In Lochem we were picked up by von Dentschz with a carriage and taken to the nearby lying oldfashioned lodge de Dak, where the bridegroom offered us a dinner as a farewell to his bachelor’s life. The dinner was in line with the oldfashioned trend of the hotel and the innkeeper no less; he adressed himself to the later coming army commanders with the words: “He, you do something for a living too and cut that piece of meat for us!” And it was a piece of meat, of which the four of us could surely have had enough for 14 days. The menu was actually very extravagant and deliciously prepared and we ate a lot of it, perhaps even too much in view of the plans of the evening.
We would namely then be introduced to the bride and her family and did arrive there quite late. The bride, although not very young anymore, looked very nice and her mother was a respectable old lady; her father, a stiff old Klaas, had never left Lochem yet and didn’t want to travel with a railway coach; that would go too fast for him.
Further the company existed of different uncles and aunties and there was no single young girl amongst them; so the conversation was rather shallow and I came to sit at the piano soon enough, where I let them hear all kinds of funny pieces.
The wedding would take place the next day and we were asked to gather at the Townhall. After the wedding ceremony we went in our full uniform to look at the town and saw everywhere the old fashioned curtains being pushed open, where often sweet faces looked at our uniforms.
In the hotel in Lochem, where we stayed, the wedding dinner would take place and there we met the same boring company of the night before; ofcourse it was boring again and after a while according to myself, I made a speech as friendly possible to the married couple; v. Dentschz however owed me an answer. Following that Rost v. Tonnigen took off in a read out speech, sothat I thought the groom would now say someting, but the friend kept faithful to his inborn silence and kept quiet.
It didn’t take too long when he stood up with his bride and disappeared, to commence his honeymoon to Zutphen; leaving us behind with the boring company, which we then soon also left.
As peculiarity serves that Papa Numans had insisted, that his daughter would not start her honeymoon by train.
The next morning we left the pretty provincial town and I don’t believe I would ever again have accepted an invitation with such country people.
In Zutphen I was used to go to the station by eleven o’clock. Z. was in those days a crossroad of the railways from Arnhem, the North and from Germany and at 11 o’clock trains arrived from all directions and it would be an exception if I didn’t see any friends or aquainteses; I also saw there the newspaper vendor, who didn’t offer his newspapers to me as a regular visitor; one day at the end of July he came to me and said: “Today for once you have to buy a Rotterdammer fromf me, it would be worth a quarter to you; curiously I paid him the asked kwartje and I read on a with blue pencil marked part of my promotion to Major.
So I was head officer and finish my 2nd Chapter with it.
footnote:
kwartje = 25 cents, a quart of a guilder.
CHAPTER III
My life and career as Headofficer.
A. As Major.
Of course the day after my encounter with the newspaper man I sped to Amsterdam to verify the telegraphic confirmation of my promotion and then I was welcomed in the nicest way at the Weesperzijde; Papa Polkijn treated on champaign, even Charlotte looked less sour.
Then I stayed in Amsterdam again for a while with the awful result, that I got sick and had to stay in my room for 14 days. Cor came to visit me with her father regularly and at a certain moment tante Joh stood in front of me; I had not let them hear from me for a while and suspecting that something was going on, she came to convince herself of the situation. For the umptieth time she proved to be a sacrificing soul again, who would do anything for someone else.
After 14 days I could go out again and ate several times with the father in law to be; however I kept feeling awful and blamed the Tjilatjap to be the cause; it happened so that going home in the evening from the Weesperzijde, I regularly felt sick at the location of the Hooge Sluis and had to hang over the banister of the bridge to vomit. How unpleasant for Cor, but there was no other solution than to return to Zutphen and get treated by Dr. Quanjer.
During this time my brother Anton in Nijmegen died and I had the sad duty with my eldest brother to help bury him; he died at the age of 45 and left his wife and 3 stepchildren behind in not such an easy situation.
Dr. Quanjer fixed me up a little, but adviced me, to completely get cured to get a change of residence, preferably in a large dry place, where I also would find sufficient distractions; he suggested Wiesbaden or even the higher part of Brussels.
The choice was not difficult for me; as I had my old friend Dirk Pey in Brussels, who could be my mentor, and so I started a correspondence with him, to obtain a good and not too expensive boarding house. After a few days I received a message from him, that he thought he had found something, but that I first had to stay a few days with him, to look for myself.
Soon after I departed via Amsterdam to Brussels, where my old friend picked me up at the station and besides received me in a very friendly way. He was the owner of a small jewellery shop in the chaussee d’Ixelles, where he also lived. After his arrival in Europe he got a job as worker at a chemical factory and lived in furnished rooms above the mentioned shop; the owner of the shop however had died and the heirs had offered him to take over the whole business under profitable conditions, which he accepted.
So my friend had from a pharmacist become a jeweller and early in the morning stood there already polishing gold and silver items. Attached to the shop was also a watchmakery, for which he had kept an old trusted employe.
He was particularly satisfied with his shop, made a yearly profit of several thousands of francs and in the summer he made a 14 day trip to England, which besides he used to buy clothes for a year; so he looked all the time very distinguished and as if he came out of a bandbox.
At the back a steep circular staircase gave entrance to 3 porches, each ending in a large room above the shop, of which the bottom one was the sitting room, the 2nd the bedroom and the top one the guestroom. Underneath the house was a large cellar, which was partly furnished as kitchen and only to be reached through a latch in the shop. All together, a small setup, though very comfortable.
After 2 days messing about I succeeded in finding a suitable accommodation in the Rue de Berlin ( the street probably will be called differently now ) situated not so far from Pey’s house and so I moved in as soon as possible.
It was a roomy sit-bedroom with 3 windows facing the street; the bed was seperated from the living room by a large screen and all of it looked good. The food was not bad either, the only thing I couldn’t agree with was the serving of the porridge, which seemed fashionable in Belgium on Saturday and Sunday; but then I went to one or the other cheap restaurant.
On the suggestion of Pey I put myself under treatment of the wellknown Brussels doctor Dr. De Smet, who by administering small arsenic pills ( arseniate de soude ) cured me completely after a few months. I had to take a large walk every day and take it easy afterwards until after dinner.
I organised the walks in such a way that I arrived at the large Boulevard and could rest in the Grand Hotel, where every day one or the other professional meeting in the billiard hall took place. When I once let my amazement of the beautiful playing of the gentlemen be known to the waiter, he answered: “I believe that very well, he is the greatest on earth, it is Mr. Garnier”. After finishing my Boonekampje ( they didn’t know any other bitter there ) I returned to the higher Ixelles with the horsedrawn tram so as not to exhaust myself any further.
In those days only one small electric tram existed, which was driven on batteries, but in practice wasn’t satisfactory; besides it was only a beginning; now nearly everywhere the horsedrawn trams are gone.
In the evening I usually went out with Pey and we visited comedy or opera, after which wie drank a nice glass of beer somewhere; however we were never late in view of his business and for my health.
On his birthday we made an exeption to this, when he invited me for oysters and champaign after a premiere in the Money Theatre. I had never eaten oysters before, thinking that I wouldn’t like those slimy creatures. Pey insisted I should try with about 10 and got them ready for me; I have to say, that although I started in aversion, after eating 10 the taste for more came and since then I am a real fan.
Also I often went with Pey to visit both our friend Ds. van Davelaar, who as emiritus spent his last years in Brussels and then we still had some nice talks about the good old Batavia circumstances. I had always thought that between the daughter of the clergyman and Pey it would come to a wedding, but the love seemed extinguished with him and he has remained a confirmed batchelor.
As was described in my last chapter, my inventary in Medan had been valuated at 2200 guilders and so I would then hear in Holland what I had to do according to the Orphan’s court. So soon after my arrival in the Netherlands I received by intervention of the firm v. Hoboken in Rotterdam a letter of the Orphan’s court in Batavia, in which I was asked to transfer half or the valuated amount on notarial security; to the latter I sufficed by mentioning 2 collegues as securers.Quite some time later I received in the same way an announcement that they were not satisfied with my securers, because they didn’t have any house nor possessions on Java. However, I couldn’t produce such items and went to the mentioned firm to discuss what I should do. The manager of the firm welcomed me in a very nice way; I explained to him, that at the valuation of the inventary was omitted to include the fees, which were according to the amounts in my possession greater than the valuated amount, but that I had seen no objections to have a debt to my children of F.1000 seeing the small amount. I promised to explain the case to the Orphan’s court, which would certainly be cleared after my arrival in the Dutch East Indies.The marriage was set for the 22nd of December 1887 and would take place without any lustre on the request of papa Polkijn; just a small dinner would be offered to the witnesses and their ladies. My witnesses were my brother Gerrrit and my brother in law v.d. Werff. So my brother in law de Jongh was not invited and in this he gave rise to send me such a spiteful letter, that since then I had been cross with him and left his writing despicably unanswered.
After the official ceremony at the Townhall, where the alderman held an interesting speech, we drove for the blessing to the church of the Free Society, when such a dangerous mist set in, that inside our carriage we could not distinghuish the horses and not even the coachman on the bench and the horses led by hand took us to the church.
The weather soon cleared and the sun shone again, when we took our places in the church. The leader of the blessing Ds. Hugenholz saw this as a good omen for our next life, which unfortunately didn’t come true.
After the church’s blessing the wedding group drove to the Weesperzijde, where aunt Joh was waiting for us and further in her bustling way observed the honours for the still quite numerous visitors.
At the dinner table which besides went by very calmly, Cor and her father both became emotional, Cor due to several emotions of the day, her father because he was scared to loose his daughter, just like her elder sister Jet v. Dapperen, in the Dutch East Indies; aunt Joh however knew how to calm them both soon again.
At 7 o’clock we got up and drove with a cab to the Central Station and from there per express train to the Exchange station in Rotterdam. Was the weather at the beginning of our trip quite soft, on the way it suddenly got fiercely cold, sothat in no time at all thick frostwork was showing on the windows of the well heated train compartment. So yes, we arrived quite benumbed at the Exchange station and were guided by a pageboy to Hotel Weimar, where I had telegraphically booked a room. The beautiful and large room however was not heated and it took a long time before the room temperature was a little bit comfortable, because I had to light the woodfire first.
The next morning we were quite early up for a just married couple and since the weather had turned around for the umpthiest time and now was mild again, I took a good walk with Cor through the town ending with lunch in one of the restaurants at the Boompjes.
In the late afternoon we travelled to Brussels, where we arrived around 8 o’clock and at the North station were waited for by Pey, who took us with a four wheeler to our house in the Berlin street.
I didn’t recognise my old sit- bedroom, which looked like a saloon so transformed by Pey with all kinds of ornaments; above the table hung a very large kerosine lamp, the wedding present from my friend, and when this Belgian lamp was lit, we found underneath a huge bouquet with violets, a real speciality on this 23rd of December, when in those days one had to pay a fortune for flowers.
After our arrival it started to freeze heavily and consequently we had a white Christmas, from which the Bois de Cambreeenig was beautiful and where we also could enjoy the cheerful ice pleasures on the ponds in the wood from one of the many teahouses.
We now spent a few real cosy wintermonths, took pleasant afternoon walks and after having our lunch in the boardinghouse visited theatre or opera, which could be enjoyed of every description in Brussels; afterwards we often had treats like a deliciously filled luxurious roll with an aromatic cup of coffee at the pork butchers in our neighbourhood who were always open till late.
On Sundays the household in the boarding house was less tasteful due to the porridge and then we spend the day outdoors; we then drank coffee in one or the other bakery and dined in a good restaurant, where Pey occasionally was our guest.
Thus we lived as it were like two turtledoves, only once each fortnight disturbed by the periodical headaches of which Cor suffered. She suffered already from them as a young girl; after once vomitting properly it had gone for 14 days.
The GP in Amsterdam Dr. Liernur had explained that it was nothing else than a migraine and my Brussels aesculapius Dr. de Smet had the same idea; the science in those days seems not to have been convinced of the neccessity of repeated urine tests.
For the Carnaval Cor got her younger sister Anna to stay and together with Pey we then have painted the town well; we didn’t have to be ashamed as strangers and mixed masked or not under the crazy ones and had great fun.
During those days I received in a personal writing from the advice councillor at the ministery of Colonies Jhr. Six, whom I had paid a visit at the beginning of my leave as academy aquaintance. He had appreciated that so much of me that he promised to be of sevice at an occasion and I then had asked him in good time to take care of sending me with a detachment to the Dutch East Indies. He now wrote me that there was the opportunity to be a leader of a large detachment, if I wanted to leave at the end of April; after then the opportunity would not occur again, because only smaller troups would be sent, who were only appointed to under officers.
At the hot lunch which Adrienne, the wife of Willem Veenink, put in front of us, we got beefsteak with friend potapoes; both Cor and I could not leave expressing our delight, that we could taste Dutch food again; especially the meat in Belgium we didn’t like.From Amsterdam we then paid our further farewell visits to the several family members and friends and stayed with aunt Joh at the Elandskade in the Hague. The farewell at my mother’s was of course sad, knowing that I would not see the good soul again. I had taken precaution to pay my visit with her at such a time that my brother in law de Jongh wasn’t home; I didn’t want to see him.
On 26th April I left Amsterdam for Harderwijk to commence the command over the detachment; Cor stayed with her family, whilst aunt Joh went to Zutphen to pick up the children.In the afternoon of the 28th April 1888 the whole family was gathered at the quarter deck of the Prins van Oranje, which was ready for departure. Saying goodbye to her sister, Charlotte remembered that Cor still owed her 4 cents to the indignation of aunt Joh and all present.
Aunt Joh went with us to IJmuiden and left us soon after.
Cor was very tired and her legs were badly swollen; this had also been the case in the last few days in Amsterdam, but Dr. Liernur had declared, that it was a very common symptom with pregnant women, which could be eliminated by bandaging; she didn’t have to get worried and could easily commence the journey to the Dutch East Indies.
When we arrived in Southampton her feet were so swollen, that she had to go into town on her slippers with me to buy a pair of very wide boots, with which she managed for the time being.