[*]
[Footnote *: Bicycles entering Belgium pay an _ad valorem_ duty
of 12 per cent.]
[Illustration: THE FLEMISH PLAIN]
This is the most purely Flemish part of Flanders. One very seldom
notices that Spanish type of face which is so common elsewhere--at
Antwerp, for instance. Here the race is almost unmixed, and the
peasants speak nothing but Flemish to each other. Many of them
do not understand a word of French, though in Belgium French is,
as everyone knows, the language of public life and of literature.
The newspapers published in Flemish are small, and do not contain
much beyond local news. The result is that the country people in
West Flanders know very little of what is going on in the world
beyond their own parishes. The standard of education is low, being
to a great extent in the hands of the clergy, who have hitherto
succeeded in defeating all proposals for making it universal and
compulsory.
But, steeped as most of them are in ignorance and superstition,
the agricultural labourers of West Flanders are, to all appearance,
quite contented with their lot. Living is cheap, and their wants
are few. Coffee, black bread, potatoes, and salted pork, are the
chief articles of diet, and in some households even the pork is a
treat for special occasions.
Pages:
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87