Page:Things Seen In Holland (1912).djvu/94

 the other side of the curtain there is a blaze of light, and the habitués engage in a game of billiards, and play cards or dominoes. The quieter ones read the evening newspapers, and there is a loud hum of conversation. It is not customary to enter the back room through the front one, but by a side-door. Shortly after four o'clock begins the bitteruur, or the "hour for bitters," the favourite “appetizers” being oude klare, pure or “neat” old gin, catz, boonekamp, curaçoa, pomerans, oranjebitter, half om half, and vermouth. Absinthe, fortunately for a short while only, made an insidious attempt to be admitted into the ranks of “appetizers,” but it met with little encouragement in its endeavours, and finally the Government prohibited the importation of the maddening intoxicant.

Drunkenness, of course, exists in Holland, as elsewhere, but even at time it is