Thursday, June 14, 2012

Have a Cigar!

As my friend Ron once suggested when we were strolling through the streets of Roma, you have to look up to see the unusual. And as I've often found that applies when walking through most cities in Europe. I hadn't been looking up as we walked along Leidsestraat in Amsterdam I would have seen the fascinating displays in the Gant store but missed these charming friezes  on what was once a cigar makers shop.




Now I'm not advocating child labour, nor do I approve of children smoking cigars but this industrious little group, under the tutelage of a cherubic Mercury, seem pretty knowledgeable in the art of making a good cigar.


I noticed that though none of them seem to have taken to the addictive weed when they've finished their work they seem to know how to enjoy the fruits of the vine!

My friend MJ tells me that there was a time when it was cheaper - and in times of war politically more expedient - for plantation owners in the Southern United States to send their tobacco to Holland rather than England for processing. 


14 June -1789: HMS Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after a nearly 7,400 km (4,600 mi) journey in an open boat.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

2 comments:

yellowdoggranny said...

I would have passed it right up..I look straight ahead when I walk...if I look up I get a head rush and get dizzy.

lynette said...

the tutelage of a cherubic Mercury is critical to the success of child labor. excuse me, labour. :-)

i was in tulsa's federal courthouse the other day and walking down the hallway like a tourist. i got a crick in my neck from gaping at the unbelievably ornate ceiling that ran for an entire city block. it was stunning, as was the solid brass ram's head stair rail, and the luscious polished marble floors. it was build in the '20s or so, and it occurred to me that the same folks who undoubtedly encouraged the building of that magnificent thing (oil magnates) are the same ones today who view the federal government as the enemy and would like nothing more than to destroy it, and all the pretty buildings that belong to it.

AND to put the industriousness of children to use in service of the corporate kings.

sorry to have interrupted the travelogue with a mini-political rant. looking up can reward the senses, feed the soul, and fuel a bit of outrage to boot.