It was a third cla.s.s school, and I gathered that in Holland there are three grades of State school; the first cla.s.s is attended by the rich, the second by the middle cla.s.s, and the third by the poor.
The school was very like a Board School in England. The children sat in the familiar desks and were spoon-fed by the familiar teacher.
There was nothing new about it. I noticed that hand writing seemed to be the most important thing, and each cla.s.s teacher proudly showed me exercise books filled with beautiful copper-plate writing. Most obliging cla.s.s teachers they were. Would I like to hear some singing?
It was wonderful singing in three parts; what surprised me was that the boys seemed to be just as keen on singing as the girls. I have always found it otherwise in Scotland and England.
In this school I got the gratifying news that corporal punishment is not allowed in Dutch schools, and later I learned that this applies to all reformatories also.
I think the Dutch are fond of children. Children seem to be everywhere. I went to the police-station to register as an alien, and as the inspector was examining my pa.s.sport this wee girl of three toddled in and climbed on his knees. He laid down his pen and fondled the child. Then his wife came in; she had been out shopping, and wanted him to admire the big potatoes she had bought. I was delighted to see the human element mingle with the official. A country that allows wives and children to mix up with its red-tape is on the right road to health if not wealth.
I went to the Hague next day, and English friends met me at the station and piloted me to their home. Next morning I visited an establishment called the Observatiehuis, and found that the superintendent had spent six years in England and had an English wife. The observation house, he explained, is a home for bad boys. When convicted they are sent there and are "observed." If a boy is well-behaved he is sent to live with a family and learn a trade; if he is incorrigible he is sent to a reformatory.
I looked in vain for the new psychological way of treating delinquents.
There was discipline here, but it was kindly discipline, for Mr. Engels is a kindly man; the boys sang as they swept the stairs. That was good, yet, it was Mr. Engels that brought freedom into the school; his successor may be a bully.
From Mr. Engels I got a letter of introduction to a real reformatory in Amersfoort, and off I set. Amersfoort is inland and I expected to find much language difficulty there, for I thought it unlikely that English would be spoken so far inland.
Amersfoort is a beautiful old town, and I at once set out to find the Coppleport mentioned in my guide-book. I suppose I looked a lost soul.
A youth of eighteen jumped off his cycle and lifted his cap. Then he pointed to a badge he wore in his coat.
"Boy scout!" he said.
"Excellent!" I cried, "you speak English?"
He held out his hand.
"Good bye!" he said; "pleased you to meet!"
"How do you do?" I said.
He grinned.
"G.o.d d.a.m.n!" he said sweetly.
After that conversation seemed to die down. I managed to convey to him that I was looking for the Coppleport, and he led me to it. Gradually his English improved, and he told me of his brother in England. A nice lad. I told him that I had once had a long conversation with the great B.P., but he looked blank.
"Baden Powell, your chief," I explained.
He shook his head; he had never heard of B.P. I think now that what was wrong was that he did not understand the name as I p.r.o.nounced it; possibly he knows B.P. under the sound of Bahah Povell or something similar.
On the following morning I went to the reformatory. It was a beautiful building fitted with every appliance necessary . . . and one not necessary--a solitary confinement room. A young teacher, Mr. Conijn, a very decent chap, who could speak excellent English, showed me round.
Every door we came to had to be opened with a key and locked behind us.
Here there was more of military discipline than in the Observatiehuis, but none of the boys looked sulky or unhappy. The relations of the boys and the teachers were fine; as Conijn pa.s.sed a lad he would pull his hair or pa.s.s a funny remark, and the boy would grin and reply.
"Any self-government?" I asked.
"We tried it but it was no good. It may work with English boys but not with Dutch," said Mr. Conijn.
"Did you have locked doors?" I asked.
"Oh, yes."
"Then self-government hadn"t the ghost of a chance to succeed," I remarked.
We entered a cla.s.s where an old man of about eighty was teaching a group.
"Why do these lads keep their eyes on the ground?" I asked. "Is their spirit crushed out of them?"
Conijn laughed.
"They are admiring your boots!" he cried.
I wore a pair of ski-ing boots on my trip, and all Holland stared open-mouthed at them. If I had been wanted for a murder I don"t think anyone in Holland could have identified me, for their eyes never got above my boots.
One of the masters, Mr. van Something-or-other, very trustingly lent me his bike, and on the following day I cycled to Laren to see the Humanitarian School there. Nearly every road has a cycle path on one side and a riding path on the other, but in spite of the excellent roads I did not enjoy cycling in Holland; a free wheel was of little value on the flat surface. One delightful feature about cycling in Holland is that there are no mid-day closing times for pubs, but on the other hand you cannot raise much of a thirst in a flat country.
Well, I reached Laren after many narrow escapes, for I was continually forgetting that you keep to the right in Holland. A postman came along, and I jumped off.
"Humanitaire School?" I asked as I doffed my hat.
By his expression I judged that he did not know the inst.i.tution under that name.
"School," I said, and he nodded and pointed to the village State school.