1894-01-03

tTbe
VOL. III. JANUARY-MARCH, 1894. NO. 3.
ARCHITECTS' HOUSES.
Part II.
EFORE beginning even And now, I am

inclined to think, the
to think of a design more spontaneous and less sophisti-
for a house for any cated builders' houses of our own time
building it is im- express quite as clearly our relaxation
portant that we of austerity in morals and manners as
should go to the spot where it is to well as the transitional chaos of our
stand, look at the site the surround- intellectual development. However
ings imbibe the atmosphere of the that may be, we need not attempt to
place. For every reason, practical as put the domestic quiet of the cottage
well as aesthetic, we ought to examine into the iron-bound walls of the factory
the site first. with its ceaseless grind. Impossible,
Practical as well as aesthetic from ; some will say, that such objects as fac-
the very outset this double view of tories can ever be thought of from an
everything must be taken, nor can we aesthetic standpoint. It may be that
conceive ourselves as ever having ful- they are right, but inasmuch as archi-
filled either one completely if the other tects are called upon to design such, it
remains in any respect unfulfilled. In is certain that the aesthetic aim can
reason and in the mind of the architect only be to express in the appearance
these things are not separated as in the inward nature of each different
the common conception, but one is part object, whether gay or severe, attract
of the other, or rather both are but ive or repellant. Not without aesthetic
faces of a complete whole. Not that value is the black and grimy group of
it is for every building to be sugar houses, ten or fifteen stories
possible
beautiful, nor even pretty. There high, that dominates the Williamsburg
are in nature deserts and harsh crags suburb, standing apparently upon a
as well as peaceful pastures and plain solitary; so completely it over-
sparkling rivers. That each object powers the compact level mass of
should as perfectly as possible express poor, two-story houses, from which it
its nature by its appearance is the best springs.
that we can do aesthetically. The So, as I was saying, the very first
houses of earlier days I am thinking step is to examine the spot where our
especially of the days just past, colonial house is to stand. If it be very uneven
and revolutionary days these ex- we ought to obtain a more or less
pressed the primness and dogmatic minute topographical survey, as the
severity of our ancestors, as well as variations in height and in declivity
their depth of genuine heartiness and are very misleading to the eye.
hospitality as plainly as the coun- The only case where this inspection
tenance of man expresses his passing might be unnecessary is upon perfectly
moods. level ground; but even then there are
Copyright, 1894, by CLINTON W. SWEET. All rights reserved.
Vol. III.-3. 1.
230 ARCHITECTS' HOUSES.
distant views to be considered, slight like a real deer, and his suburban heart
elevations to be preferred for dryness, will swell with pride at his achieve-
clumps of trees to be used as much to ments.
advantage as possible, unexpected The true principle is to work for gen-
pieces of information as to accidents eral effect. Groupings everywhere with
of soil that may be of great value. a definite view to a general grouping.
In hilly or rocky country it is of Trees in clumps, or groves or avenues,
course all-important, this business of rarely in straight lines or equal spac-
placing the house in just the right posi- ings. Groups of groups, showing con-
tion, terracing out here, where the trasts perhaps of foliage or shape or
steepness of the slope makes walking both. Shrubs always in clumps, the
inconvenient, or where the view and smaller the grounds the more impera-
aspect tempt us to linger in the open tive this is. In general stiff and formal
air. In forming our conception of the arrangements need a very large scale
immediate surroundings of the house, to make them acceptable. A straight
there are two extremes of landscape walk half a mile long with flat walls of
architecture. On one hand, there is the clipped foliage on each side may be
polished beauty of the artificial land- magnificent, where one fifty feet long
scape of the Italian villa; on the other, would be ridiculous.
the picturesque beauty of untouched So with architectural incidents, vases,
nature. statues, pavilions, they must be good in
The possibilities of landscape gar- themselves, and properly grouped with
dening are hardly known in this surroundings this usually cannot be
;
country, the beautiful and romantic accomplished on a small scale. There-

compositions of grove and statue, of fore if we must confine ourselves to a
pool and bridge, of flowers and turf, limited space let us abjure such objects
which older countries exhibit. For the entirely if we are fortunate enough to
;
most part, we are fond rather of the have ample field, let us see that our
wildness of nature, possibly because statues are of marble, stone or bronze,
we have so much wildness of nature to with background of foliage or sky not ;
be fond of. Even in the wildness of cast-iron, with the family wash for a
nature there is a choice and in the land- background.
scape of art there are differences in the Practical considerations in the site
beauty of the results. The same prin- are of as much importance as aesthetic.
ciples lie at the bottom, whether we Is the soil rocky, or clayey or sandy ;
have to choose a natural treatment or the last much the most easily managed;
to construct an artificial one. Usually, the two former needing more or less
we must adopt a middle course, partly care and usually giving more or less
adopting existing natural features, trouble. The trouble is from water
partly enhancing these by our own that in rock or clay drains into any ex-
efforts. The fundamental principle in cavation we may make and stays there.
planting or grading, or any out-of-door From sand veins or other fissure in a
operation is to treat everything as parts clay soil, from minute crevices which
of a whole and not merely as separate
always occur in rock the water perco-
objects. The suburban artist for the latesand settles around our cellar wall,
most part takes an opposite course. I gradually rising until the hydrostatic
will plant a weeping elm
here, he says, pressure is sufficient to force it through
because I think a weeping elm is very almost anything that we may put to
graceful ;here I will put a maple and keep it out.
here a liquidambar so that I may have It is indeed possible to build a cellar
red leaves in autumn, and so on. The that will stand such a test and it is
result is that his lawn is spotted often done in cities, with the aid of
vaguely
with unrelated specimens, each sur- and flagstones and inverted
asphalt,
rounded by a neatly cultivated circle brick-arch cellar bottoms, but in a
of earth. Somewhere among these he moderate country house, such as we
will place a cast-iron vase or are likely to build, the cost puts it out
fountain,
or perchance a deer, painted to look of the question Our only course is
:
ARCHITECTS' HOUSES. 231
to .give the water an ample

outlet, so that it may more
easily go somewhere else than
into our cellar. In a village
or town where there are sewers
this is easily managed ;
the
important thing is to secure an
ample connection with the
sewer with a pipe not less than
five inches in internal diameter.
If the soil be clay or rock we
must fill in around our cellar
walls with loose materials,
broken stone or coarse gravel,
putting a line of cheap clay
drain tiles at the bottom and
connecting the whole by the
five-inch pipe with the sewer,
Foundation and drain-pipe.
which must be lower, than our
cellar bottom, considerably lower if wall it is necessary to lay a bed of
possible. similar loose material under the con-
As the sewer is fixed we must see crete floor of the cellar, taking care to
that our house is set high enough to make holes through the cellar walls to
bring the cellar bottom well above the give it an outlet, otherwise the last case
top of the sewer. of that house will be worse than the
If the house is in an isolated situa- first.
tion a similar course must be pursued ;
In very sandy soils hardly any meas-
only here we must dig our own sewer ures are needed the water drains
;
in the form of a
drainage trench slop- away so fast through the sand that it
ing away from the house to wherever has no tendency to penetrate the walls.
we can find an outlet at a lower level. I have seen a perfectly dry cellar in a
There is little difficulty in
doing sandy soil with only eight-inch brick
this in but a cellar
rolling country, walls and no protective covering at all.
dug in heavy soil or rock in a level Even in sandy soil it is best, however,
country is sure to give trouble and is to put a coat of coal-tar roofing
better if avoided entirely. cement asphaltum it is called but it is
Sometimes in addition to the broken not taking care not to leave any un-
stone around the outside of the cellar covered spaces when it is swabbed on.
Before this, when first ground
is broken, we must see whether
the top soil is worth saving,
and whether we shall have any
use for it. If we are going to
set our house well out of the
ground, and deposit the earth
out of the cellar around it,
forming a slight artificial eleva-
tion, we shall need some soil to
cover the bank of fresh earth ;
and if we have to cart it from a

distance it will cost far more
than if we can use this at hand.
We will therefore have it
scraped together into one

place, or, at most, two, not
into a dozen little heaps which
Draining with trench. are sure to be mixed with the
Stone foundation wall. Brick foundation wall
other excavated earth and eventually slight projection, as shown in the

lost. sketch. In heavy buildings, brick or
When it comes to the building of the stone buildings, this precaution is
cellar walls we will have them of stone needed to distribute the weight over z
by all means, if possible, in preference wider surface of the soil; but in frame
to brick stone both for appearance
;
houses the weight is not great enough
and for utility. In many places this is to need such measures, at least in the
easily done, stone usually abounding if case of a twenty-inch stone wall, which
it occurs at all, and being usually avail- is quite wide enough in itself for a firm
able in quality for such rough work as bearing. Brick walls, however, beinij
country-house cellar walls. Even shaly usually not more than twelve inches
rock unavailable otherwise makes a thick, sometimes as thin as eight
good concrete wall with proper cement. inches, require widening at the base.
Stone even of inferior quality is less In any case the footings are of advant-
permeable to water than brick, while age in keeping out rats, which vvi
;
the appearance of a rough stone wall burrow downwards until they reac i
is most pleasing. But if stone cannot be the projecting shelf when they relin-
easily got we must use brick, and we quish their attempts, their intellects
^
shall do well to use the hardest brick not being capable of picturing th3
we can find. Brick are classed as hard situation further.
and soft, according to their position in The cost of footings, coal-tarrinj ,
the clamp when they are burned. broken stone filling and such measun s
Those nearest the fire are often black- is increased by the necessity of digging
ened, sometimes twisted out of shape, a larger excavation than would othe -
but always much harder than those wise be necessary.
more distant from the fire. Houses So we have fairly started with 01 r
have been wholly built at times with cellar wall, standing it on the groun 1,
very much blackened and distorted a thing which seems to surprise mar y
brick with a very picturesque effect. people. Do you really stand yoi r
For cellars they are much to be pre- buildings right on the ground? I ha^ e
ferred and for all constructional work often been asked by the uninitiate
where hardness and strength are apparently under the impression th t
needed. piles or something of that sort wou
Whether of brick or stone the wall be the proper thing.
is
usually begun by what is called a To return to our cellar wall whi<
footing course of large, flat stone, we an unfinished condition. V
left in
somewhat wider than the wall itself; will build it, of course, with ceme i
or, in the case of brick walls, four or mortar, the advantage being that it t
five of the first courses are laid with a far less permeable to water than i
plain lime mortar. Cement, a material

of modern discovery, is invaluable in
construction. In former times the mor-
tar commonly used was made of lime
and sand, mixed together with water in
the familiar way. Even then, however, Sr<
it was well known that certain limes
were to be preferred, that they set more

quickly and became harder, some would Foundation wall ready for superstructure.
even become hard under water, while
ordinary lime will dissolve and dis- The kind of timber depends upon
appear. the locality in Georgia and Florida,
;
The peculiarity of these hydraulic the home of the Southern yellow pine,
limes, as they are called, is that they that is generally used for everything ;
will not slack like ordinary quicklime, in other Southern states, as far north
but have to be tediously ground to as Virginia, the so-called North Caro-
powder. Finally a limestone was dis- lina pine is used. Hereabouts white
covered which, when burned and ground pine was once frequent and is, when
and mixed into mortar with sand and available, a very admirable wood for
water, set so quickly and so hard that the heaviest truss work or the most
it was classed no
longer as lime, but was delicate carving it is becoming too
;
called cement the celebrated Roman expensive now for general use.
cement of former days, though little In place of it spruce is commonly
used now. So great was its success at used, a good enough material, its chief
the time that attempts were made to fault being a disposition to twist in dry-
imitate it by artificial mixtures culmin- ing. I have seen a ten by ten-inch
ating in the invention of Portland ce- post about ten feet long twisted so
ment, so-called, not from the place of much that the top stood with its sides
manufacture, but because it was used at angles of forty-five degrees with
to imitate Portland stone. The essence those of the foot, quite an eighth turn
of the invention was the mixing of a in the length. Hemlock is used in some
certain proportion of clay with ordinary places almost exclusively. It is good
limestone before it was burned, and enough for ordinary house construction,
burning clay and limestone together. although too brittle for heavy work it ;.
Simple enough in principle, but astonish- has a pinkish tinge and peculiar pleas-
ing in its results. Without cement the ant smell, by which it is easily recog-
hydraulic engineering of to-day would nized.
be impossible, nor would eight or ten- On the whole we judge it best, as is
story buildings be practicable, not to frequently done, to make the posts,
mention those of fifteen or twenty sills, plates and floor beams, and per-
stories. haps also the rafters of spruce, using
Since then various natural cement hemlock for the filling-in studs and in-
stones have been found, our Rosendale terior partition work all of which is
cement, the most familiar to us in New Chaldee to the beginner, but simple
York but in all the principal compo- enough after you know, like most
;
nents are clay and lime in certain pro- things.

portions, whether occurring as a natural There are two principles of house-
product or mingled by art. framing in use, both of which are shown
The foundation walls built, we have in the illustrations the first is called
;
disposed of the mason-work for the braced framing, the second balloon
present, for it is a frame house that we framing. Each has its advantages.
have chosen for our example. In either the starting point of the whole
While the cellar walls have been in is the sill, a line of timbers running
progress the timber for the rest of the around the whole outline of the ground
house has been arriving upon the plan of the house, securely fastened
ground and the carpenters have been together at the angles, halved together
at work preparing it. usually and usually four by six or four
Elements of braced frame construction. Framing of braced frame construction.
by eight inches of course in size. with the word sheathing, which the
Upon braced frame stand
this in the carpenter calls sheeting. I never quite
the posts at the corners and perhaps know what to do usually vary my
;
intermediate posts will be required. pronunciation according to my audi-

These are also at least four by six, for ence, particularly when the audience
a large house four by eight.
very is of mechanics and it is important to
These posts are joined together at the make myself understood, but I draw
top by another horizontal four by six the line at cornish for cornice.
piece, called the plate wall plate is In between the posts are set smaller
its name in full. pieces as shown, filling-in studs, three
Such a construction of course could by four or less in size, and over the
not stand, but would sway and fall at whole is nailed a covering of boards,
a breath were it not for the pieces set not the clapboards or other outside
in diagonally called braces and char- covering, but rough boards called
acteristic ofthis method of framing. sheathing boards.
If there are intermediate floors .in The balloon frame dispenses with
our case there is one, often there are girts, or girths if you will, posts, plates,
more other horizontal timbers called braces and all these paraphernalia,
girts must be placed to carry the simply sets up a line of sticks, or studs
floor beams. I
suppose it ought to be to be properly technical, and to these
both spelled and pronounced girths, the sheathing is nailed, not horizontall}
but the carpenter calls them girts. as before but diagonally, forming the
The same orthoepic dilemma occurs strongest kind of bracing possible.
Then carry the floor

to
beams the intermediate
of
stories, we simply nail a strip
along the inside of the studs
at the proper height, a very
thin strip suffices, one inch
thick usually, and the studs
are notched to receive it, so
that it may not project be-
yond the plastering, and so
that it may have a strong
bearing.
This ribbon-strip, as the
carpenter calls it, is the weak
point of balloon framing not. ;
weak for weight,

carrying
for it is amply strong, but in
case of fire it does not pre-
sent the obstacle to the
sprea'd of the flames that
the girt of the braced frame
does.
even the braced frame
Still,
is so eminently combustible
in its nature that I do not
give objection much

this
weight with proper fire
;
stops either frame can be

much improved.
We have adopted a com-
bination of the two,, using
posts and girts, but placing Elements of balloon frame construction.
our sheathing diagonally in-
stead of bracing, a compromise that is a well-built house excels an ill-built
often used. After the frame is com- one. Then if we want to have still
pleted and sheathed, the rafters of the further protection we may build in be-
roof set and also sheathed, and before tween the studs with brick and mortar,
the final exterior covering, comes the or we may cut in lath and plaster upon
question of protection from the cold. them back-plastering it is called,
Boards alone are of no use. Through either method making a very warm
the cracks the winter wind howls, and house. Anything more than good paper
a house with no other protection is isan unusual precaution, and not to be
little better than out-of-doors. I once expected without increasing the cost
lived in such a one, and with the kitchen of the house.There are plenty of
range three feet away, on one side, and little which I cahnot enter
details into
the dining-room register three feet here, pointing around sill and windows,
away, on the other, the very bread used beam filling with brick and many other
to freeze solid on cold nights. such matters, all of which improve the
Quite the usual thing, and a very quality of a house, are entirely invisi-
efficacious thing, is to cover the sheath- ble and unappreciated by the unprofes-
ing boards with building paper, one or sional, and unobtainable if a minimum
two thicknesses, before the shingles or price is insisted upon, because they all
clapboards are put on. Indeed the cost something. If you employ an
cheaper style of builders' house often architect don't demand the biggest
has paper alone nailed to the studs, no house possible for your money ; leave
sheathing at all, a miserable makeshift, some margin for quality and you will
and one of the invisible points wherein never regret it.
ARCHITECTS' HOUSES.
As soon as the sheathing is on, the the exterior the outside finish and
window frames are set in place. These gutters are put on.
are usually "box frames," that is, pro- As soon as the outside framing is
vided with a pocket or box for the done, and while the operations so far
weights required by the ordinary "guil- described have been in progress the
lotine "sash. There are various little framing of the floors has been done and
the rough
refinements, known to the architect but the partitions set upon
not to the owner, in these constructions: under floors.
The vertical pieces called pulley styles
may be of Georgia pine, oiled instead
of painted, because paint is sure to be
rubbed off by the sliding sash, the part-
ing bead may be of the same ;
there
may be introduced a "hanging parting
strip" to keep the weights from strik-
ing against each other, or all of these
things may be dispensed with and the
whole built of white pine painted, which
is the ordinary method, and quite good
enough for ordinary houses.

The building-paper sheathing must
extend under the window frames, espe-
cially as we have determined to dis-
pense with any other protection from
the weather. We lay this over the
whole exterior, roof and all, in double
thickness. There are many kinds of
building paper in the market and it is
hard to know which to choose, as it is
always covered up immediately so that
its durability cannot be determined by
observation. As far as I can tell from
samples kept in the open air the View of partition
"waxed" papers are as good as any,
but they are not waxed with wax but The floors are supported by beams
with some petroleum product the usually of spruce, sometimes of hem-
:
"parchment" papers the genuine Jock; if of the latter, which is a weaker

ones, seem to be very good and there material, they must be a little stouter.
are plenty of others. Three by eight or three by ten are fre-
Upon this is nailed the outside cov- quently used; but, although floor beams
ering, in our own case of shingles all are 'mostly sawed three inches thick,
over both sides and roof. The roof two inches is quite enough for ordinary
shingles are sometimes, indeed usually, houses, and two by ten is stronger and
laid upon strips called roofing lath, set more economical than three by eight.
at the proper distance apart on the For spans up to twelve feet two by
rafters,and such an arrangement tends eight does very well even if of hem-
to prolong the life of the shingles, by lock; beyond that, up to sixteen feet
permitting them to dry easily on the span, two by ten will serve our pur-
under side. I prefer, however, to pose; from sixteen to twenty feet use
put solid board sheathing and paper two by twelve, and beyond that three
under the roof shingles as well as by fourteen two by fourteen would be
those on the side, because it makes strong, but a beam of so great
amply
the house warmer in winter and depth without more thickness is apt to
cooler in summer. Moreover, if cy- wobble sidewise. Indeed, all beams
press shingles are used, decay is not to are liable to twist and bend sidewise,
be apprehended. and partly to prevent this twisting and
In connection with the usual to put in what
shingling of bending it is is
called cross-bridging, short pieces set mortar and boot-heel

figured with
in diagonally forming a series of marks
would all be covered up.
it
X's. These also stiffen the beams But now we must have floors bare, or
very much; not that they add capable of being bared, if Comstock
to the strength really, but they will pardon the expression. So it has
prevent one beam bending independ- come about that we now lay a rough
ently compel the adjoining beams to floor first, upon which stand the parti-
;
receive a part of the weight that may tions, and upon which all of the
be placed upon any one beam. This plastering and rough work is done ;
cross-bridging is one of the few devices then, after all else is finished, a
that add very much to the quality of a grooved and tongued floor, of nar-
building and do not add to the cost ap- row boards, the narrower the bet-
preciably, so we need not spare, but ter and the more expensive, and be-
may put lines of cross-bridging about tween this and the rough floor, by
six feet apart everywhere. The fram-
ing of the floor beams is made
necessary where openings for any
purpose are required in the floors,
as for stairways, registers, and for
chimney stacks to pass through.
Naturally the cross beam on which
the others rest, called the "header,"
must be proportionately stronger ;
and so must the beams upon which

the header rests. These are called
" trimmers "
and, with the headers,
are usually four -inches thick or more,
according to the size of the opening
and weight to be carried.
As soon as the beams are in place
rough floors of hemlock or other boards
are laid. These should be of uniform
thickness and well nailed, but knot
holes, cracks and such defects, within
reason, do not matter. This remains
the only floor until all the rough work
of the building is done: until the chim-
neys are built, the partitions set, the
iron plumbing pipes in place and the
plastering finished; then another floor
of boards of better quality is laid over
it; almost the last thing done in the
finishing of the building.
Within the past recent years this sys-
tem of double flooring has become a
matter of course in and about New
York; formerly, even in the best
houses, single floors were the rule.
Those were the days of floors carpeted
all over, with carpets cut to fit each
little nook.
Nothing then was needed but a
white pine floor, soft, easy to drive
tacks into and pull them out of: it
mattered not if there were widish
cracks between the boards, nor if the
boards themselves were somewhat dis- Arrangement of flues.
preference, a layer of soft deafen-

ing paper, quite a different thing
from the hard sheathing paper.
Before this, however, just after
the rough floor is laid and the par- Plan of fireplace, with pipe linings to flues
titions set, comes the work of

plastering. And before plastering
begins is a multitude of matters
to be attended to. Most import-
ant among these is the building of
the chimneys. These should be
of good hard brick like the foun-
dation. Soft brick are often used
for chimneys by the poorer sort of
builders, but are very dangerous, Plan of fire-place, with 4-inch walls to flues.
as after a while the soft brick dis-

integrate and fall to dust. I have
seen a hole a foot square in an
old chimney. Then comes a mys-
terious conflagration and stories
of a defective flue. Yet I have
heard a builder assure an owner
that the soft brick would soon be-
come hard under the influence of
the warmth from the fireplace !
Next in importance to the qual-

ity of the brick is the smoothness Plan of fireplace, with 8-inch walls to flues.
of the inside of the flues. This is

obtained by removing with the
trowel from the inside joints the mor- may be included at least for the furnace
tar that squeezes out as each brick is flue and perhaps also for the range flue
laid struck 'joints, it is called. Some- in the smallest houses. For ordinary
times, and in some localities, the flue is fireplaces pipe linings may be dispensed
plastered with mortar on the inside ;
with where cost is of prime importance,
the defect of this method is that after as the heat from such open fires is
a while pieces of the plastering are apt rarely great enough to be dangerous.
to become loose and, falling over Nor is it usually essential to build the
diagonally, may block the flue com- walls of these flues more than the regu-
pletely. lation four inches. Undoubtedly there
The very best thing is to build in is a chance that a spark may penetrate
vitrified clay pipes, either round or an open joint, but with reasonably
good workmanship such a chance is re-
mote. Moreover, if we must be full-
cautious, it is cheaper and more effica-

cious to build in our clay pipes in all
the flues, rather than to double the
quantity of brick.
It is highly advisable, however, that
the framers should frame proper open-
ings for both chimneys and hearths and
should not by any chance stick a beam
Interior of flues. squarely into a flue, as I have seen them
do in defiance of drawings and orders.
square work very well, all the way to Before the plastering can begin the
the top. Such were unheard of for- partitions must be put in place. Ordi-
merly, but now are frequent. They nary partitions are nothing but a row
will cost about ten dollars a flue and of perpendicular " studs," three by four
or more frequently two by four inches and carpenters are very apt to damage
upon both sides of which laths these by accident they are best put
in size, ;
are nailed and the plastering upon inside the partitions out of the way,
each side completes it. Often, even in but in case of necessity may be put
good houses, these studs stand directly into grooves in the rough plaster, or
upon the rough floor, but it is better to may be carried behind mouldings or in
let them stand upon a stud laid horizon- angles.
tally; there is a partition head of a simi- When the plastering begins the house
lar stud at the top and the vertical studs is handed over for a month or more to
are simply nailed top and bottom. a deluge of filly mud.
Some kind of filling-in for partitions The period of plastering is always a
ismuch to be desired but none is usual. tedious and uninteresting hiatus in the
The open spaces are very objection- construction of a building. Each coat
able, both in the outside walls and in there are usually three of them re-
the inside partitions; they transmit quires some days to dry before the next
sound, are the usual cause of destruc- can be put on altogether a month
;
tive fires, and make a delightful retreat passes during which the building is an
for rats and mice. The only available unpleasant thing to superintend.
remedy that 1 know of would be to fill Much of all this can be avoided by
in solid between the studs with mineral using Windsor cement, or other of the
wool although the weight would often
;
recently brought-out hard plasters ;
be an objection and the cost, used so these set quickly and shorten the job
lavishly, might forbid. Some kind of of plastering to a quarter of what it
very light porous blocks, made just to else would be.
fit between the studs and plastered These are made now at a price that
upon direct might be devised, but is brings them as low as common plaster,
not used perhaps, too, such a filling
;
so that many plasterers are willing to
might induce dry-rot in the studs. The put on the improved plaster without
most available alleviation is a filling-in increase of price.
of bricks and mortar between the studs, Hard plaster requires skillful hand-
three or four courses deep; probably ling. Sharing some of the qualities of
mineral wool to the depth of eight or plaster of Paris, it sets with great
ten inches would be as good. rapidity, so that, contrary to the prac-
Before the plastering begins, too, we tice with lime and sand plaster, it
must see that the iron waste pipes for must be mixed in small quantities
the plumbing are in place, unless they and put on at once. Country plasterers
are to be exposed outside the plaster, especially, being by nature "agin"
on the whole a better method; the gas new-fangled notions, are loth to do
pipes must be in and conduits for elec- anything otherwise than as they have
tric wiring, if we are to have anything been accustomed to do, and are apt to
of the kind; speaking tubes, and tubes let the Windsor cement set before it is
for mechanical bells or wires for elec- applied; then they try to "temper it
"
tric bells, or, better than either, pipes up with more water and of course fail
for pneumatic or air-bells must be put to make a satisfactory job. When a
in place. plasterer can be found who understands
These pneumatic bells, where me- it and is willing to use it this invention
chanics who understand them can be of hard plaster is one of the most im-
found to put them in place, are most portant of recent improvements in the
convenient. They operate by a push- building art.
button, as does an electric bell, and In Western cities, where local preju-
transmit the impulse through a small dice against new methods is not so
leaden tube to the more or less distant strong, I have seen beautiful plaster-
bell. There is no bother about renew- ing and much cheaper than usual. It
ing batteries, but they work well for was done with a single coat of brown
years without any attention whatever. mortar, troweled to a smooth surface
The delicate lead pipes are the only and with no finishing coat, nothing but
point that requires care, as plasterers a coat of distemper color, commonly
240 ARCHI TECTS HO USKS.
'
called calcimine, the walls in one tint, afforded hardly anything gives us a
the ceiling in another. I have tried better opportunity than the plastering,
more than once to have such work done although the heavily-moulded cornices
here and have uniformly failed, be- and stock pattern centerpieces of the
cause nothing would induce the plaster- past have been discarded, delicate re-
ers to regard the first coat as other than naissance friezes, or even elaborately
a rough coat, or to bring it to the sculptured figure groups, if placed well
necessary smoothness of finish. before the fracture line, may be ad-
If richness of ornament can be mirably done in plaster.
John Beverley Robinson.

Carlsruhe, Germany. G. Ziegler, Architect.
';<"; :^^^^''--;-::--;^^':^m^^
ENGLISH V1L1.A.
Lor4 Alfred Watcrhouse, Architect.
HILL HOMESTEAD AT RIVEREDGE.
COLONIAL BUILDING IN NEW JERSEY.
LI, nations have yoke of oxen and a log chain. There

their
beginnings in archi- they were roughly dove-tailed at
tecture. Even the the ends with a woodman's axe, and
U nited States,a nation then, either in a square or rectangular
that in almost all its form, piled one above the other to an
material resources has elevation regulated somewhat probably
sprung from the wil- by the corporal proportions of the
derness during the builder. Aproprietor who carried his
lifetime of persons now living, must head at a cranial elevation of six feet
confess to a probationary period in the would demand an eight-foot facade.
building art and it cannot be claimed
; Higher than eight feet, on any
that we have even yet escaped to ordinary occasion, it would have
conditions of very complete inde- both difficult and useless to
been
pendence. He will need to be an ex- skid the material, and having reared
ceedingly young man, and a man of his walls to this elevation, roofed them
restricted opportunities for observa- over with split logs, or possibly with
tion, who can truly say that he has bark stripped from the trees, carefully
never seen an example of the American filled in the crevices with a natural
log cabin. Half of our most self- plaster of mud, and erected his chim-
assertive statesmen have lived in just ney, composed sometimes of stones
such structures, and a great many of if they were abundant but some-
our millionaires were cradled in log times, also, of sticks, the builder
cabins, if it can be literally said that thought himself in the possession of a
they had cradles. So nearly universal shelter fit for the habitation of any
is the knowledge of the
log cabin that first settler. Nevertheless, there were
any attempt at describing its structural more ambitious examples of log build-
features must be regarded as reminis- ing. There were houses constructed
cent rather than newly instructive. of hewn logs, and, after having
The log cabin, it will be remembered, been carried to an elevation of two
was constructed mainly of unhewn logs stories and provided with roofs, the in-
cut from the forest in suitable lengths, teriors were sub-divided by partitions
and dragged to the building site, and made suitable for the use of large
usually on the edge of a clearing, by a families. The rooms, too, lathed and
Vol. III. 3. 2.
248 COLONIAL BUILDING IN NEW JERSEY.
plastered, were decorated with mantels ing a question as to which of the two
and more or less elaborate window companions can show the quickest
and door casings. As to ihe exteriors, paces and the longest endurance. But
they were clapboarded, and, when pro- this is not a peculiarity of the United
vided with cornices, porches or ver- States. The match between civiliza-
andas, they exposed as few of the tion and barbarism has been made in
features of the log cabin as any allcountries, and we are distinguished
town or suburban dwelling constructed above other nations only in having
of wood. But these examples only given the barbarian the fairest oppor-
illustrated a developing civilization. tunities for the development of his
They indicated a step in the evolution indiosyncrasies, and the best chance to
of architecture in America. But they win. In some other countries the bar-
were chiefly valuable in illustrating barian builders are strangled but in ;
psychological phenomena. They de- this country they are often promoted
monstrated the difficulty men have in along with the barbarian statesmen.
escaping from even the log cabin with- To reverse the sacred dictum, then,
out following the regular channels of which reads, " as it was in the beginning
evolution. They had little structural so it is now and ever will be," and to
significance, however, and are hardly make it read, " as it is now so it was in
to be classed among our beginnings. the beginning," we may trace the line
The proprietors of such structures backward and find that this country
would have been affronted had they has never been altogether barbarian in
been suspected of living in log houses. architecture, notwithstanding the log
The true beginning of American cabin. Men came to the American con-
architecture was the one room and one- tinent when it was first offered for
story log cabin, sometimes containing settlement from many different climes,
a garret under a peaked roof, reached and the forces of several rival nations
by a ladder, but often, also, not con- contended here for control. England,
tributing even this much to domestic France, and Holland sent the echoes
convenience. Simple curtains of some of their artillery along the wooded
coarse fabric, or home-made blankets, shores of our seas and rivers, and even
sub-divided the interiors into sleeping Germany, a nation that takes to colonial
quarters, and the walls or supporting enterprises about as naturally as it
posts, when hung with dried corn or takes to salt water, once succeeded in
dried fruit festooned on strings, were effecting a lodgment in at least one of
sufficiently well decorated for the tastes our incipient States. The people who
of the occupants. Such were the came here, too, were rarely of the
dwellings of our forefathers, and, as lowest order, men and women habitu-
hinted but now, such were the dwell- ated to the shelter of cabins. They were
ings to which much of the infancy often persons of considerable culture
of the living generation was no and refinement, and they brought with
stranger. Indeed, the much traveled them various architectural ideas which
man of even the current period cannot could not fail of soon taking form in
look upon the log cabin as an antiquity. at least the more highly-favored sec-
He will recall too many examples that tions. Hence, always omitting the log
he has seen among mountain fastnesses cabin from our catalogue of styles, some
and on the confines of civilization to of our earliest architecture, examples of
permit him to regard the apparition of which are still standing here and there
such dwellings when conjured
up as throughout the original thirteen States,
anything in the least suggestive of a displayed a great deal of artistic feel-
resurrection. Since its first settlement ing, and a pretty thorough knowledge
this country has been able to furnish an of the
principles of design. On account
example of civilization and barbarism of the different nationalities represented
marching hand in hand, of a civiliza- by the first settlers, too, there is a
tion of the highest order, and of a bar- wide There is a pronounced
variety.
barism about equally pronounced. difference between the
examples to be
Recent political events, too, are rais- found in New
England, New Jersey,
COLONIAL BUILDING IN NEW JERSEY, 249
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and lasted long enough to give a dis-

the Carolinas. tinctively more modest character to
But even among the early settlers their architecture than was manifested
from England there was a sufficient in the more congenial atmosphere of the
difference in social traits to lead to a South. Readers of this magazine will
very pronounced difference in archi- recall the illustrated article on the
tectural taste. The offshoots of the Colonial architecture of Anapolis, pub-
English cavaliers who settled in Mary- lished some time ago (see Vol. I., No. 3),
FURLEY PLACE, 112 YEARS OLD.
land and Virginia differed radically and, if not familiar with the old archi-
from the roundheads, or Puritans, who tecture of Maryland, they were doubt-
peopled New England. The former less surprised at the classic suggestive-
were men of aesthetic training and they ness of the pictures. But the examples
were given to social enjoyment. They furnished by Anapolis are by no means
seem to have created and maintained isolated. The writer recalls in an old
their homes with a view as well to the plantation house in Prince George's
entertainment of guests as for domes- County, Maryland, built so long ago
tic enjoyment. But the latter were that it was haunted, some examples of
men of the most severe simplicity. carved wainscoting which few archi-
They would have looked upon a pic- tects of the present day would under-
ture as vanity, and upon a house con- take to rival. Indeed, executed lov-
structed after any lavish and ornate ingly by hand with intelligence and
plan as an abomination. The abnor- work was beyond the rivalry
taste, the
mal piety of the New Englanders did of any carving machine. The differ-
not prove to be enduring. But it ence between the architecture of Mary-
land or Virginia and of Massachusetts they were displaced, supposing them
was as great as the difference in their to have been erected, give evidence of
religion. In the South country the a high degree of artistic culture. Dis-
people were all Catholic or Episco- persed through Bergen County, a ter-
palian. But at the East they would ritorial division which once extended
have been Beelzebub himself before as far southard as Constable's Point,
they would have been either the one or on the Rill von Kull, and concentrated
the other. The two sections were not, closely in that most delightful of sub-
therefore, of precisely the same per- urbs, Hackensack, are still to be found
suasion in anything; and though it is many examples of colonial building,
not meant to be said that a man's re- which suggest merit enough to be
ligion is responsible for his taste, it is the foundation of a distinct architect-
possibly true that his aesthetic sympa- ural style. This assumption will be
thies or taste is responsible to a amply demonstrated by the pictures
greater or less degree for his religion. accompanying this article. In studying
The people who planned the Colonial the different illustrations it will be
architecture of Maryland and Virginia seen that they contain suggestions
would have felt more at home in a which could be happily adopted
ritualistic cathedral than in a Quaker in either urban, suburban, or rural
meeting house. architecture, a distinction which in-
It is to New Jersey, however, rather dicates very comprehensive facul-
than to either Maryland or Massachu- ties of architectural invention on
setts that we must look when we wish the part of the designers. Not many
to find the type of Colonial architect- years ago, for example, our architects
ure that seems most original to our went to France and brought home the
Anglo-Saxon eyes, and where the dif- mansard roof. Since that time, calling
ferences between Massachusetts and it the French roof, they have set up this
Virginia have been most successfully seeming novelty on about every ele-
compromised. New Jersey, it must be vated point in suburban neighborhoods,
remembered, or at least that portion of and made' it the crown of the edifice
New Jersey which lies between the along almost entire streets in the cities.
Hudson and Delaware rivers, was set- Evidently, they did not know that just
tled by the Dutch. It also made a over the Hudson River, in Hackensack,
part of the territory 'in
dispute there is a better mansard roof, con-
when England and Holland
constructed nearly two hundred years ago,
tended for the possession of the Hud- than anything they had succeeded in
son and its adjacent shores, and if importing, and that the so-called man-
the Dutch settlers did not prove sard roof is really as Dutch as Van
themselves strong enough to main- Blarcam. On the next occasion when
tain their independence after they our architects wish to go to Paris for
were abandoned by the mother coun- an idea they will do well to go by way of
try, and traded ignominiously for the Hackensack. They will do well also to
patch of wilderness in South America, go to Hackensack before going to
now known as Dutch Guiana; they England in search of the architectural
were yet strong enough to impress aberrations which have perpetuated the
their civilization on the territory that reign of Queen Anne on these republi-
they
had pre-empted, and to erect en- can shores. What must be said here
during monuments of their intelligence should be said modestly, but it should be
and taste. We have no positive proof said nevertheless. In everything except
that the Dutchman ever constructed a
literary achievement, the Dutch civili-
log cabin. He may, or he may not zation of two hundred years ago was
have found it necessary to protect superior to the English civilization ;
himself from the inclemency of the and in all departments of fine arts it
weather by some such contrivance was incomparably superior.
when he first landed, but it is certain Readers may wish to know why
that he did not long remain so domi-
Bergen County displays so many ex-
ciled and that the dwellings by which
amples of colonial architecture while
COLONIAL BUILDING IN NEW JERSEY. 253
in most other parts of New Jersey we which, if not to be called quite pre-
may only the usual display of historic, is yet very remote for this
see
buildings erected on next to no archi- continent. It was originally constructed
tectural foundation, and structurally in the year 1696, and it therefore lacks
suggestive of something which the only two years of the end of its second
builders themselves should look to out- century. True, the original building
live had they any reasonable expecta- was destroyed by fire and the present
tions of life. The explanation may be church is a reconstruction but it was
;
found in history. In New York, and reconstructed on the original lines. It

in most parts of New Jersey beyond has also been enlarged by extending
the borders of his present domain, the the walls and roof at the end opposite
Dutchman was outnumbered and con- the bell tower. But the enlargement,
quered but in Bergen County he was although interfering somewhat with
;
never conquered. He has maintained the original proportions, was made in

there his traditions and his control, strict conformity with the first plan,
and even to this day, in Hackensack, and a sharp eye can detect the point
although the old village contains alto- of junction in the photograph. Ex-
gether too much that emanated from ternally, the building stands substan-
the Rosewater Land Improvement tially as it was first erected. Observe
Company school of architecture, there the lines as they are brought out in all
still remains an indescribable air of an- the perfection possible to the photo-
tiquity which is both morally and ar- graphic art. The structure will doubt-
tistically gratifying. It is morally less look quaint to many modern eyes,
gratifying because it speaks of rever- but it is not quaint. If it creates an
ence for whatever was excellent in impression of artificial elegance, or
the past and it is artistically gratify- quaintness, it is because the modern
;
ing for the reason that it fosters the eye has been perverted by inartistic
true spirit of architectural improve- forms. True art belongs to no century
ment, and refuses to abandon principles and the lines of this church are sym-
that are really classic in obedience to metrical, delicate, and graceful. They
the dictates of mere fashion. This is are necessarily, therefore, entirely free
the reason why Bergen County remains from those eccentric perversions of
architecturally something like an oasis proportion too commonly witnessed
in the midst of a desert, and why Hack- in much more pretentious examples of
ensack, a suburb which lies within can- later church building.
non shot of the New York Post Office, This is the kind of architecture that
but which few of our architects with will grow upon the speculator. Im-
their long-range vision seem to have pressing itself upon the aesthetic sensi-
discovered, possesses so many survivals educates and refines; and it
bilities, it
of a type of architecture which should isnot a cause for wonder when we ob-
be adopted and developed in prefer- serve that the First Dutch Reformed
ence to anything else within reach. It Church, of Hackensack, still remains
is to be feared, however, that the archi- the most fashionable church of the
tectural vandals have been led into this village. Possibly the congregation
beautiful suburb, and given a too great may feel disposed to resent the impli-
latitude to operate in forgetfumess of cation involved in this observation.
the customs of the country. To say They may not be willing to admit that
nothing of the new buildings which are their fidelity to the faith of their
often unworthy of notice, old buildings fathers is due to an idolatrous devo-
that became dilapidated have been re- tion to anything merely external to
modeled in complete oblivion of the their religion. But the inference is
type of architecture which they repre- nevertheless flattering to their aesthetic
sent. The improvements look some- instincts. After the enthusiasm which
times like crab-apple grafts on cherry distinguishes the proselyting era of a
trees. new religious society subsides a little,
The church edifice,presented with no church can afford to forego the
this article, dates back to a period, poetic charm and dignity that at-
K -5
"
COLONIAL BUILDING IN NEW JERSEY.
taches to architecture. The Society of been gathered to its protecting fold.
Friends are learning this truth to their Hence it will be seen that the architect
cost, even admitting that their decay may be a factor in the cultivation of
may be in part due to organic causes religious sentiment almost as potent as
too far-reaching in their consequences the preacher. He may be even more
for discussion here. However potent potent, indeed, in the sequel; for his
for the salvation of souls religion creations, if pronounced good, will be
may be, it is not always potent immortal, and report his homilies to
enough to save a religious society, the latest generation.
composed of members strongly human Turn, now, from the church, after
in their instincts and desires, from dis- having examined the details carefully,
solution. It is even possible that the and observed that not only every line
First Dutch Reformed Society, of is good, but that every stone is of
Hackensack, might have been not only exactly the proper size and adjustment,
once but twice, or thrice, or many and look at the picture of the 'old hos-
times dismembered during the more telry known as the " Mansion] House."
than two hundred years of its existence Unfortunately, like a few other of the
had it not been for the really beautiful examples given, ""this building has not
church edifice which none but a van- come down to us with all its original
1
dal, or a soul very deeply aggrieved, lines undisturbed. It belongs also to

could ever abandon after having once a later period than the >church. But it
MANTEL IN HOPPER HOMESTEAD. CUT WITH A PEN-KNIFE.

DUTCH TILES BIKLICAL SKETCHFS.
is still Colonial. It was built by Peter still remains in its exterior an admira-
Zabriskie, one of the largest proprietors ble example of Colonial architecture.
of Bergen County, at the beginning of But if we wish to estimate the build-
the Revolutionary War, for a private ing at its true value we must examine
dwelling. In the original plan and as the interior. The ceilings are low, of
first built it was only a two-story and course. The Dutch were a too sensible
attic building; but in after years, when people to climb high stairways for the
it had been decided to convert it into a
gratification of a merely ostentatious
hotel, the attic was raised to the eleva- love of displaying a large, empty space
tion of a full story. This accounts for overhead. Yet they knew how to build
the brick section of the walls between stairs,and to build them in a manner
the upper veranda and the roof. But worthy of more general imitation. In
the roof itself, with all its decorative this building they are so broken by
features, and the lower stories of the landings and turns, and so easy of
building, are unchanged. To say all, ascent that a person reaches the top
too, on account of its solidity in con- without the slightest sense of exertion.
struction, the old house looks unchange- To a person accustomed to the long
able. The walls are sometimes nearly stairways of the period the facility of
three feet in thickness, and the walk these stairs is even suggestive of the
through some of the doorways is like ludicrous. But the laugh is on the side
a walk through the hallways of more of men who knew how to plan thor-
modern dwellings. But, notwithstand- oughly artistic work without any affect-
ing this somewhat excessive regard for ation. Look at the wide hallway of
stability in construction, and the taste- this old hostelry and tell us of one
less blunder of the builder who planned thing in which it is found to be artist-
the alterations and used brick instead ically deficient. There is nothing that
of the brownstone of the lower stories true taste will seek to criticise.
in carrying up the walls, the structure As we leave the hall and enter the
mmm
1
>
v
large rooms to the right and left of the But come up stairs and examine one
entrance we find ourselves still more of the sleeping rooms. Here, again,
delighted with the work. The doors we find ourselves in communication
and deep window casings are elabo- with a genius at once practical and re-
rately paneled, and here are tiled chim- fined. These rooms are decorated with
ney-pieces which seem to have been all the care and taste that made such a
wrought out with all the care in details favorable impression in the rooms
which the Dutch painters bestowed on below. But utility was also considered.
their paintings. Each piece of tiling, Our guide has but to open a few aper-
delicately tinted, is traced with a design tures in the wainscoting to show that
of some scriptural scene, comprehend- we have really entered a storehouse of
PANEI.ING IN THE MANSION HOUSE. WRITING TABLE l6o YEARS OLD.
ing sacred history from the fall of man domestic supplies. But externally there
to the exit of Jonah, or perhaps to a is nothing to indicate that the architect
later period. There is not an ob- thought himself anything but an artist
jectionable architectural feature to be and decorator. Decoration seems to
seen, and, as to the low ceilings, one have been the chief object everywhere,
has but to study the proportions, or and everything else is subsidiary. As
what a painter might call the keeping, the observer looks at the work he is
for a few moments to find himself forced to reflect that the Dutch came
ready to declare that a nine or ten from a small country where the ability
foot wall is high enough for any room to economize space must have been an
of less dimensions than the interior
hereditary gift. Everywhere may be
of a church or public hall. The idea seen manifestations of good taste and
of anything higher than nine feet in a judgment. There is plenty of admir-
private dwelling seems like an inspira- able work about this building in all
tion drawn from vacuity. its parts both within and without. One
cannot help but regret the disfigure- lines were sufficiently artistic for the
ment of the exterior by a builder colonists of the last half of the eight-
who could hardly claim to have eenth century, but such lines were
been an architect, or even a per- never brought from Holland. Observe
son of cultivated taste, capable the graceful sweep of the roof as the
of appreciating good architecture line descends and curves upward into
when he saw it. the projecting eaves or hanging ver-
Still another picture of the cata- anda, characteristic of the earlier
logue must be commended to the Dutch architecture. It is in the true
special attention of the reader, not spiritof thoroughly artistic design.
'
only because it offers a peculiarly Yet such has been the decline of truly
graceful example of an architect- artistic feeling in the architectural art,
ural feature which no true architect or at least among the great mass of
can fail of approving, but because architectural designers, that any archi-
of its historical interest. It is en- tect of to-day who felt a disposition to
titled "Washington's Headquarters," adapt the line would fear that he
and in the extension facing to the would be thought "old-fashioned" or
east, also photographed, may be seen affected.
the window from which the Com- But now for the more forcible appli-
mander-in-Chief watched the British cation of all this architectural and his-
Army on its destructive march along torical gossip. Hackensack, as it has
the valley of the Hackensack, follow- been sufficiently said already, is a
ing the opppositeside of the river. The beautiful suburb. It lies in a gently
feet of Washington seem to have been undulating country where every pros-
omnipresent in Eastern New York and pect extends over some green valley
New Jersey, and wherever the anti- or up the side of a not too precipitous
quarian fails to discover his tracks he hill, until the eye is lost along a wav-
can imagine them, and conjecture that ing line of emerald and blue that van-
they have been worn away from tradi- ishes or blends in the distance. But
tions more than a hundred years old. to all right-minded persons there is
But the presence of Washington in unquestionably a greater charm in the
Bergen County is historically authenti- old Hackensaek than in the new. It
cated; and there is no more doubt that cannot be denied that the new Hack-
the building represented was his head- ensack has been in too many instances
quarters than that the building at forgetful of its founders, and that it
Newburg, which has been monument- has failed to perceive that the true line
ally embellished, was similarly distin- of architectural evolution lies rather in
guished. History, then, has contributed the work of perfecting old forms of
to the immortality of this old house at recognized excellence than in the
Hackensack, and forbidden that it invention of new forms. However
should be passed without observation. powerful the intellect, no architect
Washington made a monument of can evolve an entirely new order of
every house in which he is known architecture exclusively out of his own
to have found shelter. The chief pur- head. Yet to some such task too many
pose of the introduction of the picture of our architects seem to have devoted
here, however, is architectural rather themselves when we study their plans
than reminiscent or historical. It and attempt to classify them in accord-
offers an admirable example of a type ance with any recognized standard of
of roof which was doubtless conceived taste.
at a time when the fine arts had re- The new Hackensack should be only
ceived their highest development in a fully developed tree growing from
Holland, but which gradually fell into the roots of the old Hackensack, and
disuse, even during Colonial times, as serving to perfect and perpetuate the
the English settlers with their cruder species. The people of the to\vn should
taste succeeded in forcing their straight not permit the soil to be incumbered
and angular conceptions into the art all over with plants not only of a
of building. Straight and unbroken foreign but of a fungus growth, and
Vol. III.-3. 3,
destined to be hardly more enduring New York. It is a pity that the best
than any other exhalations of a night known work of our really accomplished
that were born of a conjunction be- writer should have been his worst work.
tween miasma and an unhealthy soil. But this was the misfortune of Irving ;
It is not right. The early settlers of and the first settlers on the territory
New Jersey left a whole granery full of which afterwards fell under the juris-
the most perfectly developed seeds that diction of the Duke of York could
are to be found on any arborial pre- point to a very honorable ancestry,
serves. and very illustrious contemporaries
There is more of originally and taste among their own people. They were
in the colonial architecture of New Jer- surpassed by neither the roundheads of
sey than we can find in corresponding Massachusetts nor the cavaliers ot Vir-
examples in any other State of the ginia;
and it should not be thought
Union. The first settlers of the State, strange if among their architectural
it must be remembered, came from a survivals we should be forced to look
country, which, at the period of settle- for not only some of the best examples
ment, represented about the leading of solid building in the country but the
civilization of Europe. Holland, dur- most artistic examples. This is pre-
ing the seventeenth century, was not cisely what we find, although more
only the leading industrial and mercan- modern taste, not always intelligently
tile nation but it had become distin- inspired and often perverted by the
guished, if not pre-eminently distin- thirst for the merely new and eccen-
guished in arms, and it was the country tric, has been growing further and
of Rembrant, Vandyke, and the entire further away from their suggestions.
school of illustrious painters who led But if the architectural vagaries of the
the fine art of the strictly renascent period of Queen Anne, a lady who
period into its more modern develop- reigned over a people not quite so
ment. The States-General were a civilized as the Englishmen of to-day,
power in Europe both materially and can lead us back in our search for an-
morally and if the sterling qualities of tiquities to the artistic principles of
;
the Dutch have been but vaguely the people who furnished to British
comprehended in this country the im- royalty of the period its portrait
perfect conception of their traits has painters, and to British artists their
probably been due to the playful but tutors the fashion will not have
somewhat juvenile historical effort of been introdu;ed in this country in
Washington Irving, in his History of yain.
Wm. Nelson Black.
THE LOTIFORM ORIGIN OF THE GREEK ANTHEMION.*
i.
T the close my before it could hope for immediate or

of
last Paper had wide acceptance, and largely for the
I
briefly indicated, reason that critics and students are not

by text and illus- sufficiently familiar with Cypriote art
tration, a suggest- to cause them to realize off-hand the
ive correspond- far-reaching significance of the argu-
ence between cer- ments drawn from it.
Again, the objection would obviously

tain floral forms
on pottery and rise " If the lotus motives of Cyprus
others in stone are derived from Egypt, which appears
carving which to to be your axiom, what are you going
the mind of a Dar- to do about the present attitude of
winian or an evolutionist, or to the eye science, which concedes the Ionic cap-
of an anthropologist, would not leave ital to Assyria provided the Ionic cap- ;
much doubt as to the lotiform origin ital also be a lotus Do you claim that ':
of the Ionic capital. But both the pot- the Ionic of Assyria came from Cyprus ?
tery and the stone carvings used for This exactly reverses the present as-
the argument belonged to Cypriote art, sumptions of science, for we have not
and the few additional illus-
trations for the central spike
so far adduced from other
sources might be considered
insufficient corroborative evi-
dence.
At least two considerations
would consequently forbid the
student from stopping at the
point which I had reached in
August, 1887, as outlined in

my last Paper. One is, un-
fortunately, that Cyprus does
not yet occupy that position
of supreme importance for
the problems of Greek (and
even of Oriental) archaeology
which that island is soon des-
tined to assume. An argu-
ment based on Cypriote art
must, at present, seek corrob- Granite pillars at Karnak. On one of them the Ionic lotus in relief ;
oration outside that centre, about 1600 B. C.
* the fourth of a series on the evolution of classic ornament from the Egyptian lotus. See October
rteing Paper
Number: " The Lotiform Origin of the Ionic Capital."
26 1 LOTIFORM ORIGIN OF THE GREEK ANTHEMION.
in actual architecture of an Egyptian
Ionic form, and hence, on account of
the apparent or supposed deficiency of
more examples of the Egyptian Ionic,
we are now called upon to show that
the existence of Egyptian Ionic capitals
isnotwithstanding easily demonstrated,
to explain how they have been over-
looked, and to explain the disappear-
ance of the actual originals. From this
following explanation it will also ap-
pear that we are able, if required, to
dispense with any appeal to designs on
Cypriote pottery, which being of later
date than early Egyptian art, might be
considered insufficient evidence on the
question of an Egyptian form. (I mdy,
however, add on this point that all
appearances in ancient Oriental art
possess a much higher antiquity than
that claimed for any existing monu-
ment that all our existing monuments
;
represent traditional survivals of earlier

The lotus trefoils of Karnak. Stone relief.
of the photograph preceding.
Detail forms, and that among these survivals-
those nearest to nature represent types
originally nearest to the highest an-
yet learned that this island gave laws
tiquity.)
and art to Mesopotamia. If on the The example at Karnak is a relief,
other hand the Ionic capital came from
There is then not even one surviving ex-
Egypt to both Assyria and Cyprus, ample of an Egyptian Ionic capital in
proofs based on Cypriote art are evi- actual construction. The reason is that
dently insufficient you must face the in use the form was
;
music and bring us proofs from Egypt." Egyptian

confined to capitals of wood, and these
This what I am about to do.
is
have all disappeared. Most of the sur-
My
demonstration through the cen-
viving stone capitals of Egyptian archi-
tral sepal spike* was first published in
tecture are conceded to represent the
the "American Journal of Archaeology,"
sacred water-lily, but their forms have
October, 1887. I found after the a simple solidity and massiveness cor-
article was in type, and before it was
responding to Egyptian taste in stone
cast, that I had been anticipated on construction. That the Egyptians
this particular head of the central spike
suited their style to their material and
by M. Marcel Dieulafoy, the celebrated
practised a more graceful style in other
explorer of Persia, and was able to materials than stone is just beginning"
make acknowledgment in the same to be appreciated. The proof that
article before publication. M. Dieu- such capitals of wood once existed lies
lafoy was not, however, aware of the in the tomb paintings, and the tomb
phenomenon of the curling sepal in the
natural plant, nor was he acquainted paintings in question were first pub-
lished by Prissed'Avennes, in 1879,
with the lotuses on Cypriote pottery.
Prisse d'Avennes was an artist and not
His own original suggestion was de-
an archaeologist. His text was written by
rived from a granite pillar at Karnak,
an author who was so little versed in his
on which is carved in relief a column
subject that he has published a relief
having a trefoil lotus capital with in- of the New York Museum found in
cipient Ionic volutes. This is the only
case of a surviving Egyptian example Cyprus as a work of Egyptian art from
Karnak. This will explain to the lay-
* October Number, of THE ARCHITECTURAL
man how proofs of various facts are
RKCORD. found in the plates of Prisse d'Avennes,
LOTIFORM ORIGIN OF THE GREEK ANTHEMION. 265
which the artist did not himself per-

ceive or draw attention to. The value
of their evidence in illustrating the
predecessors of the Greek Ionic capi-
tals has, moreover, been so far univer-
sally overlooked,even by authors like
Perrot and Chipiez. who have repub-
lished some of them, and for the reason
that they have not been related to the
Proto-Ionic Cypriote capitals and other
connecting links. Aside from names
already mentioned, the German archi-
tect, Hans Auer, seems to be the only
one who has appreciated their value as
forerunners of the Greek Ionic, but
Auer did not perceive them to be
lotuses.
Ifwe compare these capitals of wood,
Egyptian lotus trefoil capital. From tomb picture of as known from tomb paintings, and the
timber construction. stone relief trefoils of Karnak, with the
surface representations of the blue and
white lotus in Egyptian art, we shall
realize the importance attaching to
the character of the sepals in the
Nymphaeas.* It is here that the"
signifi-
cance of the " three-spiked appear-
ance of Egyptian lotus designs is seen,
and of the trefoil form, as derived from
"
them. As long as the " Rose lotus was
supposed to be the typical Egyptian
ornament, the origin and consequently
the importance of this trefoil form
could not be appreciated, because the
" Rose
calyx leaves (sepals) of the
lotus" offer no basis for a conven-
tional evolution of a trefoil form.
Thus we find a reason for the back-
wardness of archaeology in the mat-
ter of the lotus, as connected with
its mistaken prejudice that Nelumbium
Egyptian lotus trefoil capital. From tomb picture of
timber construction. Speciosum furnishes the typical orna-
ment of Egypt.* It will appear from my
cuts of the Egyptian lotus in surface
designs (next page) that successive
conventional steps eliminated the petals
(in some cases)
until the skeleton form
of the three sepals alone survived. This
is the origin of the lotus trefoil which is
so common in Egyptian art, in the
Greek art derived from it, in the Byzan-
tine art derived from Greek, and in the
Arab designs, derived from Byzantine.
It is also the form from which the con-
" "
ventional fleur de lys is derived.
This trefoil is the residuum of the sepals
Egyptian lotus trefoil capital. From tomb picture of
* October Number,
timber construction. 1893.
266 LOTIFORM ORIGIN OF THE GREEK ANTHEMION.
Detail from a tomb picture, showing a conventional

elimination of the petals contrasted with realistic
rendering of the same. Compare the flowers right
and left.
various results. It is not essential to-

the argument of the Darwinian theory
that man should be the only form of
Type of the Egyptian Nymphzeas from a tomb picture.
Showing a three-spiked appearance of the sepals as lifenow found on earth.
origin of the trefoil. The combination from
capital
Menephthah's tomb (page 269) is a
as pictured, in side view, by three valuable instance of the way in which
prongs or spikes, which survive as a
skeleton pattern after the petals have Egyptian art constantly combines its
been conventionally eliminated. This
process of conventional elimination is
to be understood as the result of the
effort of the artist to simplify and
shorten his work and of his dependence
on an earlier copy as distinct from a
new original observation of the form
in nature. His independence of nature
results originally from the talismanic
and magical value of the copy, subse-
quently from the force of habit and
tradition.
The question maybe raised "How Detail from a spoon handle. Showing conventional
do such conventional evolutions' relate representation of two petals and survival of the
sepal spikes.
in the matter of period to more realistic
forms, and are they not necessarily highly conventional forms which can
later?" To this I answer that we do only have been reached gradually,
not assert that any difference of period, with more closely realistic traditional
as regards the illustrations of an evolu- continuations of the older realistic
tion, is essential to the argument. The designs. It consequently shows, as do
monuments used not
in illustration are
my other attendant illustrations of
the original factors in the evolution ; these pages, how different forms of the
they are only traditional survivals of
its various stages and of its remote and
Detail from a tomb picture. Showing elimination of

all the petals and survival of three Detail from a tomb picture. Showing the lotus trefoil
srpals as origin
of the trefoil. as conventional residuum of the sepal spikes.
Voluted lotus trefoil with central members consisting of

an inverted bud. Detail of a pattern on page 282.
that they cannot represent the same

plant because they are not like one
another. This argument has been
Associated lotus variants ; one phase showing trefoils
supporting inverted buds compare the design oppo-
; urged against me by several well-
and page
gentlemen who
site 282.
meaning critics ap-
lotus may subsist side
by side in the pear to think they have said something
art of one given period or in adjacent
when they have only been talking.
The objections from dissimilarity to
patterns a point which might not be
;
immediately obvious to one unfamiliar nature, as urged by Professor Paine in

the " Independent," show a really in-
fantile ignorance of the history of
Egyptian design. In periods of Egyp-
tian art knownto us there is not, either
in realisticor conventional lotuses, any
relation to actual observation of nature.
There are only traditional survivals of
realistic designs side by side with sur-
vivals of others which have become so
remotely conventional as to lose all
semblance of nature. It follows that
we find side by side, in one period or
Trefoil type from a tomb pattern showing a decora-

;
tive exaggeration of the central sepal with a

feathered or palmette attachment explained by
crossing with the palmette type at page 286.
with the actual monuments and their

relative dates. Such a person is apt to
argue from the dissimilarity of two
floral forms, when placed side by side,
Stone relief trefoil of Karnak ; repeated from page 264

to compare with the following.
a conventional coml ination in one Lotus trefoil with developed Ionic volutes. Blue
Type showing
flower of trefoil below and detailed lotus above. enamel amulet in the Louvre. (Dieulafoy.)
age would otherwise have resulted.
But it is not to believe that
difficult
the curling sepal of nature was the
original suggestion of the most primi-
tive Egyptian lotus volutes now known
and here illustrated, it must be remem-
bered that all monuments of the actual
historic evolution of Egyptian art are
lacking at present. These all antedate
the IVth Dynasty, with which our pres-
ent knowledge of Egyptian art begins.
Louvre. For comparison with
In this deficiency of earlier Egyptian
Blue enamel amulet.
the trefoils and to show that the volutes develop monuments the great importance of the
from the sepals. (Dieulafoy.)
Cypriote pottery lotuses is their evi-
dence that ancient decorators in close
on one monument, relations with Egypt actually had
results of conven-
noticed and imitated in a fairly realistic
tional evolutions
which are also dis- way the curling sepals. We are, more-
over, able to show in Greek art a dec-
similar and which
orative evolution of fully developed,
also represent the
one plant. It is so,
apparently geometric, spirals from the
Cypriote pottery lotus.
N. Y. vase. for instance, with the
Cypriote pottery form (pages 273-277).
This makes it impossible to deny that
trefoil, which ap-
the Egyptians accomplished a similar
pears both with vo- evolution.
lutes and without.
The argument then stands thus, as
This fact is indi- concerned
far as the curling sepal is :
cated by the illustra-

We can prove that ancient decorators
tions of page 267. It
related to Egypt noticed the curling
also holds that there
sepal of nature. We can prove that
is no distinction to
some geometric spirals actually did
be drawn in argu-
Flower from nature, with ment between de-
curling sepals. signs for capitals
and those which il-
lustrate patterns or amulets. Both are
valid evidences for changes which
affected both.
Thus it
capitals of the
becomes plain that the trefoil
tomb paintings are lotuses
mi^mf^4:^/M
and consequently that the volutes of
the trefoils are volutes of the sepals a
point made especially clear by an
amulet in the Louvre and by a
tombstone from Cyprus, herewith
illustrated. In these phases of the
Egyptian Ionic volute it is evident that
the natural appearance of the curling
sepals,* which curl in nature from the
base of the flower, has been evaded,
plflii
because inconsistent with decorative
and architectural conditions. This
evasion consists in placing the curl of
the sepal at the top of the flower. In
architectural or other solid forms, break-
Cypriote pillar capital. New York Museum. Head
of
Isis-Hathor (the Moon) supported by lotus with
* Illustrations from nature in October Number. curling sepals.
develop from this

curling sepal
(pages 273-277).
We can show in
Egyptian art a
conventional curl
of the conven- Egyptian originals of the Ionic capital from tomb
;
tional sepal hav- paintings Published by Wilkinson in 1857 **

water-plants."
in & as close a re -
lation to the curl-
of Menepthah, the Pharaoh of the
ing sepal of nature Exodus and son of Ramses II., shows
as the given ma-
this straight upper line. A mirror han-
terial and the con-
dle in Florence, which is an obvious
sequent conditions copy of an architectural original, shows
of breakage will
an Egyptian lotus capital whose upper
allow. If there line resembles that of the Ionic capitals
should be, after of the temple of Bassae.
these points are Since many evidences of the
duly considered, transition from the Egyptian voluted
any one having a lotus to the Greek voluted capital
right to an opinion have disappeared, with the original
on the subject Egyptian Ionic capitals themselves,
who prefers to be- it is the more important to insist on
lieve that the vo-
the historic contact which explains
lutes of the Egyp-
the possibility of the transition. It is
tian trefoils devel-
necessary to say that neither historians
oped from a grad-
ual decorative
bending over and
ultimate decora-
tive curl and not
from an original
Combination capital from a
suggestion of na-
picture in tomb of Meneph- ture, it is all one
thah (i 4 th Cent. B. C ) The to me. The ex-
lower member a bud, over
is
which appears the normal planation of a phe-
flower with two buds. This
supports an Ionic trefoil,
nomenon is one
thing the matter-
above which is a lotus having
volutes joined by a straight
;
line. of-fact existence

of the phenom-
enon is another thing. It is with this
matter-of-fact that I am now dealing.
What I positively assert is that the
lotus in Egypt did have, among other
forms, an Ionic or voluted form, and
that this Ionic form did positively
produce the Greek Ionic capital. Once
more I observe that it is difficult for the
layman to appreciate the destruction of
the monuments which has obscured the
transitions and connecting links with
Greece but it is not to be overlooked
;
that a voluted lotus capital with a

straight line connecting the volutes
can be dated in Egypt, by a tomb paint-
ing, \o the fourteenth century B. C. Egyptian mirror handle, copied from an architectural
The combination capital from the tomb column and showitig the Ionic volutes. Florence.
2jo LOT! FORM ORIGIN OF THE GREEK ANTHEMION.
Cypriote Ionic capital (Louvrf ) ; showing a

rudiment of the cential sepal spike (ee cut
below) and the signs of sun and moon worship.
Cypriote lotus trefoil from a sarcophagus pat-

tern. New York. Compare the above capital.
Cypriote pillar capital ; showing the conventional curl-

or archaeologi-sts in general have prop- ing sepals and central sepal spike. Sun and crescent
moon on the capital. Aphrodite Temenos, Idal m.
erly appreciated the significance for (Obnefalsch-Richter.)
Greek history of the presence in Egypt
of large numbers of Greek mercenaries, cent) which is so common on Phenician
who were the corps d'ttite of the Egyp- votive tablets to their deities and with
tian army in the eighth, seventh and which the normal sacred lotus is also
sixth centuries B. C. Greek traders so constantly associated in Phenician
overran the country in the same cen- art. In the stage of evolution repre-
turies. It was not till Mr. Petrie's sented by these Cypriote monuments
recent excavation of the ruins of Nau- the solar (and lunar) significance of the
kratis, the famous Greek colony of the Ionic capital, as resulting from its iden-
Nile Delta, that the intimate relations tity with the lotus, is clearly indicated.
of the Greeks with Egypt have begun This leads to the remark that none of
to appear in their true light. Cyprus these capitals appear to have been por-
was a more important, because an tions of a building, since only one or two
older, centre for the diffusion of Egyp- are found in a given place. On the con-
tian influences among the Greeks. trary, they are announced by Dr.
Max
This Island, ultimately tenanted Ohnefalsch-Richter (on grounds quite
mainly by a population of Greek race, independent of the lotus derivation of
was notwithstanding saturated with the capital) to have been sacred sun-
Oriental and Egyptian influences, pillars flanking the approach to Cypri-
partly through direct commerce with ote sanctuaries and disposed in a
Egypt, partly through Syrian and Phe- fashion corresponding to that of the
nician transmission. Egyptian obelisks, which were also
It must be admitted that Cyprus fur- monuments of solar worship.
(That
nishes at present the largest number of they were in some cases tombstones
those archaic and transitional Ionic appears also probable, and here again
forms which are nearest to the later the funereal and resurrection signifi-
forms of Greek art, and it seems cance of the lotus is to be corsidered.)*
to me certain that the evolution The observations of the same scholar
of theGreek Ionic capital actually show that the Apollo of Cyprus was
took place on this island for although
;
certainly identified with, and probably
the counterparts and remote ancestors derived from, the Syrian Sun-god Resef,
of the Greek Ionic are abundantly at- and that the sanctuaries of Apollo in
tested for Egypt, its exact original is
Cyprus were sanctuaries of Resef-
scarcely to be sought there. It is espe- Apollo that is, of a Sun-god wor-
cially interesting to notice on several shipped indifferently under both names
of the Cypriote capitals illustrated in or either one. The identification of
these Papers the representation of the
sun and moon symbols (disk and cres- * See October Numter, 1892.
LOTIFORM ORIGIN OF THE GREEK ANTHEMION.
the Greek Aphrodite of Cyprus with the entire question of lotus sym-
the Phenician Astarte (Chaldean Istar bolism.
and Egyptian Isis-Hathor) has been The magic power of the lotus as
long familiar with students, and the counterpart, offspring and representa-
derivation of the Greek Aphrodite, by tive of the watery element from which
way especially of Cyprus, from this the heavenly bodies were derived by
Oriental Moon-goddess, is sufficiently Eg)rptian science, must have been most
certain. Let us not forget, then, that strongly felt where the solar and lunar
there is evidence for a fusion and con- origin and character of the derivative
nection of Greek and Oriental cults in deities were most distinctly recognized.
Cyprus which assists us to .understand In other words, the question of lotus
an evolution of the Ionic capital as symbolism for the Greeks concerns the
there accomplished. Whether this evo- local points of Greek and Oriental con-
lution was consciously accomplished is tact, as distinct from points remote to
not a very important question. My this contact and it concerns the earlier
;
own belief would be at present to the periods of general Greek dependence

contrary. The sacred symbol or talis- on Oriental influence as distinct from
man becomes a more important object later periods of general independence.
than the natural form from which it is And what holds of the original talis-
derived or so important that it is quite man must hold of its derivative con-
independent of it. Its repetition and ventional counterparts. On the other
manufacture are traditional a matter hand, as regards the continued use of a
of consecrated habit. That the Greeks symbol when' belief in its talismanic
of the mother-country in the fifth cen- power has faded or disappeared, it must
tury B. C. had utterly forgotten the be remembered that the force of tradi-
origin of their Ionic capital is clear tional habit lasts long after the force
enough from the ignorance of Vitruvius, which made that habit traditional has
who still had access to original Greek passed away. If our own art still attests
documents and authorities. There is this fact, why not concede it for the
no evidence that any of the Cypriote Greeks themselves ? As a matter of fact
capitals illustrated are older than the the force of traditional habit is every-
sixth or seventh century B. C., and it where continuous indefinitely and with-
would be strange (possibly) that a out any limit whatever, until a new
Cypriote knowledge of the true origin force comes in question to displace it.
of the form had not floated over to the Mr. Balfour has reminded us, in his
" Evolution of Decorative
mother-country, if that knowledge had Art," that we
then existed. It has been reserved for wear two buttons above our coat-tails
the nineteenth century to know more in cutaway coats, because they were
about the Ionic capital than did the once necessary to hold back the but-
Greeks themselves, who created its toned flaps of long-skirt coats in the
most renowned examples. eighteenth century. The modern pot-
It is still another and distinct ques- ters of Cyprus still place on their
tion when the Ionic capital "lost the common earthenware vases two little
sacred character which the sun and spots of clay, without knowing why,
moon symbols on Cypriote capitals (as and because their fathers did it before
well as their use as sanctuary pillars) them. These spots of clay represent
indicate that they still possessed in the breasts of Artarte, whose head
Cyprus. This question is hardly worth once consecrated the vase and at the
answering, because it proceeds from an same time adorned it. The time is com-
attitude of mind (viz., our own modern ing when our own Ionic capitals and
attitude) which separates the secular anthemions will be known as represent-
and profane from the sacred and divine. ing an exactly parallel fact that is to
But this distinction, being foreign to say, the perpetuation of forms entirely
nature foreign to all natural
itself, is destitute ofmeaning to the people who
religions. this question, though
Still, use them, and yet owing their existence
not admitting a definite answer, is to a meaning which once was insepar-
worth discussing, because it concerns able from them.
Greek anthemions from the Erechtheum.
Ionic capital found in Cyprus (Ohnefalsch-Richter).

Melian vase in Athens <7th cer.tury B. C.). Compare

Rhodian vase (6th century B. C.). The motive on the
the neck ornament below and body ornaments,
left of the upper zone is shown on the next page.
pages 275 and 276.
II. sive proof of all one which involves

the anthemion and rosette returning^ ;
I have thus far pointed out, in the in a circle to the Ionic form and prov-
matter of the Ionic capital, certain ing it to be the counterpart and relative
significant indications largely drawn of the anthemion in such a way that
from Cypriote examples bearing on there is no escape from the conclusions
the asserted discovery regarding its already drawn, and that new ones of
origin (October Number). I have far-reaching importance are at the same
then, in the first portion of this Paper, time added to them.
appealed to Egyptian examples in It was in the months of July and
corroboration. But there is still left August, 1887, that, having worked out
in reserve the most positive and conclu- the demonstration from the central
sepal spike, as found in rudi-
mentary survivals on Cypriote
capitals, I stumbled on a clue
which enabled me to connect
the Ionic volute with the sur-
face spirals and spiral scrolls of
Greek art in general and both
with the anthemion.
A very rare but very import-
ant type of early Greek pottery
is that known as Melian, from
the Island of Melos, to which it
appears to be native. In the
publication of these Melian
vases made by Professor Conze r
of Berlin, I had noticed a type
of ornament whose enormous-
spirals appeared to be a dec-
orative development of the
Doubled Melian lotus one flower inverted. The spirals are evo-
lutions from those of the Rhodian motives on next page. lotus as known to me on
Cypriote pottery. The form in ques-
tion is doubled lotus, one flower
a
erectand one inverted, of remote re-
semblance to nature and resulting from
a series of decorative conventional de-
partures starting from the Cypriote
pottery form. According to my sup-
position that these spirals had devel-
oped from the Cypriote curling sepal
it was necessary to find connecting links
in the intermediate pottery style of

Rhodes, and these I found in the mag-
nificent publication of Salzmann. In
geographical position Cyprus, Rhodes
Rhodian pottery lotus, derived from the Cypriote type
below. For the entire vase see page preceding. and Meloslie in the order named from
East to West. The traditional pottery
styles of these islands naturally show a
graded sequence in which the art of
Cyprus is nearest to the Oriental,
that of Melos is nearest to the
later Greek, and that of Rhodes
is intermediate.
Theevolution of the Rhodian
and Melian types of lotus from
the Cypriote is made obvious by
the illustrations. When the Cy-
priote lotus is taken as a point of
departure it will appear that
every form of the spiral on Melian
vases is a decorative modification
of, or directly related to it. A
substitution of a palmette crown
for the pointed petals produces
Rhodian pottery lotus, derived from the Cypriote type below.
one variant (pages 275, 276). An
inversion of the lower spirals of
the doubled palmette produces
the variant of page 277.
Cypriote pottery lotus with curling sepals (N. Y.), showing the starting point of the Rhodian and Melian spirals.
LOTIFORM ORIGIN OF THE GREEK AN TU EMION. 275
Rhodian pottery lotus with a palmette crown. The

palmette is derived from Cypriote forms on metal
shown at page 287 and there explained.
Primitive pottery anthemion, derived from, or related

The inversion of one spiral of the to, the Rhodian type adjacent. From the Melian
vase on page 273.
primitive palmette opposite creates the
palmette filling. The
spiral scroll with
dropping out of the palmette filling
gives the pure and simple spiral
scroll.
More important than any explana-
tions or assertions of my text will be
found just here the comparison of my
cuts from pages 274 to 277 inclusive,
from the point of view that they are all
decorative variants of one motive. It
is not claimed that this comparison is
anything more than a suggestion. The

comparison simply states a problem to
be worked out, and this problem is
" Are the volutes at the base of the
anthemion of later Greek art (page 272)
identical in origin with the volutes of
the Ionic capital (same page) ?" If so,
the problem requires us to explain
the palmette crown of the primitive Section of a motive on the neck of the Melian vase at
anthemions of page 275. This was, page 273. This motive is a variant of the anthe-
mion above, obtained by carrying the lines of the
originally, in Egyptian art, a demi- spirals around and over the palmette and then
repeating.
rosette.
In order to prove that the suggestion
obtained from Melian vases leads to a
positive demonstration for all the iso-
lated spirals, scrolls and anthemions of
Greek art, I must
indicate the ex-
first
istence and explanation of the Egyp-
tian lotus palmette, which is the exact
original of the Greek anthemion. This
again involves the problem of the ro-
sette. As I have said in my preceding
Paper it is impossible to accept the
Ionic capital as a lotus without admit- Spiral scroll from the Melian vase on page 273. Showing
a variant of the anthemion above one spiral being
ting these additional forms. reversed and palmette doubled.
Doubled palmated Melian lotus, from the vase on page 273. Compare the cut in text (page 273^ for the doubled
Melian form with serrated design of petals. The inverted Ionic lotus here above is analagous to the tj pes.
of Cypriote capitals. Compare anthemions top of the preceding page for the single form here doubled.
Palmated doubled lotus, showing an inversion of the lower spirals. Decorative variant of full-page design
preceding. Ionic lotuses on the base at either side. From a Melian vase in Athens.
Vol. III. 3. 4.
278 LOTIFORM ORIGIN OF THE GREEK AN THEMION.
lys&WtfjJUm^
Syrian sarcophagus Greek period. Louvre. The rosettes show the decorative elaborations of Alexandrine
;
art, but the combination of lotus trefoils is distinct in the central ornaments both of the coffin and the cover.
'
III. that the history of pattern ornament

has been strangely neglected.
It is a prejudice of archaeology that argument on the head of the ro-
My
the rosette is an Assyrian ornament as as regards its Egyptian origin,
sette,
regards derivation, and this prejudice has not only been accepted by Pro-
is one illustration of the fact that ar- fessor Maspero,* but he has devoted
chaeology has still something to learn. one page out of the two and a-half
This prejudice also illustrates the fact which he gave to his notice of the
" "
Grammar of the Lotus to an ad-
ditional argument in the same direction.
The gist of his argument is that the
prejudice in question had actually led
Adrien de Longperier, when Director
of the Louvre Antiquities, to transfer
rosettes found in Egypt to the Assyrian
cases of the Louvre where they still
remain and where they can be used to-
day as an illustration of the Assyrian
origin of the rosette! My argument on
the Egyptian origin of the rosette has
also found favor with Dr. E. B. Tylor
(London Academy review), and strange
to say, with M. Foucard, the critic of
the Revue Arche"ologique, who has other-
wise committed the absurdity of ad-
mitting my demonstration for con-
' " Revue

Critique," June 6, 1892.
Rhoiian Greek vase (sth or 6th century B. C.) Illus

Cpy notearchaic Greek vase. New York. Border of lotus
trefoilsand buds. Two borders of rosettes. trating the origin of demi-rosettes by intersection
the rosette on the large Cypriote Ictus
Compare To compare with the demi-rosettes of the Egyj
(page 274). tian lotus palmetto (pages 285-287).
is a form of the lotus, as it is already

conceded by experts to be in India.
Rosettes are very common on Assy-
rian relief slabs used for pavements
and for veneering palace walls, and
they are also common on Assyrian
tiles but none of
these remains are HBHBHV
earlier than the ninth
century B. C. Ro-
settes are unknown
in Egyptian stone re-
liefs before the time Enamel rosette amulet
;
of the Roman Empire Owens College, Man-

chester. Dating about
(I only know them in 3000 B. C. (Petrie.)
Egyptian stone carv-

ing on the columns at Esneh), hence
probably the prejudice that they are an
Assyrian ornament. As a surface dec-
Pavement slab from Nineveh. British Museum (similar oration in color, rosettes can, however,
fragment in the New York Museum}. Lotus flowers,
buds and rosettes of Egyptian derivation. No Assyr- be dated in Egypt to the Pyramid Dy-
ian rosettes can be dated back of the gth century B. C.
nasties* (4,000 B. C.) As an amulet
form they can be dated to the Twelfth
centric rings in Egypt and of disputing As a con-
Dynasty (3,000 B. C).
the demonstration for the Ionic volute stant fresco motive in tombs
they can
in Greece. (In other words, M. Foucard
be. dated to the Eighteenth Dynasty
has admitted the most remote of all The tomb frescoes in
(1,600 B. C.).
my conclusions and has rejected its
most elementary postulate.) * Illustration in
April Number Head-band of the Lady
Having in my earlier Papers disposed Nefert.
Rosette supported by a lotus flower.

Detail from stone carving on tem-
ple columns at Esneh.
of the objection that rosettes

are a form of ornament com-
mon to all primitive decora-
tion ;having shown that
they have always been tra-
ditional in Europe and that
it is
extremely illogical for
reviewers to argue from the
practice of a modern kin-
dergarten or public school
to a question of anthropol-
ogy and history it remains
to say that the rosette is
Ceremonial gold Egyptian vase from a painting in a Theban tomb.
positively not originally As-
;
Border of rosettes on the vase, which supports ceremonial plants in

syrian and that in Egypt it metal lotus buds and rosettes on conventional stems.
28o LOTIFORM ORIGIN OF THE GREEK ANTHEMION.
tion unmistakable, and there
are many arguments to be
mentioned subsequently which
corroborate the same conclu-
sion.
The tomb frescoes show us a
multitude of symbolizing com-
binations where the rosette
appears with the bud, flower
and leaf, in such fashion that
it is impossible to ignore the
evidence when it has once been

pointed out (pages 282-284).
Let us remember what has
been already proven regarding
the use of the lotus in Egypt.*
Its picture is a talisman and
has magic power. It is an
emblem of solar worship, of
generative power and of im-
Entrance to a Theban tomb. Valley of the King mortality. Hence its use in
tomb paintings. Now, when we
which these rosettes appear were find in a tomb pattern the picture of a
first abundantly published by Prisse lotus or of a bud, joined to a picture of
d'Avennes in 1879, but the evidence of a rosette, must we not conclude that
his plates has been ignored or over- this association is significant ? When we
looked until I took the matter in hand. find buds supporting a rosette, or lotus
In fact the first resulfof his publica- flowers supporting a rosette, as on the
tion was an essay on Egyptian orna- temple columns at Esneh, is not this
ment by a German critic, Von Sybel, conclusion again obvious. We can
attempting to prove Assyrian" influ- point to buds which support inverted
ences on Egypt because the plates of
October Number, 1892.
:
Prisse d'Avennes showed a hitherto

unsuspected quantity of Egyptian
rosettes! There is a good deal of
amusement to be gotten in a quiet way
from the study of pattern ornament.
My suspicion that the rosette is a
lotus motive was first roused by botani-
cal pictures of the ovary stigmas of the
blue and white Egyptian water lily.
The top of the seed-pod (ovary stigma)
has this form according to the illustra-
tions herewith. The English botanist
and Egyptologist, Mr. Percy E. New-
berry, has independently reached the
same conclusion, although his proposed
announcement was anticipated by mine
and was consequently withheld from
publication. There are also Egyptian
rosettes which represent a lotus flower
expanded and flattened out. Other
rosettes are combinations of lotuses, or
combinations of lotus buds.
The associations in which these
rosettes appear in Egyptian ornament
Border patterns from Egyptian tombs. Compare the
are such as to make the lotus connec- details on pages 282 and 284. Originals in color.
LOTIFORM ORIGIN OF THE G1EEK AN THEMION. 281
Ovary stigma of the blue lotus. From

the botanical Plates of the " Napo-
leon Egypt." Compare page 283.
buds, and to rosettes which

support buds inverted and
which support buds erect.
We can point to leaves
supporting buds and ro-
settes which support
leaves, and again to flow-
ers supporting buds (in-
verted), and again to flow-
ers supporting leaves.
Is it possible to deny Dried ovary stigma of the lotus, after seeding. From Nature.
significance and conven-

tional and symbolic floral association in proof, but we can prove that the rosette
some of these cases ? Is it possible to is a lotus, and when this proof is once
admit significance and conventional admitted, the , ovary stigma becomes
floral association in some of these cases one highly natural originating motive.
and to deny it in others? In many cases the expanded flower, con-
Take once more the case where the ceived as flattened, is the obvious de-
rosette is represented on the Cypriote sign and it may have prompted all
pottery lotus, or where the rosette ap- which are not obviously flowers or buds
pears between the flowers and the symmetrically combined (and these
buds, and how can my conclusion be two last cases are the least frequent).
avoided (page 283). We cannot prove Still the differentiation between the ro-
absolutely in any of these cases that the settes with pointed sepals and petals
ovary stigma offered the original sug- and those with rounded radiations at
gestion. In default of literary record the points seems to indicate the ovary
of course there can be no absolute stigma as one of the original forms.
Rosette of lotus flowers from an

Egyptian picture of a gold vase.
Rosette form of the lotus conceived

Rosette of buds.
lotus Cake as flattened and expanded. Blue
Conventional rosette (ovary stigma) in Y
stamp from Naukratis. Roman enamel patera from Cyprus. N.
stone relief. From an Alexandrine
Museum.
stone sarcophagus. N. Y. Museum. period.
Lotus, bud, and rosette. Detail from a Lotus bud between two rosettes sup- Lotus buds supporting rosettes vo-
;
tomb pattern in color. porting buds inverted. Detail from luted lotus supporting an inverted
tomb patterns in color, including bud (detailed like a feather). Com-
lotuses. Compare page 280, where pare the next design as regards the
similar patterns are seen. bud. Carved ornament on the tem-
ple columns at Esneh.
On this page I have united some de-

tails from the tomb patterns with two-
from temple carvings. More of the
tomb patterns are illustrated on page
284. The dilemma in which I have
placed my antagonists by this colloca-
tion is not one in which I should care
to be placed myself. The easiest way
for them out of their difficulty is to say
nothing, and I presume they will take
it ;
without retracting anything they
have said before. The following points
are to be considered by students who
do not profess to be experts, in decid-
ing for themselves. Not one Egyptol-
ogist has antagonized my conclusions:
on the rosette. Everything which has
been said or published by Egyptologists
Lotus flowers supporting rosettes. Voluted lotus sup- has been favorable to my conclusions
porting an inverted bud. Group of four buds. about it. The only Egyptologist who
Carved ornament on the temple columns at Esneh.
is also a botanist
(Mr. Percy E. New-
berry) anticipated my conclusion about
Lotus flower supporting bud inverted. A bud support-

Rosette supporting a bud, between lotuses. From a ing a bud inverted. Rosettes supporting buds.
tomb pattern in color. Detail from a tomb pattern in color.
Ivory whorl from Cyprus. New York Museum. Type

of the ovary stigma rosette.
the ovary stigma. Now let us consider

the deficiencies possibly inherent in a
reviewer, not an Egyptologist, who has
rejected my conclusions. First, such a
" Lotus
person may have reviewed the
Ovary stigma of the white lotus. From the botanical Grammar" without having read it care-
Plates of the " Napoleon Egypt."
fully, or without having read it all.
Second, he may be an Assyriologist,
disliking to concede to Egypt what has
so far been conceded to Assyria. Third,
he may be a person who has been
taught to design rosettes artificially in
a kindergarten or public school.
Fourth, he may be a person not in
Conventional representation of the ovary stigma pic- touch with Oriental and Egyptian
tured on the flower. Cypriote pottery. Compare
habits of mind not aware that the
;
page 274.
idea of ornament purely for the sake
of ornament was unfamiliar to an
Egyptian not aware that religious
;
and magical beliefs are the foundations

of Egyptian design. I now invite at-
tention to the large design of page 284,
representing the type in which a lotus
flower is conventionally combined with
a lotus leaf, and to the associated pat-
terns of lotus leaves with a cleft over
a rounded base.
Stone carving from Nankratis. Miniature coffined

figure. Rosette between lotuses type of the ex-
;
panded flower.
Rosette from an Etruscan Detail of a bronze door Type of the flabellum or Egyp-
bronze cist. Type of the from Susa. Type of the tian standard. Demi-lotus ex-
expanded flower. expanded flower. panded.
'*jj/' 'fji
Blue enamel lotus leaf amu-

let with rounded bottom
and incised cleft. Owens
College, Manchester.
Xllth Dynasty.
Lotus flower supporting a
leaf. Detail from a
tomb pattern in color.
Portion of a toilet tray in wood. (Cover of the tray.) Lotus flower supporting a leaf. Lotus between buds
with blunt ends. Rosettes on stalks.
The rounded bottoms of these leaves The cleft of the leaf is represented by
require an explanation. These patterns an incision over the rounded bottom.
in the Egyptian pictures herewith re- It is significant for their magic quality
produced are not direct copies from lotus and use that the pictures copy an
leaves but from enamel amulets repre- amulet or magic charm. These amu-
senting leaves, of which the museums lets are invariably found in the tombs
offer many instances. These amulets are where they were placed for religious
rounded at the bottom for convenience reasons. The fact that the rosette it-
of manufacture and to avoid breakage self is a tomb amulet (in enamel) is also
(see cut above). to be considered (cut, page 279).
Rosettes'supporting lotus leaves between lotuses. Lotus leaf supporting a bud between lotuses. Detail fron
Detail from a tomb pattern in color. a tomb pattern in color.
LOT!FORM ORIGIN OF THE GREEK AN THEM ION. 285
Type of the bud and rosette. Type of tne flower and Type of the flower and demi-rosette.
Esneh | rosette. Esneh. From a Cypriote bronze shield.
Type of the voluted flower and Type of the flower and demi- Variant of the foregoing type.
rosette. XlXth Dynasty. rosette. Detail of a tomb Detail of a tomb pattern.
Ornament on tomb picture of pattern.
a throne.
IV. This Egyptian lotus palmette has so

far quite escaped the attention of
But there is still a form of the students. In spite of a frequency
Egyptian lotus which obliges us to con- which is sufficiently obvious when
sider the rosette as a lotus motive. It the evidence has been collated, even
is that in which a demi-rosette is com- its existence, to say nothing of its
bined with a lotus, generally of the explanation, has been entirely ignored.
Ionic or voluted form. The significance Notwithstanding, it can be dated as a
of this association is best grasped by tomb amulet to the Twelfth Dynasty,
recurring to the pattern which shows 3,000 B. C. It is a frequent appear-
us the flower supporting a leaf, and the ance in tomb frescoes of high antiquity.
method which inspires the combination It appears in stone carvings, according
is obvious when we recur to the patterns to my personal observation, on the
in which buds or flowers support a ro- temple walls of Karnak (Nineteenth
sette entire. The demi- Dynasty). As an amulet
rosette combined with the in necklaces it can be dated
lotus is undoubtedly an to the Nineteenth Dynasty.
abbreviation of the method In E trusco- Phen ician
which represents the entire bronzes, as well as in silver
rosette over the flower or and in gold, it is a common
over the Ionic lotus form, ornament of early Mediter-
both cases being exactly ranean art. But it has
analagous to the case of taken time and patience
the flower supporting a Enamel lotus palmette amulet, Owens to prove all this. I was
bud (p. 282) or the flower College, Manchester. Original type obliged to collect all the
of the Greek anthemion dated
supporting a leaf (p. 284). about 3000 B. C. material myself, and to
;
Enamel lotus palmette Enamel lotus palmette amulets. Enamel lotus palmette
amulet. Boston Gizeh Museum. From phot< - amulet. Boston
Museum. graph by Mariette. Museum.
date the palmette tomb amulets to the

Twelfth Dynasty. Other observations
as to date of the lotus palmette were
mainly subsequent to this. It was Mrs.
Professor Huggins, wife of the English
!b8c astronomer, who first sent me word
Lotus palmettes in Egyptian gold jewelry.
of the dated type for the Nineteenth
Dynasty. It was not till 1891 that I
search for it piecemeal. From the found the motive in stone carving at
summer of 1887 to the summer of 1890 Karnak. Aside from my own publica-
I could not date the
Egyptian lotus tions the Egyptian lotus palmette and
palmette earlier than the time of an its foreign copies have so far been
Etruscan tomb of the seventh or eighth passed over without mention, and yet
century B. C. (the they are the exact original of the Greek
Regulini - Galassi anthemion, and it was clearly on im-
tomb), and I could ported Phenician and Egyptian metals,
not consequently bronze, gold and silver, that the Greeks
definitely locate it first came in contact with the form.
as an Egyptian type This is apparent from the large Pheni-
of early date. The cian patterns on bronze in the Etruscan
palmette amulets Museum of the Vatican and in the
known to me in Etruscan collections of Florence, and
Boston were unis especially evident also from similar
dated, and so were patterns on Cypriote works in metal
those of Mariette's (page 287).
I
from Let us now remember that the Greek

")) photographs
the Boulak i
(now anthemion has so far been assumed to

Gizeh) Museum. derive from the Assyrian palmette*
"
It was not till I (the honey-suckle" theory scarcely
visited Manchester deserves mention), and that this again
A A A f"~" m the Spring of is supposed to derive from the palm
l8 9 x that J could tree, although no one has been able to
\( V \A
<j
V ->.
* See October Number, 1893.
Gold lotus palmette in Boston Lotus palmette. Detail

M us e um-
Originally enam- of a tomb pattern.
Enamel lotus palmette from
a necklace. British Mu-
Egyptian lotus palmette in
, ,
elled. Part of a
tray handle
bronze repousse. From
seum. XlXth Dynasty. an Etruscan tomb.
Three fragments of bronze armor from Tamassos, Cyprus.

(Ohnefalsch-Richter.) Egyptian letus palmettes,- to be
compared with preceding and following typesN
point out one single stage of the evo-

lution of the pattern from a realistic
palm, or even a single instance of a
repeated pattern of realistic palms.
Let us remember, moreover, that the
identity of the Ionic capital with the
anthemion has been shown by Dr.
the Egyptian lotus palmette with the
Clarke,* and that the Ionic capital anthemion of the Greeks. Here are
must now be conceded a lotus deriva-
the patterns side by side. The illustra-
tive. Let us remember, also, that the
tions speak for themselves (page 288).'
critic of the Nation, the critic of the
London Academy and
We have seen that the normal type
(Dr. Tylor), of the Greek anthemion has a palmette
the critic of the Revue Archtol-
crown (a demi-rosette), supported by
ogique (M. Foucard) have all failed Ionic volutes, and there are instances
to grasp the logic of my position
where we can point to an exact identity
and the incontestable identity of
in the Greek form as compared with
* See October Number,
the Egyptian, even reaching to the
Lotus palmettes on ivory placques from Nineveh, British Museum. Compare the Cypriote examples above, the
Egyptian preceding, and the Greek to follow. The placques from which these details are taken are of Egyp-
tian style and origin.
288 LOT1FORM ORIGIN OF THE GREEK AN THEMION.
^"n'tll |j" t "'"" t

"iij^r'
Syria. Greek period. Detail Greek terra-cotta antefix. Italy. Head of a tombstone. From
from a bronze pitcher. a Greek vase.
Greek anthemions to be compared with the foregoing lotus palmettes and with examples of the lotus palmette below.
little pendant tabs which so constantly

hang in Egpytian art from the inner
side of the lotus volutes.
We are now able to return to the
Ionic capital discovered in Asia Minor
by Dr. Clarke,* to the Assyrian ivories
which he rightly considered connecting
links with the Assyrian palmette, and
to formulate- the proof that all these
Egyptian lotus palmette. Detail in bronze from the
;
Regulini-Galassi tomb, Etruria.

Greek anthemions above.
Compare the types are Egyptian.
As regards the ivory placques from
Nineveh, which were probably decora-
tions of thrones or furniture, their
Egypto-Phenician origin has been al-
ways palpable and conceded bv special-
although this fact was unknown to
ists,
Dr. Clarke. The Egyptian quality of
these pieces is obvious in the placque of
the worshiper and the lotus which I
have illustrated in my last Paper.
These ivory details, are consequently
Egyptian in style and origin (cuts,
page 287).
Egyptian lotus palmette. Cypriote stone carving. As regards the Ionic capital published
Compare the Greek anthemions above.
by Dr. Clarke (the capital of Nean-
dreia) it now falls in line with a series
of similar ones which were subsequently
discovered at Athens. It is an obvious
variant of the Egyptian palmette and
Greek anthemion, and both are lotus
combinations. As regards the Assyrian
palmette, its connection with the palm
tree has not a vestige of valid authority
nor a vestige of evidence in its favor.
No palm trees can be shown in Assyrian
patterns. By a pattern -we understand
Egyptian lotus palmette. Cypriote bronze relief re- a picture which is repeated tO form a
peated from preceding page. Compare the Greek .
anthemions above. * October and page

Number, 1893, 289, this Paper.
u-
Ionic capital lately found at Athens.
Ionic capital lately found at Athens.
series. The Assyrian palm tree only

appears scenery backgrounds. On
in
seals and cylinders it is isolated. When
we remember that in Greek art the pal-
mette and lotus constantly appear
united in one repeated pattern it is evi-
The capital of Neandreia discovered^by Dr. Clarke.
dent that the advocate of the palm ;
motive is bound to furnish as many in-

stances of repeated realistic palms as I
can furnish instances of repeated real-
istic lotuses. As a matter of fact the
advocate of the palm motive cannot
furnish one instance of repeated realistic
palms. No connecting links between
the palm tree and the Assyrian pal-
mette in ornament can be quoted. Its
fate is decided by that of the Greek
anthemion.
To assert, or to take for granted
without assertion, that the trunk of the
palm tree was eliminated off-hand, with-
out one single intermediate stage of
conventional evolution, is the only re-
course for the theory which connects the
Assyrian palmette with the palm tree.
Such an assertion, unsupported by even
one single example in all ancient art,
of a repeated pattern of palm trees,
cannot satisfy a student who has ob-
served the gradual course of other
Anthemion of the Parthenon, derived from the lotus
ornamental evolutions. At the very palmette. The above Ionic capitals are variants
would
best, all that could even be asserted of the anthemion.
be that the Assyrian palmette was in-

dependent of the Egyptian palmette other to the freer designs of the Greek
and the Greek anthemion for the vases.
;
Where brush work, not carving,
identity of these latter forms is incon- was in question, it is evident that native
testably established by me. But the Greek fancy and its independent decor-
"Grammar of the Palm Tree" will not ative bent, carried the variations to a
be written in this
generation. The much wider extent, in which the re-
monuments are lacking. mote poles of variation are conse-
A return to the illustrations for Me- quently farther removed, but the unity
lian vases and patterns (pp. 273-277) of origin is still apparent.
completes the argument on the one I have excluded from this argument
hand and enables us to extend it on the the continuous spiral scroll, the guil-
LOTIFORM ORIGIN OF THE GREEK* ANTHEMION.
loche, the meander and the so-called trated Mesopotamia, carrying its own
ivy-leaf, because the proof is drawn patterns with it, and supplanting what
largely from points which must be re- may have previously existed, just as
served for want of space; but students Italian Renaissance culture and pat-
of ornament and of architectural orna- terns supplanted and displaced the
ment are best aware how far the whole Gothic culture and Gothic patterns of
field of Greek decorative art has been Northern Europe in the sixteenth cen-
covered when the motives so far con- tury.
sidered and their obvious variants have It must be admitted that the interest
been admitted to be lotus derivatives. attaching to these observations is, in
When we add the easily demonstrated the first place, the interest of the his-
egg-and-dart, and the leaf-and-dart torian, of the anthropologist, and of
motives and the very large number of the partisan or advocate of Evolution.
variants of the trefoil and normal (or When it gradually dawned on me that
obvious) lotus in Greek ornament, I all the wealth of Greek decorative art,
am sure it must be admitted that a new so-called, had its origin in Egyptian
point of departure has been established solar symbolism, I saw that one
for the history of Greek art, and con- more link could be forged in the chain
sequently of Greek culture. The pat- which the general theory of Evolution
tern, if transmitted from one nation to is now constructing for the history of
another, argues an object through the human race. To attach the origins
which it has been transmitted. That of painting and sculpture to fetich
object implies commerce, and com- worship or to a belief in magic is to
merce implies intercourse. The whole simplify history and to connect isolated
history of civilization is at stake in facts in one more easily comprehended
such a demonstration. Above all the whole. To derive supposed purely
theory of a continuity in history is decorative patterns from pictures which
strengthened. In so far as we derive also had a magical significance and use
from earlier and simpler elements is to not only to simplify history but
forms and characteristics which have is also to make the patterns interesting
been supposed native to Greece, in so to hundreds or thousands who other-
far we learn the lesson that humanity wise would never notice them. More-
in general has reached its
present con- over, archaeologists and students of
ditions by evolution not by a series Greek, antiquity have been peculiarly
of independent disconnected and un- grudging and backward, in admitting a
assisted efforts. relationship between Greek culture and
It is my wish to show that Greek Egyptian, and they have been pecu-
conventional patterns go back to a liarly forward in conceding to Assyria
system of magical beliefs centering a credit which does not belong to her,
in Egypt and to prove in doing excepting, it may be, to some degree,
so, that the history of the system of in a secondary sense. That Assyrian
patterns which we know best through patterns reacted on the Greek may be
Greek developments, is the history of conceded but if they were derived
;
the rise and diffusion of later civiliza- from

Egypt originally, then the credit
tion from its great
development in the belongs there originally. The Renais-
valley of the Nile. sance art of England came there from
I do not minimize the
importance of the Netherlands, from France and from
a contemporary Chaldean
development, Spain, but the credit for that art belongs
but I assert that in the period of later to The relations of Assyria to
Italy.
and borrowed Chaldean culture repre-
Egypt were like those of Renaissance
sented by Assyrian history a wave of France and
Spain to Renaissance
culture influences from
Egypt pene- Italy.
Wm. H. Goodyear.
(.To BE CONTINUED.)
LAST WORDS ABOUT THE WORLD'S FAIR.
H ETHER the brilliancy of this success may constitute

cloud-capped tow- a danger in the imitation which it in-
ers and the gor- duces, if it induce any. Absolutely
geous palaces of without influence such a display can
the World's Fair hardly be. The promiscuous practi-
are to dissolve, tioner of architecture in America, or
now that the in- in any other modern country,is not of
substantial pa- an analytical turn of mind. When
geant of the Fair things please him, he is not apt to in-
itselfhas faded, and to leave not a rack quire into the reasons why they please
behind, is a question that is reported to him, and to act accordingly. He is
agitate Chicago. There is much to be more apt to reproduce them as
said, doubtless, on both sides of it. he finds them, so far as this
While it is still unsettled seems to be a is mechanically possible. For this
good time to consider the architecture process our time affords facilities
which it is proposed to preserve for unprecedented in history. Photo-
yet awhile longer, in order to deter- graphs are available of everything
mine, so far as may be, what influence striking or memorable that has been
the display at Chicago is likely to have built in the world, and that survives
"
upon the development of American even in ruins. The "wander-years of
architecture, and how far that influence the young architect are not so neces-
is likely to be good and how far to be sary to him as they used to be. The
bad. That it is likely to be in any de- necessity of travel, as part of a profes-
gree bad is a proposition that may sional apprenticeship, had its advant-
be startling and seem ungracious, but ages. On the spot one can see what
there is no reason why it should. Cer- he cannot see so well in photographs
tainly to question the unmixed benefi- and sometimes cannot see at all, how
cence of its influence is not to pass much of its effect a building may owe
the least criticism upon the architects, to circumstances more or less adventi-
the brilliant success of whose labors tious to its design to situation, to
for their own temporary and spectacu- scale, to material, to color. The
larpurpose has been admitted and ad- photograph enables him merely to re-
mired by all the world. The very produce what he admires, and increases
the desirableness that he should ad- after to say that great classic forms are undesir-
mire rightly; that he should admire able. The people have the vision before them
here, and words cannot efface it."
with discrimination; that he should
analyze what he admires far enough to Doubtless the architecture of the Ex-
find out what it is that he admires it position will inspire a great many
for, and what it is that may be useful classic buildings, which will be better
to him in his own work. To teach this or worse done according to the training;
is a large part of professional educa- of the designers, but it is not likely that
tion. An architect who learns this will any of these will even dimly recall, and
not be misled by the success of the quite impossible that they should equal
buildings of the World's Fair into re- the architectural triumph of the Fair.
producing or imitatingthem, because he The influence of the Exposition, so far
will know too well what are the neces- as it leads to direct imitation, seems to
sary conditions of their effectiveness, us an unhopeful rather than a hopeful
and that these conditions cannot be re- sign, not a promise so much as a threat.
produced except in another World's Such an imitation will so ignore the
Fair, and not literally even there. Men conditions that have made the archi-
bring not back the mastodon, nor we tectural success of the Fair that it is
those times. It is, however, the archi- worth while to try to discern and to
tects who do not know these things state these conditions, and that is the
with whom we have so largely to purpose of this paper.
reckon, and it is upon such architects In the first place the success is first
that the buildings in Jackson Park are of all a success of unity, a triumph of
more likely to impose themselves as ensemble. The whole is better than any
models for more or less direct imitation of its parts and greater than all its
in the solution of
problems more usual. parts, and its effect is one and indivisi-
The results of such an imitation can ble. We 'are speaking now of the
hardly fail to be pernicious. Court of Honor, which alone it is pro-
Doubtless the influence of the 'most posed to preserve, and which forms an
admired group of buildings ever erected architectural whole. The proposal
in this
country, the public buildings at to remove the largest building of the
Washington not excepted, must be group, that of Manufactures, and to-
great. What it is likely to be has been set it up by itself in a permanent form
expressed by Mr. Burnham, the Direc- on the lake front in Chicago, though the
tor of Works of the Columbian Expo- proposition was not made by an archi-
sition, in some remarks, published in a tect, is an excellent illustration how
Chicago newspaper, which crystallize easy it is to mistake the significance of
into a lucid and specific form a general the architecture and the causes of its
hazy expectation, and which may well success. It is a masterpiece of mis-
serve us for a text :
appreciation. The landscape plan of the
" with the great basin, open at one
The influence of the Exposition on archi- Fair,
tecture will be to end to the lake and cut midway by
inspire a reversion toward the
pure ideal of the ancients. We have been in an canals, may be said to have generated
inventive period, and have had rather
contempt the architecture of the Court of Honor.
for the classics. Men evolved new ideas and
imagined they could start a new school without
Any group of educated architects who
much reference to the past. But action and re- had assembled to consider the problem
action are equal, and the exterior and obvious presented by the plan must have taken
result will be that men will strive to do classic much the same course that was in fact
architecture. In this effort there will be many taken. The solution of the problem
failures. It requires long and fine
training to
design on classic lines. The simpler the expres- presented by the plan was in outline
sion of true art the more difficult it is to obtain. given by the plan. That the treatment
"
The intellectual reflex of the Exposition will of the border of this symmetrical basin
be shown in a demand for better should be symmetrical, that the con-
architecture,
and designers will be obliged to abandon their
should balance each
incoherent originalities and study the ancient fronting buildings
masters of There is shown so much other,
these were requirements ob-
building.
of fine architecture here that
people have seen viously in the interest of unity
and appreciated this. It will be and a general unity was obviously
unavailing here-
LAST WORDS ABOUT THE WORLD'S FAIR. 293
the result to be sought and the "'best were the very beginnings of monumen-
result that could be attained. The tal architecture. These pillared ave-
conditions of this unity were all that nues exhibit the effect of repetition as
it was necessary to stipulate for. Va- completely as it is exhibited in the ex-
riety enough had been secured by the terior colonnades of the Greeks
selection of an individual designer for Or where, from Pluto's garden Palatine
each of the great buildings, and the MulciSer's columns gleam in far piazzian line.
danger was that this variety would be This effect impressed the first Egyp-
excessive, that it would degenerate tian builders as it impressed the Greek
into a miscellany. Against this danger and Roman builders, as it impressed
it was necessary to guard if the Keats, whose impression of it we have
buildings should appear as the work just transcribed as it
; impressed
of collaborators rather than of com- Turner, whose dreams of classic archi-
petitors,and it was guarded against by tecture were made real in Jackson
two very simple but quite sufficient Park.
conditions. One was that there should As we say, this is an effect by no
be a uniform cornice-line of sixty feet, means peculiar to classic architecture.
the other that the architecture should It may be found in the flank of a
be classic. The first requirement, Gothic cathedral as well as in the flank
keeping a virtually continuous sky-line of a peripteral Greek temple. Oneof the
all around the Court of Honor, and most familiar illustrations of it is the
preventing that line from becoming an front of the cloth-hall of Ypres, and
irregular serration, was so plainly the most conspicuous illustration
necessary that it is not necessary t.o of it the World's Fair is the side
in
spend any words in justifying it. The of the Manufactures building. As
second may seem more disputable, but each of these examples proves, it is an
in reality it was almost as much a effect that does not depend upon classic
matter of course as the first. Uni- forms and may be attained in an ar-
formity in size is no more necessary to cade as well as in a colonnade, since
unity than uniformity in treatment, and the Manufactures building, alone of
classic architecture was more eligible all the great buildings, is astylar,
than any other for tolerably ob-
many and, indeed, is scarcely designated as
vious reasons. There are perhaps no classic except by the pillared pavil-
effects attained in the exhibition that ions at the angles and the reproduction
could not have been attained in otl/er of the arch of Constantine at the centre
architecture. The obvious effect of of each front.
the "magnitude, succession, and uni- Nevertheless, the choice of classic
formity," which the aestheticians de- architecture was almost as distinctly
scribe as the conditions of the " arti- imposed upon the associated architects
ficial infinite" has been sought and as the choice of a uniform cornice line.
attained in the treatment of the great In the first place, the study of classic
buildings. Interminable, or for aes- architecture is a usual, almost an invari-
thetic purposes, infinite series is the able part of the professional training
source of the impressivenes of the largest of the architects of our time. It is an
of the buildings, of the long colonnades indispensable part, wherever that train-
of Machinery Hall, and the still longer ing is administered academically, and
arcades of the Manufactures building. most of all at Paris, of which the in-
The unusual, in the case of the latter fluence upon our own architecture is
building the unprecedented, length at manifestly increasing and is at present
the disposal of the designer made this dominant. Most of the architects of
the most easy and obvious method of the World's Fair are of Parisian train-
making a great impression. That it is ing, and those of them who are not
the most easy and obvious is proved have felt the influence of that contem-
by the fact that it was the first, nor porary school of architecture which is
has it ever been carried further than most highly organized and possesses
in the earliest examples, in the colon- the longest and the most powerful tra-
nades of Karnac and Thebes that dition. Presumably, all of them were
Vol. III. 3. 5.
294 LAST WORDS ABOUT THE WORLD'S FAIR.
familiar with the decorative use of "the ciated with the structure that gave rise
orders" and knew what a module to them. The alternative to the use of
meant. What most of them had classic architecture was the develop-
already practiced in academic exercises ment in a few months of an architect-
and studies, they were now for the first ure of plaster, or " staff." For this
time permitted to project into actual there are no precedents completely
execution. Nobody can fail to under- available in the world, while the world
stand the comment of a distinguished is full of precedents for the employment
French painter, made, possibly, in a of the orders, and precedents which do
satirical spirit
" On me dit les not imply that the orders are real and
:
que
bailments a Chicago sont des anciens efficient constructions, as indeed they
concours des Beaux Arts." This is in have never been since the Romans be-
fact the reflection that several of the gan to use columnar architecture as the
buildings are calculated to excite, that decoration of an arched construction.
their designs are the relics of student- It is not to be supposed for a mo-
competitions, while at least one such ment that the architects of the Fair
relic is alleged to have been built in would have attained anything like the
Jackson Park. success they did attain, if instead of
That would be one good reason for working in a style with which all of them
the adoption of a given style that all were presumably familiar, they had
the persons concerned knew how to undertaken the Herculean task of
work in it. Another is that the classic creating a style out of these novel con-
forms, although originally developed ditions. In fact the architects of the
from the conditions of masonic struc- Court of Honor might " point with
"
ture, have long since, and perhaps ever pride to the result of such efforts as
since they became "orders," been los- were made in that direction by other
ing touch with their origin, until now architects as a sufficient justification for
they have become simply forms, which their own course, if such a justification
can be used without a suggestion of were needed.
any real structure or any particular The landscape-plan is the key to the
material. We know them in wood and pictorial success of the Fair as a whole,
metal, as well as in stone. They may and, as we say it generated the archi-
be used, as they are used in Jackson tecture of the watercourt by supply-
Park, as a decorative envelope of any ing indications which sensitive archi-
construction whatever without exciting tects had no choice but to follow. In
in most observers any sense of incon- no
point was the skill of Mr. Olmsted
gruity, much less any sense of mean- and his associate more conspicuous than
ness such as is at once aroused by the in the transition from the symmetri-
"
sight of carpenter's Gothic." A four- cal and stately treatment of the basin
foot column, apparently of marble, to the irregular winding of the lagoon.
may have aroused such a sentiment As the basin indicated a bordering
during the process of construction, of formal and symmetrical archi-
when it might have been seen without tecture so the lagoon indicated and
a base and supported upon little sticks, invited a
picturesque and irregular
with its apparent weight thus emphati- architecture. Of the associated archi-
cally denied. Such a sentiment may tects, those who most conspicuously
have been aroused again in the closing availed themselves of this invitation
days of the Fair, when it was no longer were the designers of the Fisheries anc
thought necessary to repair defects as of the Transportation building. .The
fast as they showed themselves, and success of the former is not
disputec
where the apparent masonry disclosed nor disputable. The plan was deter
in places the But when mined by the requirements of tht
lath-backing.
the buildings were ready for the public building and worked out
very naturall}
no such incongruity was forced upon into the central mass, the connecting
the observer, as it would have been arcades and the terminal pavilions, o
forced upon him if the forms that were which the form suggested the treat
used had been such as are still asso- ment of Romanesque baptisteries, anc
LAST WORDS AJ3OUT THE WORLD'S FAIR. 295
may very possibly have determined our own continent do not carry us very
the style of the building. There was far. The Saracens, indeed, attained an
ample scope left for the inventiveness interior architecture of plaster, and
of the designer in the detail conven- this architecture comprises all the pre-
tionalized so happily and successfully cedents that were available for the
from marine motives, and the success architects of the Transportation build-
of this detail of itself vindicates the ing. The outsides of those Saracenic
author's choice of a style and passes a buildings of which the interiors are most
conclusive criticism upon the choice admired are not only of masonry, but
of classic architecture for his purpose. some of them are little more than dead
Not only would his spirited and in- walls. One cannot fail to respect the
genious detail have been sacrificed, but courage and sincerity with which the
the general composition of his build- architects of the Transportation build-
ing could not have been attained by ing tackled their task, even though he
the use of classic forms without doing find in the result a justification for the
violence both to the letter and to the architects who have forborne the at-
spirit of them. But that he was right tempt. It was here a perfectly legiti-
for his all the more
purpose proves mate attempt, since the Transportation
that thearchitects of the Court of building does not form part of an archi-
Honor were right for theirs. One can tectural group, and a separate and dis-
imagine, perhaps, that the Court of tinctive treatment was not a grievance
Honor might have been lined with to the spectator, nor to the architects
buildings in the style of the Fisheries of any other buildings, though it
building, and yet not have lost the was rather curiously resented by some
unity it now possesses provided all the of these. That it is a plaster
buildings had been done by the same building is entirely evident, as evident
designer and he had been unlimited in in a photograph as in the fact. It can-
the time required to meditate his not be called an "incoherent origin-
design. But one cannot imagine that ality," for its departures from conven-
an equal effect of unity could have been tion are evidently the result of a stu-
gained by a number of architects, dious analysis. A plaster wall is espe-
working under pressure, if they had cially in need of protection by an ample
chosen a free and romantic instead of cornice, and the ample cornice is pro-
a formal and classic style. vided. But the mouldings that are ap-
The Transportation building bears propriate to masonry are meaningless
still stronger testimony to the same in plaster, and the wall is a dead ex-
effect, since, while everybody finds it panse, that would be entirely devoid of
interesting and suggestive, nobody ven- interest if left alone. Whether it could
tures to say that it is distinctly and, on not profitably have been enlivened in
the whole, successful. It is the most the Saracenic manner by patterns
ambitious of all the great buildings, for stamped in relief a treatment espe-
it is nothing less than an attempt to cially adapted to the material is a
create a plaster architecture. Even the question that the designers might
Fisheries building, free as it is in design, perhaps profitably have entertained.
bears no reference in its design to its But at any rate they determined to
material. It is not a building of staff enliven the expanse only with color,
but a simulacrum of a building in and the color treatment is not success-
masonry. In the Transportation build- ful. The most pretentious and per-
ing alone has it been undertaken archi- haps the most successful feature of it
tecturally to treat the material of whichthe famous Golden Doorway suffers
all the buildings are composed. To from being an isolated fragment,, en-
comprehend the ambitiousness of the tirely unrelated to the general scheme,
attempt one has only to bear in mind and its admirable detail does not for
that there is no such thing as an ex- this reason excite the admiration it
terior architecture of plaster in the deserves. The moulded ornament in
world. The "half-timbered" con- this, however, is less successful than the
structions of Europe and the adobe of moulded ornament elsewhere in the
LAST WORDS ABOUT THE WORLD S FAIR.
building, which charged with an to take in all the architecture of the

is
astonishing and inventiveness Court of Honor. One of these critics,

spirit
and which is, moreover, unmistakably a Frenchman, found himself unable to
moulded ornament, neither imitative of reconcile the more fantastic erections
nor imitable by the work of the chisel. with the rest of the architecture of the
There is certainly no better detail than Court. He referred, it is to be pre-
this in the Fair grounds, but it also sumed, to the steeples of Machinery
loses much of the effect to which it is Hall, and the belvederes of the build-
entitled by its surroundings, and espe- ing of Electricity, and he failed to per-
cially by its association with the ceive the motive of the introduction,
queerest sculpture that is to be seen on which apparently was to give the build-
the grounds, and that is saying a great ings as much "Americanism" err
deal. The comparative failure of the Columbianism as was compatible with
color-decoration is very pardonable in classicism by borrowing suggestions
so difficult and so unprecedented an from the Spanish Renaissance in which
essay, but it entails the comparative were erected the earliest of the
failure of the design of which it is an European buildings of the new con-
integral part, quite independently of tinent. The incongruity is obvious
other defects in that design. enough, for nothing could be less like
But, perhaps, the strongest proof of classic severity than any suspicion of
the good judgment of the architects of bizarrerie,and bizarrerie is character-
the Court of Honor is that the effect istic ofthe exuberance, of the Spanish
of unity is not disturbed by those build- builders of the Renaissance. Perhaps
it becomes even rather violent in the
ings that are in themselves the least ,
" Classic " is a

successful. very com- contrast between the severe colonnades
prehensive term, if one include under and the fantastic steeples of Machinery
it, as one must, everything that owes Hall, and one may reasonably wish
its origin to the Greeks, from their own that the steeples had been omitted even
work to the latest developments of the at the sacrifice of the Columbianism.
Renaissance, and yet a certain family- If the incongruity be less apparent in
likeness is traceable in all these things. the Electricity building, that is
The trail of "the orders" is over them all. perhaps because that edifice had
There is indeed, and rather curiously, less character to be disturbed
no example of Grecian architecture in or contradicted, and that one
the Court of Honor. Nobody would cannot so readily designate any par-
hesitate to describe the Art building at ticular feature that prevents it from
the other end of the lagoon, as an ex- attaining style, either in the academic
ample of a Greek revival, in spite of or in the aesthetic sense of the term.
its arches. The expansion of the The Mining building is a much franker
Erechtheum into a vast building has example of modern Americanism,
been managed, as everybody agrees, franker even than the treatment of the
with great skill and with a result that Manufactures' building, although the
is Grecian both in letter and in spirit. classicism of that is visible only in the
The most truly Grecian in spirit, per- monumental entrances and pavilions.
haps, of the buildings of the Court of No sensitive beholder, with the great-
Honor is the Agricultural building. est willingness in the world to admire,
Though its Hellenism appears only in could succeed in admiring the Mining
the subtlety and delicacy of the design, building if it stood alone, and he would
and is of the spirit and not at all of the have his difficulties with the Electrical
letter, its designer is entitled to some building, in spite of such features as
of the praise which Swinburne bestowed the double apse at the north end and
upon Landor the large halt-domed entrance at the
south.
And through the trumpet'of a child of Rome But the great advantage of
Rang the pure music of the flutes of Greece.
adopting a uniform treatment, even
There have been critics who insist when the uniformity is so very general
that, comprehensive as it is, the epithet as is denoted by the term classic, and
"
"classic is not comprehensive enough even when the term has been so loosely
interpreted, as it has been by some of iveness of the whole depends is that

the associated designers in Jackson there shall be a whole, that there shall
Park, is that the less successful designs be a general plan to the execution of
do not hinder an appreciation of the which every architect and every sculp-
more successful, nor disturb the general tor and every decorator concerned
sense of unity in an extensive scheme, shall contribute. That condition has
which is so much more valuable and been fulfilled in the architecture of the
impressive than the merits of the Exposition, at least in the architecture
best of the designs taken singly. of the " Court of Honor," which is
Our enjoyment of the Administration what everybody means when he speaks
building or of the Agricultural build- of the architecture of the Exposition,
ing might be very seriously marred by and it is by the fulfillment of this con-
the juxtaposition of buildings equally dition that the success of the Fair has
good unrelated in scale or in man- been attained. That success is, first of
ner, while it is not marred by the actual all, a success of unity.
surroundings. The scheme, of a
group of monumental buildings, does II.
not depend for its effectiveness upon
the equal excellence, or even, as we Nextafter unity, as a source and ex-
cannot help seeing, upon the positive planation of the unique impression
excellence of the parts that go to
all made by the World's Fair buildings,
make it up. a scheme and it has
It is comes magnitude. It may even be
been carried out not only in the huge questioned whether it should not come
buildings of unequal merit that we first in an endeavor to account for that
have been considering, but in all the impression. If it be put second, it is
accessories of a monumental composi- only because unity, from an artistic
tion. This has been done with note- point of view, is an achievement, while
worthy skill and discretion in the peri- magnitude from that point of view, is
style and flanking buildings, and in

its merely an advantage. The buildings
the terminal station, any one of which, are impressive by their size, and this
if done without reference to the rest, impressivenessis enhanced by their
under the inspiration of what Mr. number. Mere bigness is the easiest,
Burnham calls an "incoherent origin- speaking aesthetically, though prac-
"
ality or even a coherent originality tically it may be the most difficult to
might have gone for to spoil the attain, of all the means to an effect. It
whole. It has been carried out also in constitute? an opportunity, and one's
the minor details that are scarcely judgment upon the result, as a work of
noticeable in their places, but that art, depends upon the skill with which
would have been painfully noticeable the opportunity has been embraced and
if they had been out of place, in the employed. But bigness tells all the
plazas and the bridges and the prom- same, and the critical observer can no
enades that are the accessories of a more emancipate himself from the
pompous architectural composition. effect of it than the uncritical, though
It has been carried out too he is the better able to allow for it. In
in the sculptural adornment, not this country mere bigness counts for
only of the building but of the grounds, more than anywhere else, and in Chi-
while in the sculpture it is even more cago, the citadel of the superlative de-
evident to the wayfaring man than in gree, it counts for more, perhaps, than
the architecture that the effect of the it counts for elsewhere in this country.
whole does not depend upon the ex- To say of anything that it is the
"
cellence of the parts, and that sculpture greatest" thing of its kind in the
that will not bear an analytic inspec- world is a very favorite form of
tion may contribute, almost as effect- advertisement in Chicago. One cannot
ively as sculpture that will, to the escape hearing it and seeing it there a
decoration of a great pieasance and dozen times a day, nor from noting the
the entertainment of a holiday crowd. concomitant assumption that the big-
The condition upon which the effect- gest is the best. This assumption was
very naively made by the enthusiastic style. The bay of a cathedral may fur-
citizen whose proposition we have nish the unit as well as the order of a
already noted to occupy the Lake Front, Grecian temple. But it is an effect
which is one of the few features of the that depends very greatly upon magni-
city of Chicago and one of the most at- tude. The example of it we have already
tractive of them, with a full-sized repro- cited from Gothic architecture, the
duction of the Manufactures building. cloth-hall of Ypres, is perhaps the most
If one ask why Manufactures building, striking that mediaeval architecture sup-
the civic patriot has his answer ready: plies, seeing that the design is a repe-
" Because it is the
biggest thing on tition of the unit, in this case a pointed
earth," as indeed it is, having not much arch, from end to end of an otherwise
less than twice the area of the Great unbroken expanse of wall 440 feet
Pyramid, the type of erections that are long. But this extent, impressive
effective by sheer magnitude. The as it is, and heightened as its
Great Pyramid appeals to the imagina- impressiveness is by the skill of the de-
tion by its antiquity and its mystery as becomes insignificant when it is
signer,
well as to the senses by its magnitude, compared with the flank of the Manu-
but it would be impossible to erect any- factures building, which is nearly four
thing whatever of the size of the Manu- times as long as the front of Ypres,
factures building or even of the Great and of which the arcade in either wing
Pyramid that would not forbid apathy must be quite half as long again as the
in its presence. A pile of barrels so Belgian arcade. Either of the colon-
big as that would strike the spectator. naded wings of Machinery Hall, of
It would be a monument of human which, by the way, the treatment is
labor, even though the labor had been almost literally identical with that of
misdirected, and the evidence of crude the wings of the Capitol at Washing-
labor, if it be on a large enough scale, ton, must be nearly as long as the
is effective as well as the evidence whole front of Ypres.
of artistic handicraft, though of course The devices by which these inordi-
neither in the same kind nor nate dimensions are brought home to
in the same " These the comprehension of the spectator are
degree. huge"
structures and pyramidal immensities various, but they consist, in most cases,
would make their appeal successfully at least of a plinth and a parapet in
though they were merely huge and im- which the height of a man is recalled, as
mense brute masses quite innocent of in an architectural drawing the
art. The art that is shown in this re- draughtsman puts in a human figure "to
spect is in the development of the mag- give the scale." While the Fair was in
nitude, the carrying further of an progress the moving crowds supplied
inherent and necessary effect and the the scale, but this was given also by all
leading of the spectator to an apprecia- the architectural appurtenances, the
tion of the magnitude by devices that parapets of the bridges and the railings
magnify and intensify the impression of the wharves, so that the magnitude
it makes. That is to say, the art con- of the buildings was everywhere forced
sists in giving it scale. It is a final upon the sense. To give scale is also
censure upon the treatment of a piece the chief contribution to the effect of a
of architecture which aims at over- general
survey that is made by the
powering the spectator by its size accessory and decorative sculpture of
that it does not look its size; as is the the buildings and of the grounds. In
current and accepted criticism upon St. this respect, and without reference to
Peter's. To quote the aestheticians their merits strictly as sculpture, the
again, succession and uniformity are as statuary that surmounts the piers and
essential as magnitude to the "artificial
cupolas of the Agricultural building and
infinite," and it is necessary to it that that with which the angles of the Ad-
there should be a repetition, an inter- ministration building bristle are par-
minable repetition of the unit, the ticularly fortunate. On the other hand
incessant application of the module. the
figures of the peristyle were unfor-
It is an effect quite independent of the
tunate, being too big and insistent for
their architectural function of mere have first of all to tell us, and what
finials. they tell a casual glimpse
equally to
It would be pleasant to consider in and to a prolonged survey is that they
detail the excellencies of the buildings are examples not of work-a-day build-
that are most admirable, and the ing, but of holiday building, that the
sources of their effectiveness, and to purpose of their erection is festal and
consider, also, the causes of the short- temporary, in a word that the display
comings of the less successful build- is a display and a triumph of occasional
ings. But the success of the archi- architecture. As Mr. Burnham well
"
tectural group, as a whole, is a success described it, it is a " vision of beauty
not disturbed by the shortcomings and that he and his co-workers have pre-
the consequent success of the associ- sented to us, and the description im-
ated architects from their own point of plies, what our recollections confirm,
view and for their special purpose, is a that it is an illusion that has here been
matter upon which we are all agreed. provided for our delight. It was the task
It is only with the influence of what has of the architects to provide the stage-
been done in Jackson Park upon the setting for an unexampled spectacle.
architecture of the country that we are They have realized in plaster that gives
now concerned; with the suitableness us the illusion of monumental masonry
of it for general reproduction or imita- a painter's dream of Roman architect-
tion, and with the results that are likely ure. In Turner's fantasias we have its
to follow that process, if pursued in prototype much more nearly than in
the customary manner of the American any actual erection that has ever been
architect. The danger is that that seen in the world before. It is the pro-
designer, failing to analyze the sources vince and privilege of the painter to see
of the success of the Fair will miss the visions and of the poet to dream
point.-The most obvious way in which dreams. They are unhampered by ma-
he can miss it is by expecting a repro- terial considerations of structure of
duction of the success of one of the big material or of cost. They can imagine
buildings by reproducing it in a build- unrealizable centaurs and dragons,
ing of ordinary dimensions. It is gorgons, hydras and chimeras dire and
necessary, if he is to avoid this, that he in turn affect our imaginations with
should bear in mind how much of the these. The question how the centaur
effect of one of the big buildings can subsist, with two sets of respiratory
comes from its very bigness, and would and digestive organs superposed, does
disappear from a reproduction in minia- not disturb them nor us while we re-
ture. main under their spell. To quarrel
with the incredibilities they ask us to
III.
accept is to show not only a hope-
There is another cause for the
still lessly prosaic but a hopelessly pedantic
success of the World's Fair buildings, spirit. One might as well quarrel with
a cause that contributes more to the the scene-painter because his scenery
effect of them, perhaps, than both the is not what it purports to be, and accuse
causes we have already set down put him of deceit so far as his illusion is
together. It is this which at once most successful instead of being grateful to
completely justifies the architects of him that he literally does, for the mo-
the Exposition in the course they have ment, "illude" and play upon our
adopted, and goes furthest to render credulity.
the results of that course ineligible for " Pictoribus atque poetis
reproduction or for imitation in the
Quidlibet andendi semper fuit aequa potestas;
solution of the more ordinary problems Scimus et hanc veniam petinusque damusque
of the American architect. The suc- vicissim."
cess of the architecture at the World's
Fair is not only a success of unity, and The poet's or the painter's spell or
a success of magnitude. It is also and the spell of the architect of an "unsub-
very eminently a success of illusion. stantial pageant" cannot be wrought
What the World's Fair buildings upon the spectator who refuses to
300 LAST WORDS ABOUT THE WORLD'S FAIR.
take the wonder-worker's point of view, correlation of structure and .function,

and instead of yielding himself to the that if it is to be real and living and
influence of the spectacle insists upon progressive, its forms must be the
analyzing its parts and exposing its in- results of material and construc-
congruities. There would be a want tion, sometimes find ourselves re-
of sense as well as a want of imagina- proached with our admiration for
tion in pursuing this course and these palaces in which this belief is so
criticising a passing show as a conspicuously ignored and set at
permanent and serious piece of building. naught. But there is no inconsistency
It is the part of the spectator who in entertaining at the same time a
would derive the utmost pleasure from hearty admiration for the Fair and its
the spectacle to ignore the little incon- builders and the hope of an architecture
gruities that he might detect, and which in form and detail shall be so
loyally to assist the scenic artist in his widely different from it as superficially
make-believe. Nay, the consciousness to have nothing in common with it.
of illusion is a part of the pleasure of the Arcadian architecture is one thing and
illusion. It is not a diminution but an American architecture is another. The
increase of our delight to know that the value of unity, the value of magnitude
cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous are common to the two, but for the
palaces, and the solemn temples, the value of illusion in the one there must be
images of which scenic art summons' substituted in the other, if it is to come
before us are in sober reality " the to its fruition, the value of reality. We
baseless fabric of a vision." may applaud the skill of the stage-car-
Such a pleasure and such an illusion penter who gives us a theatric illusion
the architects of Jackson Park have without the slightest impulse to tell the
given us. The White City is the most common carpenter of every day to
integral, the most extensive, the most go and do likewise. In the world of
illusive piece of scenic architecture dreams, illusion is all that we require.
that has ever been seen. That is In the world of facts, illusion may be
praise enough for its builders, without merely sham, and it suffices to say of
demanding for them the further praise what is presented for our acceptance
of having made a useful and important that it is "not so." One can imagine
contribution to the development of the what would be the result of an indis-
architecture of the present, to the criminate admiration of the buildings
preparation of the architecture of the of the World's Fair. Nay, we do not
future. This is a praise that is not need to resort to imagination, for have
merely irrelevant to the praise they we not had our classic revival already ?
have won, but incompatible with it. It The prostylar villa in white pine re-
is essential to the illusion of a
fairy mains to testify to it not less than the
city that it should not be an American crop of domed state houses that sprang
city of the nineteenth century. It is up in reproduction or in imitation of
a seaport on the coast of Bohemia, it the Capitol at Washington. It is true
is the
capital of No Man's Land. It is that these were ill-done, even in the
what you will, so long as you will not comparison with their immediate pro-
take it for an American city of the totype, not to speak of their ultimate
nineteenth century, nor its architecture originals. As Mr. Burnharn says, it
for the actual or the
possible or even requires long and fine training to de-
the ideal architecture of such a city.
sign on classic lines, and this truth is
To fall into this confusion was to lose impressed upon us when we come to
a great part of its charm, that make comparisons among the buildings
part
which consisted in the illusion that the even of the Fair itself. But granted
White City was ten thousand miles and the training, would a sensitive person
a thousand years
away from the City desire to see even the best of these
of Chicago, and in oblivion of the
buildings reproduced for the adorn-
reality that the two were contiguous ment of an American town, apart from
and contemporaneous. Those of us the setting that in Jackson Park so
who believe that architecture is the enhances the merits of the best and
redeems the of the worst ? saw.

defects The impression thus expressed is
What would be without the unity by the impression we have been trying to
it
which its greatest value is the contri- analyze, of which the sources seem to
bution it makes to the total effect ? be unity, magnitude and illusion, and
Even if this could be in part retained the greatest of these is illusion. To
by the reproduction of a fragment of reproduce or to imitate the buildings
the group, how ineffectual it would be deprived of these irreproducible and
on the scale of our ordinary building or inimitable advantages, would be an
even on a scale considerably larger impossible task, and if it were possible
than the ordinary building. Who it would not be desirable. For the art of
that has seen the originals would care architecture is not to produce illusions
to have his recollection disturbed, or imitations, but realities, organisms
under pretense of having it revived, by like those of nature. It is in the
"
a miniature plaza, with a little Admin- " naked and open daylight that our
istration building at one end, flanked architects must work, and they can
by a little Manufactures building and only be diverted from their task of
a little Machinery Hall? Above all, production by reproduction. It is not
who would care to have the buildings theirs to realize the dreams of painters,,
reproduced without the atmosphere of but to do such work as future painters-
illusion that enveloped them at Jackson may delight to dream of and to draw.
Park and vulgarized by being brought If they work for their purposes as well
into the light of common day ? " This as the classic builders wrought for
same truth is a naked and open day- theirs, then when they, in their turn,
light that doth not show the masques have become remote and mythical and
and mummeries and triumphs of the classic, their work may become the ma-
world half so stately and daintily as terial of an illusion, " such stuff as
candle lights." dreams are made of." But its very fit-
It was a common remark among ness for this purpose will depend upon
visitors who saw the Fair for the first its remoteness from current needs and
time that nothing they had read or current ideas, upon its irrelevancy
seen pictured had given them an idea to what will then be contemporary
of it, or prepared them for what they life.
Montgomery Schnyler.
Vol. III. 3. 6.
THE ECOLE DES BEAUX-ARTS.
First Paper.
THE Ecole Nation- The two principal buildings were

ale et Speciale des erected, one hi 1820-38 by Debret, and
Beaux-Arts, is de- the pther in 1860-62 by Duban. As
voted to the teach- seen from the Rue Bonaparte, the prin-
ing of painting, cipal court presents a very striking
sculpture, and arch- and picturesque appearance. One comes
itecture of engrav-
; upon it suddenly. Nothing in the
ing and the cutting otherwise uninteresting street gives
of gems. It provides :
warning of the treat in store for the
passer. This vast court, several hun-
First Courses of lectures relating J:o the dred feet in depth, is separated from
different branches of art.
the street by an iron grille, the central
Second The school, properly speaking, is
divided intothree sections, the section of
gateway being flanked by two stone
gaines bearing busts of Puget and
painting, to which is attached engraving the ;
section of sculpture, to which is attached the Poussin.

cutting of gems, and the section of archi-
At the right is the small loge of the
tecture. Concierge. The court is divided at

Third The ateliers. (Studies, or work- about two-thirds of its depth by a
shops.) magnificent screen, the monumental
Fourth The collections. gateway of the destroyed Chateau de
Fifth The Library. Gaillon, a work of the latter part of
the fifteenth century, contrasting
These papers will deal only with the strangely with its classical surround-
section of architecture and matters re- ings. In the centre of the first court
lating to it. But first, as of interest to stands a Corinthian column, bear-
architects, let us take a look at the ing a bronze statue of Plenty. To
buildings. The " Palais des Beaux- the right of this court is the ancient
Arts:" These occupy the site of the chapel of the convent, now used as an
ancient "Couvent desPetits-Augustins." exhibition hall for casts and paint-
Some of the old buildings of the con- ings, having built against its facade
vent still exist, but most of the another monumental gateway from the
structures are modern, and form a very Chateau D'Anet, a work by Jean
remarkable group, well worthy of the Goujon and Philibert Delorme.
high reputation of the institution as Directly in front of the visitor enter-
the foremost school of art in the world. ing,and at the extremity of the second
THE ECOLE DES BEAUX-ARTS. 305
court, stands the principal building of ings contain lecture rooms and ateliers.
the group, presenting a noble fafade, At the north, monumental steps lead
consisting of a Corinthian arcade on a to the great hall Melpomene, where
bold basement, and surmounted by an exhibitions are held. To the right of
elegant attic, in the centre of which a this hall, in a series of galleries, are
large tablet of colored marble bears preserved the pictures which have won
the inscription, " Ecole Nationale et the " Grand Prix" in former years. On
Speciale des Beaux - Arts." Above the left are ateliers. Other exhibition
waves the Tricolor. To the left of this halls and a grand vestibule are to the
building, and separated from it by a north, and face the Quai Malaquais.
grille, is another court, known as the Returning to the main court on the
"
Cour des Loges," flanked at the south Rue Bonaparte, one passes the grille
by a large, uninteresting building con- and enters the further court in front of
taining the loges, which will be de- the principal building. In the centre
scribed later. To the right is the stands a great stone basin, thirteen feet
charming old garden of the Hotel in diameter, supported on a single
Chimay, which has recently been ac- shaft. Heads of gods and heroes are
quired by the Government and added carved about the edge, a work of the
to the school. At the right of the main twelfth century taken from the monas-
court, a low range of buildings contains tery of St. Denis. Ranged around the
two large hemicycles preceded by a sides of the court are marble statues;
great vestibule, over which are located copies from the antique; works of the
some of the offices of Administration. pensioners at Rome; also numerous frag-
From this vestibule " d'lngres," a cor- ments from buildings destroyed at the
ridor at either side connects with the time of the Revolution. On entering
*'
cloisters of a small court, Cour du the building, one finds himself in a very
Murrier." Along the walls of the cor- large and lofty vestibule, adorned with
ridors and cloisters are colored casts columns, and in which are casts from
of the terra cotta frieze of the Ospidale the antique. Beyond the vestibule is a
del Ceppo at Pistoja. Under the central court roofed with glass, and
arches are statues of bronze and mar- aiso containing casts and two groups
ble. To one beautiful bronze cast, of columns, size of the originals, from
from an unfinished clay model, is the Temple of Jupiter Stator at Rome,
attached a pathetic story. The sculp- and the Parthenon at Athens. Beyond
tor was a poor young man, who came this court is the celebrated hemicycle
within one of gaining the "Grand of Paul Delaroche. It is finely propor-
Prix de Rome." Undaunted by his tioned and splendidly decorated, the
failure he went to Rome on his semi-circular wall being covered with
own account to brave every privation one immense picture, representing the
for the sake of the art he loved. The principal artists of all times and nations.
winter was unusually severe. One night There are seventy-five colossal figures,
the cold was so intense that he feared each twenty-three feet high. In the
lest the clay of the statue he was centre on a throne sit Phidias, Apelles
modeling should freeze, so taking the and Ictinus.
coverings from his bed he wrapped On
the story and over the main
first
them about the clay. In the morning vestibule the library a long gallery
is
the statue was found uninjured, but the extending almost the whole length of
young man was found dead, frozen stiff the building, having at either end ves-
in his bed. The French Government tibules with stately Corinthian columns.
ordered the unfinished model cast in The ceiling is richly coffered and the
everlasting bronze and placed in this woodwork is carved oak. On the side
honorable position in the heart of the towards the court is a range of great
school. M. Charles Blanc says of this windows against the piers stand busts
;
" On the other

statue :
Nothing more worthy of of distinguished artists.
honor, as a work of art, has ever been side the books extend from floor to
received by France from Rome." ceiling, separated midway by a gallery,
To the west of this court the build- with a fine brass balustrade. Down the
jo6 THE ECOLE DES BEAUX-ARJ $.
centre of the room extends a long line drawing from cast, descriptive geom-
of desks, tables and cases, on which are etry, plane and solid geometry, algebra,
placed models of antique buildings. arithmetic and history. The first
"
The room has about an it air of refine- three are called admissibles." If
ment and elegance which have never these are not successfully passed,
I
seen equaled. The great wall of books, one is debarred from taking the others.
mostly richly-bound folios, produces an Perhaps the best way to give a clear
effect of surprising richness. Many of idea of this trying ordeal will be to
the documents preserved here are describe my own experience.
work of the pensioners
unique, being the Having secured a letter of introduc-
at Rome, and form a collection of tion from the United States Minister,
measured drawings and restorations which is necessary, I presented myself
from ancient buildings, probably the at the school and was enrolled on the
most complete and trustworthy that list of aspirants for the next examina-
exists. On the Quai Malaquais, adjoin- tion. Before nine o'clock on the
ing the other buildings to the west, appointed cjay I found myself,- wit-h
stands the Hotel Chimay, purchased by about two hundred others, in the
the Government in 1885 and recently "Cour des Loges," armed with draw-
fitted upas ateliers. ing board, T-squares, triangles, and
From this hurried description of the drawing instruments. Monsieur Bar-
"
buildings, one can form an idea of their bier, Chief Guardian, Departement
vast proportions. But large as they d'Architecture," resplendent in his uni-
are, they give but a partial idea of the form and cocked hat, mounts the steps,
size of the school, for most of the work orders one of his lieutenants to lock
is done off the premises, in the ateliers the .gate to the court, then to make
scattered about the neighborhood.
all matters perfectly fair, he takes a small
These number from fifteen to twenty, dictionary from his pocket, opens it in
while those on the premises devoted to the middle, and selects the letter which
architecture are but three. first meets his eye, from which to
I shall now endeavor to
explain the begin the roll. Naturally the roll gen
seemingly intricate, but really very erally commences at about the middle
simple and most efficient system of of the alphabet. Then follows an in-
instruction. First let us begin with the terminable list of names. Each one, as
entrance examinations, a subject of he is called, enters and signs a regis-
peculiar interest to many young Ameri- ter. I, who know no French, strain my
cans who intend to become architects. ears for something which resembles my
The school is free, supported by the name, with the result that T bring up
Government. The appliances gathered the rear amid a volley of what I take
here for a training in art are such as to be French profanity from Monsieur
only a nation like France could accu- Barbier, who has to correct his register,
mulate in centuries, and such as is not and who has no great love for " les
found elsewhere in the world. The repu- Grangers" under any circumstances.
tation of the school is such that there is I mount five flights of stairs and find
no second. Naturally admission to it is myself in a room about thirty feet wide,
eagerly sought, but alas there are bar- but of tremendous length. At the
riers to be surmounted before one can door I am handed
a programme, an
enter. The Government has no inten- imposing document lithographed on a
tion of wasting the public funds on
large sheet. Along the room on either
unpromising aspirants. The examina- side extends a row of stalls, for all the
tions take place twice in each
year, in world like those of a stable; these are
the months of March and July. Be- called loges. In the centre are long
tween two and three hundred apply, tables. Each loge has a shelf, which
and only about one-eighth of that num- for one to work on, and a small window.
ber are received. Recently the number The first to arrive
occupy the stalls,
of admissions was limited to
thirty. those who come later must content
The examinations consist of archi- themselves with the tables, where the
tectural composition, modeling in One is free to walk
clay, light is very bad.
3 o8 THE ECOLE DES BEAUX-ARTS.
about as he pleases and to make all the upon terraces in which can be arranged
noise he cares to, and each individual grottoes, etc. The greatest dimension
of the two hundred or more present is is given, also the scale at which the
availing himself of these privileges to plan, section and elevation are to be
the utmost. At one end of the room a drawn a detail of the order must be
;
crowd are having great fun celebrating made at a larger scale. The time al-
mass. One acts as a priest and sings lowed is nominally twelve hours, but as
the principal part while the others join the various preliminaries described
in the chorus. At the proper time some above occupy so much time, and as the
one rings on a glass in imitation of the guardians are in a great hurry to go
bell. The priest acts his part to per- home to their dinner, the actual time
fection and is loudly applauded. Then which one can work is only a little over
some one "Vive Boulanger," and
cries eight hours. I work as I never worked
the whole room echoes with cries of before, but, do my best, the light begins
"Vive Boulanger," "A 'bas Boulanger." to fade before I have washed in the
Many present are old hands who shadows on the elevation. I had been
have tried the examinations before, warned to take candles, and provided
without success, and feel at home. myself with six taking possession of
;
Some even have the hardihood to pro- one of the now deserted loges, 1 rashly
pose an initiation of the newcomers proceed to light them all, but it is not
(reception des nouveaux). It is now long before I discover my mistake.
about eleven o'clock and time for de- Some one passing gives a whoop, and
jeuner or breakfast. I notice a great in a moment half of those left are gath-
many issuing from a door half way ered in front of the loge shouting
down the room with eatables, and upon " *
quelle illumination oh yes oh yes
! ! !
investigation I find it leads to a sort of mon dieu quelle illumination !"

! I
kitchen, where bread, sandwiches, coffee think I am going to be mobbed by the

and wine can be bought; the latter dancing crowd, and it is some time be-
at seven cents a bottle. The whole fore the excitement sufficiently subsides
company are now regaling themselves for me to resume work. The next day,
at the tables, which presently literally and in the same place, follows the ex-
flow with wine and coffee. Suddenly amination in modeling in clay. Each
there is a great crash and shouts. student is required to bring his own
Some one has knocked the legs from clay and tools, and woe betide the un-
under one of the tables. Bottles, plates, lucky aspirant who is not informed. In
etc., fall in a heap on the tiles. This is each loge is a plaster cast of a piece of
too much even for the uniformed guard- ornament, all exactly alike. Eight
ian, who has thus far been standing stoic- hours are allowed to reproduce it in
ally with his hands behind his back clay. This day the tables have disap-
near the door, and his voice is now peared from the centre of the room, and
added to the general uproar. Dejeuner in their place, at intervals, are piles of
over, the tables righted and the wine sawdust and pails of water. The water
mopped up, work finally begins. Most to wash the clay from the hands, and
of those present repair to the stalls and the sawdust to take the place of towels.
scrutinize the programme. There is The next day the examination in draw-
an immense amount of visiting from ing from the antique completes the
one stall to another in search of ideas admissibles. For this, like the model-
from those supposed to be strong ing, eight hours are allowed. The stu-
(les types forts], but the room dents are distributed in the various
is comparatively quiet, with only hemicycles and dejeuner is not a feature
an occasional cry of "Vive Bou- of the sceance. On the wall of the room
langer," cat calls, and songs from va- I am in is a clock which strikes the
rious quarters. The programme calls quarters, and every time it strikes, a
for a little " portique," to form a point of
deep groan resounds from every throat,
view from a chateau, and to serve as a but otherwise there is no noise.
shelter for eight statues, owned by the
proprietor, the building to be erected *A term of derision applied to Americans and English.
THE ECOLE DES BEAUX-ARTS.
Great the excitement at the posting
is upon application. They embrace about
of the of those who have passed,
names fifty epochs of history, art and litera-
and great is my joy to find mine among ture. The subjects are chiefly classi-
them. I am now permitted to take the cal and French. The United States is
examinations in mathematics and his- honored by two questions. The ques-
tory, but as I know scarcely a word of tions concerning the English relate ex-
French I present myself simply for the clusively to the driving of them out of
form, that being necessary in order France by Jeaned'Arc and Duguesclin.
that I may not have to undergo the The professor of History conducts
admissibles next time. By the time the oral examination in person he is ;
the next examinations came around I the only professor with whom the can-
had accumulated a limited store of bad didate for admission is brought in con-
French, and had time to brush up, in- tact during the examinations, and the
deed to polish my acquaintance with impression he produces is most agree-
algebra, geometry, plain, solid, and able. He sits in state on the rostrum.
descriptive, and to lay in a goodly Before him on the table is his hat con-
store of history. Each of these exam- taining slips of paper, each with a num-
inations is both oral and written. ber corresponding to a question. The
Only one question in- each subject is student, when his name is called, ad-
asked, and failure means half a year's vances to the table and draws a num-
wait. The first examination was in ber from the hat. The professor opens
written history, and the question, as it and tells him the subject he is to dis-
nearly as I can remember it, was as fol- course upon. While I am waiting, a
lows: young man draws the American War of
Independence. His ideas on the sub-
"
proposed to erect a monument to the
It is
ject are somewhat misty. He knows
writers of the eighteenth century. Give a of only two of its heroes,
brief description of the design the monument
Washington
;
and Franklin. The professor does
should be adorned with statues of authors and
not like his pronunciation of " Wash-
have upon it suitable inscriptions what names
;
should be so honored, and which should receive ington," and says those Americans
places of the greatest distinction. Give an over there, indicating myself and
account of the principal works of the various some of my compatriots, are laugh-
authors also a short account of literature of
;
ing at him. He says you should try
this epoch." to get the true American pronuncia-
tion of the word, then repeats very
The examination was held in the distinctly for his edification Vash-ish-
beautiful hemicycle of Paul Delaroche, ton, with strong emphasis on the last
and from my place of vantage on one of syllable, and an almost imperceptible
the upper tiers I could see a great deal sound of the final n.
of cribbing going on below. The first My turn comes and I draw literature
care of the guardian was to make a of the time of Louis XIV. I soon get
map of the room, showing the location myself in trouble by making an odious
of each pupil. This to aid the profes- comparispn, having the hardihood to
sor in the detection of frauds. If two rank Moliere below Shakespere as a
papers are found to be suspiciously playwright. Monsieur smiles, shrugs his
alike, he looks up the location of the shoulders and asks me if I am English.
men; near each other he determines
if I answer American. He says perhaps
at the oral examination which one has it is natural for me to take that view,
cheated. Once detected in a fraud, but he evidently pities my
ignorance.
that young man had better choose some However, Monsieur La Monier is a gen-
other occupation in life than architect- tleman, a man of distinguished learn-
ure, for he will find it extremely diffi- ing, and my beau ideal of a Frenchman.
cult, if not impossible, to ever enter the The written examinations in descrip-
school. tive geometry and other mathematics
The oral examinations in his- are conducted on the same plan. M he
tory are held in the same place. A students are not allowed to communi-
printed list of questions are furnished cate. I hear several things which
312 THE ECOLE DES BEAUX-ARTS.
sound strange to an American. One and I realize that I am in a foreign
young man was told to move along, the land.
inspector explaining that he might copy Finally the F's are reached. I
from his neighbor if he sat where he momentarily expect to be called. The

was. Another at the oral examination last man has failed, and the following
wished to show the " examinateur" some one will be asked to do the same prob-
problems in descriptive geometry which lem. That is a habit of Monsieur, and I
he had worked out. The examinateur am anxious for the chance. No, it is
politely refused to look at them, saying Monsieur Placet. " Do you present
some one else may have done them for yourself seriously," asks the examina-
" This is the seventh
you. At the written mathematical exam- teur. time, and 1
ination was an American newly arrived, don't believe you know any more now
who knew absolutely no French. The than you did the last time. Prcnnez
inspector remarked that he did not un point, et un plan. Trouvez la distance
write as he read the programme, and entre ce point et le plan." This Monsieur
asked him why. "Oui, oui," said the is quickly thanked. Evidently he' is
young man, this being his whole vocabu- not worth wasting much time upon, and
lary. A moment later noticing that he my turn comes. I am told that I write
still did not write, he asked if he under- very poor French, and I am asked
stood French. "Oui, oui," he replied. where I came from. I say "America."
Again he did not write, and the in- "Amerique du nord ou Amerique du sud?"
" You do not write. asks Monsieur. I reply, my dignity
spector said, Why
do you say, Oui, oui,' whenever I speak
'
somewhat injured, " Les Etats Unis."
" " If I
had
to you ?" My compatriot gravely re- Bien," he says, and adds:
" America as long as you have
plied, Oui, oui, oui," amid shouts of been in
laughter. It is slow work waiting been France I could have spoken
in
one's turn at the orals. Monsieur English a great deal better than you
Salisis, the official examinateur, is an speak French." But as he has no means
old sea captain, with a bald head, of knowing how long I have been in
which he wrinkles when he is not France, I mentally do not assent.
pleased, and he is seldom pleased dur- At each of these examinations a cer-
ing the examinations, but he has an tain mark is given, ranging from zero
unlimited supply of patience; it cannot to twenty. Then the mark received in
be denied, he gives the men every each subject is multiplied by a co-
chance. A student is at the board efficient supposed to represent its rela-
hopelessly perplexed; the old man gets tive importance, thus the mark in Archi-
" I
up, and says, will return in a few tectural Composition is multiplied by
minutes; meantime you will have a 12; drawing by 2; modeling by 2;
chance to reflect." Hardly is the door mathematics by 5; descriptive geom-
closed, when at least fifty of those etry by 5, and history by i.
present begin to. give advice to the be- Failure to pass in a single subject
wildered victim at the board, and tell debars the candidate. The names of
him how to do the problem. The those who are received are posted in
examinateur returns, and the poor the order of merit, ascertained as de-
fellow is more at sea than ever. scribed, and here at the threshold be-
"
J^e vous remerci," politely says mon- gins the system of competition which
sieur, as he writes zero opposite your pervades every branch of instruction
name. at the school, a system which puts the
It is now half-past six of a men on their mettle, and produces the
Saturday
afternoon. I have been most extraordinary results, both as re-
sitting all day
on a wooden bench with no back. The gards quality and the amount of work
French Government does not pamper accomplished.
the pupils at the National school with Having successfully passed the ex-
luxuries. Monsieur Salisis shuts up amination, notwithstanding my bad
his note book and announces that the
French, I find my name posted along
examinations will be resumed at seven with twenty-nine others, all that remain
o'clock to-morrow (Sunday) morning, of the army of nearly three hundred.
THE ECOLE DES 3EAUX-ARTS. 3'J
Once having gained admission the student has obtained the required num-
student is allowed an extraordinary ber of honorable mentions, or values, he
degree of liberty. He may stay in the is admitted without further ceremony to
school until thirty years of age, pro- the first class. When he receives the
vided he accomplishes work each proper number there he is allowed to
year which may easily be done in one choose a final programme of his own
or two months. He may choose his making for a building, after which
own professor in architecture, and may he receives his diploma from the Gov-
work or not as he feels disposed. To ernment and becomes a full-fledged
keep his name on the rolls he is com- architect. If a young man is bright,
pelled only to visit the school twice in he may expect to reach this goal in
the year. His advancement is solely from eight to ten years after entry, but
by the honors, or values as they are a large proportion fall out before the
called, which he obtains. The school is course is ended. Thus far no American
divided into two classes, first and sec- has ever finished the course, though
ond, the latter being the lower. When a several have reached the first class.
Ernest Flagg.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
"
A reproduction from a full-size cartoon for The Last Supper," to be executed in mosaic.
MODERN MOSAICS.*
Part II.
iHE sixteenth cen- mosaic. They were accused of the

tury saw a crowd subterfuge 1563 by their jealous
in
of busy workers rivals, Vicenzo Bianchini, 1 >omenico
in St.Mark's at Bianchini and Bozza, and their work
Venice. The an- was submitted to the examination of a
cient mosaics of most illustrious tribunal of painters.
the Cathedral had Titian, Paul Veronese, Medula, called
begun to fall into the Schiavone, and Jacopo Pistoia, me
disrepair already at the beginning to inspect the offending productions.
of the fifteenth century. They had They recognized the traces of thi
suffered severely in the fires of 1419 brush on various parts of th<
and 1429, and were besides by no mosaics, but asserted that the pain
means to the taste of the Renais- was altogether a work of supereroga
sance, which looked on the works tion, the color of the mosaic beneath i
of the trecentisti and quattrocenthti as being such as to produce da per se th
little short of barbarous. For the great effect desired. The Zuccati wer<
painters who made home at Ven-their nevertheless obliged, probably througl
ice and a host of
(Titian, Tintoretto, the machinations of their rivals, to tak
other famous men) naturally judged down the painted parts and put then
mosaics from the point of view of their up again at their own expense. Sharji
own art, not from that of architectural indeed was the rivalry, and bitter th
fitness. They aimed at painting in jealousies among those Venetia i
enamel, and considered that the culmin- mosaic-workers. The Senate, bent o '
ating point of glory had been attained urging them to the fullest exercise o
when a could say of the work that
critic their powers, exerted itself to the ut
"
really one could not have done better most to encourage the competition. I i
with the brush that from afar the

;
1517 it placed two angels by Mari
mosaics seemed painted in oils." So Luciano and Vicenzo Bianchini, at th :
dear to their hearts was praise of this entrance of the cathedral that all me i
sort, indeed, that Francesco and Valerio might judge their relative merits. J i
Zuccati engaged on the great arch be-

1563 it asked the before-named famous
fore the first of the domes of St. Mark's commission of experts to classify th :
ventured to introduce a little brush- mosaicists in order of merit, and latt r

work to heighten the effect of the on gave the figure of St. Jerome as i
* See No. 3, Vol. II., ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

MODERN MOSAICS. 3T5
THE MAIN ENTRANCE, ST. MARK'S CATHEDRAL, VENICE.

Mosaic of St. Mark, from designs by Titian (1545), executed in mosaic by the Zuccati Brother?.
subject to be treated in competition by of great authors composed for that

all who cared to enter their names. special end; in later times (at Rome)
The judges were men of fame Paul : works which had no relation whatever
Veronese, Tintoretto and Sansovino. with the art the worker professed.
The work of Francesco Zuccati was Beautiful indeed are the copies which
judged the best then that of Gian
;
the first workers in this second stage
Antonio Bianchini, of Bozza and of of mosaic art produced; but they were
Domenico Bianchini. Francesco Zuc- the initiators of a second decadence
cati was himself a painter, son of from which we are but now beginning
Titian's master, and brought up in his to emerge.
father's studio, and it was but natural While Titian was occupied with
that, at a time when mosaic had be- mosaics in Venice, Raphael had some-
come the dependent of painting, a thing to do with them in Rome. Agos-
painter should be the most distinguished tino Chigi " il Magnifico," called upon
mosaicist. Or is it not in fact a mis- him for the plan of the Chigi chapel in
nomer to apply the name mosaicist, in the church of S. Maria del Popolo, and
the original sense of the word, from for the model of mosaics with which to
this time onward 1 For we have to decorate the cupolo. Raphael repre-
deal not with originators now, but with sented the creation of the world after
copyists. Even painters, considered the Ptolemaic and Aristotelian theory,
in the light of mosaicists, were before the planets have begun their
not original; they thought in painting, revolutions. The work is divided into
and did but translate into mosaics; eight compartments around a central
while those who were not painters medallion, which shows the Creator
copied straight out in Venice the works with lifted hands. The planets, under
3*6 MODERN MOSAICS.
"THE LAST JUDGMENT."

Kxecuicd in mosaic on the facade of the Cathedral of St. Mark, Venice (1856), after the original painting by
Latanzio, Querana.
the mythological forms of Jupiter, Paolo Cristofari (son of Fabio Cristo

Saturn, Diana, Mercury, Venus, Apollo these bands of mosaicists wen
fari),
and Mars, appear to be conducted by definitely united in a permanent work
winged angels which await a sign from shop, which still exists as the Papa
the Creator. The eighth compartment Factory of Mosaics. The manufacture
is reserved for the fixed stars, scattered of colors for which this factory i;
over a sphere on which stand the famous at the present day began fron
words Fiant Luminaria in Firmamcnto its very birth. Mattioh, Pietro Paolc
:
Coeli. Raphael had the advantage of Cristofari's colleague, and head of th<
an excellent translator in Luigi di Pace, workshop, pressed by the necessity o
a Venetian whom Chigi il Magnifico supplying an immense variety o
called expressly from Venice, then, as enamels, invented new recipes, espe
now, the headquarters of mosaic art. cially that of a remarkably fine purple
Meanwhile there was growing up at which bears his name. This making o
Rome the institution which was to do, new colors was fostered by the actioi
perhaps, even more than the work at of Pope Urban VIII. (1623 to 1644)
St. Mark's, to fix the new conception of who conceived the idea of causing th'
mosaics as a dependent art. Muziano frescoes and oil-paintings of the cathe
di Brescia, Maicello Provenzale di dral to be rendered durable by crystal
Cento, G. Calendra, FabioCristofari and lization into mosaic. The copying o
Gessi were successively directors of the such pictures, composed without an;
bands of mosaicists called from the reference whatever to mosaic, naturall
various studios of Rome and Venice to rendered imperative a large assortmen
co-operate in the work of decorating of colors, and so well has the ingenuit
St. Peter's. In 1727, under Pietro of the Roman mosaic workers know \
CHURCH OF STA. PUDENTIANA, ROME.
Showing facade in mosaic.
Vol. III. 3 7.
3** MODERN MOSAICS.
A COLORED DESIGN FOR MOSAIC IN THE BYZANTINE STYLE.
how to respond to the demand, that the Villa Borghese. He is said to have
the Papal factory has at the present employed 100,000 pieces of enamel in
time as many as twenty-five thousand this work of patience. Portable mosaics
shades at its disposition. The technique quickly became the fashion and con-
of the art has thus, of course, im- tributed much to the degradation of
mensely improved since the days the art. Not that such mosaics had
of the workers at Sta. Pudentiana and been altogether unknown in old times.
at Ravenna; many will think, however, The Byzantine mosaicists of the tenth
that the mosaicistsof those times under- and eleventh centuries made many
stood their art intrinsically better than little pictures of the kind, which were
the men who copied in all the glory of much admired and treasured. They
its original coloring, say, Raphael's generally represented sacred scenes and
"Transfiguration," enlarging it to four were placed in the treasuries of churches
times its original size. St. Peter's at to be shown to the devout on high days
Rome, like St. Mark's at Venice, is too and holidays or they stood by the
;
full of detail to allow of description bedside of wealthy lords and ladies,

here. The few accompanying engrav- to remind them of their devo-
ings of some of the mosaics show the tions. Two charming mosaic pictures
best work produced in this second of this description are to be seen at the
period of mosaic art. Museum of the Cathedral in Florence,
Increased nicety in the manipulation representing six of the principal scenes
of mosaics led to the execution of those from the life of our Lord. The fine-
tours-de-force, which now rise immedi- ness of the work would be difficult to
ately to the mind when the word mosaic surpass even in these later days, while
is pronounced.
Portraits, pictures, or- the subdued harmony of the coloring
naments of all kinds began to multiply render them most attractive from an
rapidly. Provenzale di Cento himself, artistic point of view. They probably
Muziano di Brescia's successor, was date from the tenth century. Such
among the first to work in this direction, work as this, however, was a mere ac-
executing in mosaic the portrait of Pope cessory to mosaic art, not the principal
Paul V., now to be seen in the gallery of aim which, under the form of brooches
MODERN MOSAICS. 319
and other ornaments, seems recently derful old Venetian glass. This in it-
it
to have become. self would be sufficient for a lengthy

The early part of the nineteenth and interesting article.
century shows little mosaic work on an In the modern renaissance mosaic
important scale. We must not omit to has been executed and erected in many
mention, however, the decorations of parts of the world, some of the most
the New Opera House and more re- important cathedrals, churches and
cently those of the Pantheon, in Paris; public buildings being decorated in this
where there now exists a National most beautiful of all materials for per-
School of Mosaics, receiving an annual manent color work. St. Paul's Cathe-
grant of 25,000 francs (5,000 dollars). dral and Westminster Abbey, London,
The mosaics of the Pantheon are are cases in point.
especially fine, approaching those of The best work done in Venice to-day
Ravenna according to the judgment of is that done not by the trade so-called
a French artist, in sobriety and calm of but by a small group of artists who
coloring, grandeur of conception, cor- have banded themselves together in
rectness of design, and inherent sense the interest of the art of mosaic, and
of architectural fitness. Christ, with who either from their original designs
the sealed book of the Future in his or from the paintings of other artists,
hand, is in the centre of the apsey while are executing successfully many com-
Joan of Arc kneels at his right and St. missions of important character.
Genevieve at his left. The two maidens Probably the work recently com-
are being presented respectively to pleted for the new facade of the ca-
the Saviour by the Virgin and the thedral at Florence from paintings by
Angel of France. the late Italian artist, Barbino, will
The mosaics of the Pantheon are take precedence as the most important
but one example of a widespread re- commission as yet executed in modern
vival of the art which has been mani- Italy, while the work on the monument
festing itself in recent time in all parts of Pio IX. at Rome and the mosaic
of Europe, and which has its renais- decorations in the new Cathedral of
sance properly in that home of time- Notre Dame
de la Garde in Mar-
honored traditions, Venice. both important monumental
seilles are
Venice has in its part been renowned works which will worthily rank with
not only for its mosaics, splendid in the best of modern times.
colors and gold, but also [for its won- The art of mosaic is one of apparent
"THE LAST SUPPER."

Modern Italian mosaic reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci.
MODERN MOSAICS.
A MODERN MOSAIC FOR A REREDOS. '
simplicity, but must, like all other arts, of 20 centimetres, and a thickness of
rely for its quality upon the individual one, and allowed to harden. When re-
feeling and ability of the artist himself. quired for use these glass biscuits are
In the accompanying illustration of cut into the familiar cubes by means of
a corner of a practical studio the pro- a hammer with a cutting edge, and
gress of the work can be seen. The placed according to their shade of color
original large size color cartoons show- in shallow cups destined for this purpose.
ing upon the wall, the work in progress They are then taken up, as required,
in place on the benches, while the in pincers and placed in the cement
mosaic frit is held in small trays beside according to the design which is being
the tables. Mosaic frit, the base of all The famous gold and silver
filled in.
mosaic pictures, is a composition of backgrounds are not, however, made in
glasseous character, and in manufac- this way. On a ground of thick glass
ture is subject to intense heat. Under is laid a leaf of gold or silver; then a
the influence of various oxidising re- film of the purest glass is spread-over
agents this glass becomes a compact it, and all is subjected to the action of
brilliant paste of every shade of color, fire. The various layers are thus fixed
durable enough to. resist, unaltered, the in one solid body (the gold or silver
most wearing atmospheric influences. being buried between the two strata of
The liquid glass is poured into round glass), and can be cut with the hammer
biscuit-like forms which have a diameter like ordinary glass enamel.
MODERN MOSAICS.
When made at once portions according to the size of the
the mosaic can be
in situ, the wall tobe covered is pre- parts to be successively taken off and ;
pared with a special cement, in which over the paper again is gummed a
the cubes are placed but it often hap- coarse cloth.
;
The whole is now put
pens, owing to the distance, that the aside to dry, and when it is thoroughly
whole piece has to be executed in the firm, the sides of the box are let down,
atelier, and then carried to the site to the cloth is cut, and the paper, with the
be decorated. Under these conditions cubes attached to it below, raised out
the best method employed is known as of the plaster bed. The pieces are
mosaico a rivoltatura. The workman has naturally turned over as they are raised,
before him a tray, with movable sides, hence the term mosaico a rivoltatura.
of wood or slate. This he covers with They are then placed, in due order, on
a sheet of plaster, on which he copies the wall, which has been prepared with
the design to be executed. The cubes cement to receive them. The surface
of enamel and gold are placed in the is rendered even by the strokes of some
plaster according to the drawing, and flat instrument, the coating of paste,
when the work is finished their faces paper and cloth is removed, and the
are covered with a paste made of rye- mosaic stands revealed. The cement
flour. The rye-flour paste is covered has, however, probably been pressed up
with a great sheet of paper divided into between the cubes of color by the weight
"
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ECCE HOMO," FROM MOSAIC BEFORE SETTING.
322 MODERN MOSAICS.
A Reproduction, showing the compaiison between the colored design and the finished mosaic.
Design by Henry Albert Johnson.
of the cubes themselves. In this case the municipal factory, or to the work
the mosaic is washed while still fresh shop of Signer Merlini in the Via de
with a colored water, which harmonizes Fossi at Florence shows the eminent!}
the cement with the colors of the cubes. artistic resources of the Florentin<
This washing is a remedy by no means mosaic in pietre dure. The pallet o
strong enough, however, when pictures the worker in this branch of the art re
are to be copied or portable mosaics sembles a geologist's cabinet, consist
made. In this case a heated mixture is ing as it does of stones of all descrip
made of white wax and earth of various tions, veined and stained in every pos
colors, and this mixture is applied by sible manner. Like the poet, theartis.
means of hot irons to the cement that must be "skillful to select materials
has to take on the exact tint of the for his plan," choosing from all the va* t
surrounding mosaic. stores of stones around him, exactl .'
One word must still be said on a com- that shade, or spot, or that streak whic i
paratively recent development of the will best serve the end he has in vie\ .
ancient art of lithostratnm. A visit to Incredible, to one who has not examine 1
324 MODERN MOSAICS.
the work, is the exquisite softness of Of a truth we feel inclined to echo,
the shading to be obtained with some with regard to this branch of the art as
of the translucent jaspers. The with regard to mosaic proper, the
shadowed concavities at the bases of words of Titian " It is deplorable that
:
flower petals, the delicate orbing of mosaic, an art as valuable for its beauty
grapes, the veins of leaves
and petals, as for the durability of its materials, be
the varied tints on grass and trees not more cultivated by artists and en-
nothing is beyond the power of artists couraged by princes." Where frescoes
who work thus from Nature's own pallet. have vanished mosaics have lasted,
As an example of the application of eloquent voices reaching us across the
this kind of mosaic to purposes of deco- centuries to give us the history of the
ration, we may cite the famous arms of tastesand aspirations of a past world.
various Tuscan cities which ornament What paintings have come to us from
the walls of the Medici Chapel in Flor- Pompeii for instance ? Whereas the
ence. In these not only are the most mosaics, seen still in situ or in the
delicately tinted stones must happily museum at Naples, are as fresh as
used, but strips of mother-of-pearl are though they had been executed yester-
introduced to give further light to the day. There are signs, however, that
whole. In work of this kind the vari- interest in mosaic is reviving and ;
ous parts of the design, cut from the that, to the original conception of the
stone by a wire covered continually aims and functions of the art, is to be
with wet emery powder, are attached added at last that technical skill which
by means of strong mastic to a piece of has been gradually acquired from the
hard slate also cut according to the sixteenth century onward. If this is
design; all the parts are then united at really the case, the end of the nine-
the back by a slab of slate and placed teenth century will, it may be hoped,
in the setting (generally of black mar- produce mosaics such as the world has
ble) destined to receive them. not yet seen, and put an emphatic seal
" La
The Florentine municipal factory is to Ghirlandaio's words that vera
unfortunately dying for want of work. pitturaper 1'Eternita e il mosaico."
Isabella Debarbieri.
RAYMOND LEE.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE NEW PATH.
Not until our in New York and found

two friends landed
themselves midst of conditions more'permanent than
in the
those prevailing on shipboard, where, as Lee'said, all the
circumstances of daily existence were stamped like a
railroad ticket, " good for only six days," did they really
begin to press foot upon the new road they had entered.
The voyage had been, in a sense, an intermediate stage
part of the process of departure between the old life and
the new. How, at times, the mind and the feelings play the
procrastinator to the utmost moment, and recognize the
inevitable evil only when it is actually at hand Neither !
Lee nor Winter fully realized how greatly altered was the
condition of their lives, how far and how irretraceably they
had departed from the old existence in Eastchester, until
quitting the steamer at the North River pier they found
themselves amid the clamant bustle of the great city. How
inhospitable the streets and buildings How preoccupied
!
and hostile the hurrying crowd No recognition for the

!
stranger anywhere Obviously, here, as in a swift stream,

!
existence must be held with strain and struggle. A passive

attitude is impossible without sinking.
Lee at once felt himself confronted with the question :
What position am I to take in this activity and then the ;
problem followed How to enter it for the sensation of

: ;
being quite outside the bustle he was witnessing was stronger

than any other sensation he received from his first impres-
sions of the Western metropolis. Not until that moment did
3 26
RAYMOND LEE.
he feel the pang of loneliness or appreciate how many

quivering nerves there are in assurgent Memory.
The
result was dejection, spiritual surrender but it must
;
be
added, the hopeless renunciation of any great possibilities
for himself, which had followed the discovery of his father's
fate and his own acceptation of the idea that his parent's
crime or misfortune which was it ? Raymond frequently
wondered was continued in him, saved him from the
poignant sense of defeat which afflicted Winter.
For the latter, who was no stranger to New York, the
busy by invoking old associations of a time previous
streets,
to his departure for Europe and by thrusting upon him a
sense of return and repulse brutally reminded him of how
completely he was removed from the Eastchester life, its
tender sentiments and delightful hopes.
"Another chapter closed," was Ralph's bitter thought.
He asked himself whether his life would always be
as hitherto, an affair of little episodes unconnected as the
plays that succeed one another on the boards of a theatre.
True, he was the hero the "impressional centre point,"
to use Heine's phrase of each piece, but on every occasion
as the curtain fell he had to resume his actual self again
outside of his heroisms, afflicted with a deeper sense than
ever of impotence and defeat.
As Ralph proceeded from the pier to the hotel his mood
was not one that harmonized with the aspect of life pre-
sented to him on the way.
" I think
this is the vulgarest hole on God's footstool,"
he cried, in disgust.
" It doesn't a
impress stranger so," said Raymond,
quietly.
"This place," continued Ralph, " always suggests to me
that the drummer or, as you call him, the commercial
traveler and the advertising agent have succeeded in
realizing their natures in affluence building and spawning,
perfectly assured that civilization is in the main an affair
of big hotels, plenty of ready-made clothing and news-
papers."
The uncalled-for vehemence of Winter's denunciation set
Raymond laughing.
RAYMOND LEE. 327
" Who has hit you, Ralph ?"

"Hit me?"
"What has aroused your vindictiveness with so sudden
a leap ?"
"
Oh, the very sight of the assured, militant, vulgar,
commonplaceness of this city always acts on me as
an acid."
"Is there nothing but vulgarity in all this?" asked
Raymond.
"Nothing," replied Ralph, doggedly. "So far as I can
see," he added.
"Which is really all the qualification your statement
needs, old fellow. Ralph, have I to take you in hand
again ? You are falling from grace. These old moods of
yours are wrong. Hush, I must lecture you. Your over-
nice discontent is becoming a very gross habit. Don't
deceive yourself into believing that it's a high personal
quality. When I hear you fulminating in your present style,
I can't help recalling the voice of a countryman of yours,
who surely was no Philistine. Well, I can't remember the
exact words, but the sense is that men who live much in
fancy are like drunkards whose hands are too soft and
tremulous for successful labor. They need to respect the
present hour, for everything good is on the highway.
That's only a loose paraphrase of the idea, you know, which
is very applicable to you. You'll think ever so much better
of the world when you buckle down to work as it does.
The trouble is, you're indolent and you regard your dis-
content as a mark of superiority."
Raymond had not measured the force of his words.
They struck Ralph like a blow, wresting his thoughts and
sensations from his present position and sending them
whirling back upon himself. "Like drunkards whose
hands are too soft and tremulous for successful labor."
The sentence acted like fire. With remarkable potency,
due, perhaps, to the fact that the judgment was delivered
by a friend and irresistibly accepted by his own conscience,
it burned away in an instant Ralph's last illusion : that in
which he had covered his own personality the belief that
he was naturally a very superior person.
328 RAYMOND LEE.
The altered expression of Ralph's face surprised Ray-

mond.
" I haven't offended you, old man, have I ?" he asked, diffi-
dently.
" sad tone. " Oh,
No. No," replied Ralph, vacantly, in a
no. Ah, here's Broadway ;
so noisy, it's hard to make
oneself heard."
The busy crowd seemed to have caught the refrain of
" Like drunkards whose hands are too
Raymond's censure :
soft for successful labor."
During the evening, at the hotel, Lee made many attempts

to draw his friend from the restrained and strangely quiet
mood into which he had fallen, but the efforts were unsuc-
cessful. Even the following morning, Ralph had not recov-
ered himself. His usual mental boisterousness and emphatic
expression had given place to a forced calm and constrained
speech. Whentalking at breakfast, of plans for the day,
he asked, a resigned tone
in :
"
Well, Raymond, which is it to be: Moyle or Pittsburgh ?"
"Why put it that way, Ralph ? you know there is not that
choice for me."
" It's
Moyle then ? Eh?"
"Yes, Moyle," replied Raymond, annoyed.
it's
"Very well," said Ralph, indifferently. "I'll show you

the way to the View office and abide the result of your
interview. Then I'll make my way home to Pittsburgh."
"That doesn't sound very enthusiastic," said Lee,,
smiling.
"Doesn't it?"
"
Tell me, old man, what is the matter ?"
"Matter? Nothing at all, Ray. Why, what should be
the matter with me?"
Lee shrugged his shoulders. Clearly, it was best to leave
Ralph to extricate himself from his present mood.
At the time we are speaking of, the offices of the View
were not suggestive of the immense power and importance
of that potent " organ of civilization " the " greatest lit-
erary force in the World," as occasionally it

reluctantly
informed its readers with the modesty of double-leaded
type. Everybody knows there are some matters about
RAYMOND LEE. 329
which a judicious publisher has to keep his readers informed,

substantiating his solemn assurances by affidavits and other
tokens of the delightful confidence of the public and his
consciousness of his own veracity.
the approach to the sanctuary of civilization
It is true,
and the greatest circulation in the world was somewhat
chilling to the spirit. It was dirty. The entrance was
blocked by a score of ragged little ruffians like vermin fed
on printer's ink yelling in raucous voices.
strident or
The grimy office inside, where the atmosphere smelt sour,
was filled with slovenly clerks behind dirty glass partitions
and with seedy groups of men perusing the publicly-dis-
played advertisement sheets. Chilling as these externals
were, however, there could be no doubt of the intellectual
activity housed within the building, or of the intensity of
its relationship to civilization. Moyle once said, in an
address which he delivered to the Congress of Young Men's
Christian Associations, that the newspaper was the centre of
Humanity, as the Delphic oracle was the centre of Greece.
Moyle knew that a casual reference to Greece was for the
public the equivalent of a classical education. Proof of the
justness of the comparison fairly blossomed in many colors
on the View's bulletin boards, which Lee lingered for a
moment with the gaping crowd to decipher:
TAMMANY MAKES THEM EAT CROW.

STUCKEY'S DAGGER DID IT.
PRETTY MISS FLOPS SUES FOR HER BANGS.

CAUDLE SIGNED BY THE GIANTS.
MUCH-MARRIED TOMLINSON COMES TO GRIEF WITH THE
WIDOW.
ANGRY AT THE " VIEW'S " EXPOSE.
GERMANY'S CHANCELLOR is
THE MAYOR SAYS " NO."

PARSON PLUM'S EXIT WITH THE CONTRALTO.
THREE WEEKS IN A CANCER HOSPITAL DOTTY WEN SHOWS
THE PRACTICE ISN*T ALL PROFESSIONAL.
ACTRESSES' UNDERCLOTHES AS DEPICTED BY A "VIEW'S"
ARTIST.
33 RA YMOND LEE.
Raymond hurried through the office into the dirty

elevator which was filledwith a motly crowd bound as he
was for the top story. He had barely entered the car when
the elevator boy, whom one of the passengers addressed as
"
Smarty," suddenly banged the door because he spied
two other individuals making for his conveyance, which he
sent upward.
"Got the laugh on those fellows this time," he said.
" Who were
they ?" asked a youth with night pallor in his
face.
"
Spider and the Cholera Case. Say, is it true he's
(meaning the latter of the two forsaken ones) going to
free-lunch on germs in the hospital ? Out."
The top floor was reached and there was no time for the
" "
pale-faced youth to impart to Smarty what he knew of
" "
the latest enterprise in disease journalism which the
enterprising View was about to make in order to solve, as
the editorial announcement had it, " problems which had
balked the medical science of two continents."
The " Cholera Case," an anemic house-painter, who had
been hired for a trifling compensation to wallow in disease
for a day or two and describe his sensations in the interest
of " medical science," was making his last visit to head-
quarters for final instructions.
Lee followed his fellow-passengers from the elevator into
a large untidy room, where they dispersed, being privileged
to pass the low iron railing which debarred him from
intruding upon the ink-besmattered desks which stood in
the space between the railing and the number* of little
compartments like bathing boxes which lined the window
side of the room and shut off from the interior all light but
the little that was diffused over the top of the compart-
ments (which were not partitioned upward to the ceiling).
To this scant illumination was added what cannot be
described otherwise than as a foggy light which penetrated
with effort a dirty ground-glass window that opened, in the
rear of the room, upon an interior court that consumptive
substitute for direct daylight. Indeed, the general appear-
ance of the room was sickly and sour. The floor, free of
any covering, was grimy and worn the unpapered walls,
;
RAYMOND LEE. 331
stained in many places, were visibly coated with dust. The

only brightness was the yellow gas-light which, shrouded
with green-tinned reflectors, burnt above a few of the inky
desks. Partly within one of these illuminated spots and
partly eclipsed in the dusk without sat, tilted back in his
chair with arms placed wing-fashion behind his head, a
seedy-looking middle-aged man with watery, red eyes and
long matted beard. He was surrounded with a litter
of newspapers which, heaped on the floor, half
buried the legs of his chair. He was listen-
ing a jaunty individual who sat upon

attentively to
the desk -before him with .a tall hat placed as far back
npon the rear of his head as possible. His eyes were fixed
upon his feet extended in front of him, and as he spoke he
drummed upon his boots with the cane he carried.
"
Mind you," Lee heard him say, "eight different women
identified the stiff as the
body of somebody missing in their
own families.
got hold
I of four of the women, and by
extending to them my deepest sympathies obtained a full
view of; the skeletons in their closets, which will make a
good story next Sunday, I tell yer. Bet yer those weeping
dames be surprised when they read it served up with that
'1
sauce piquant for which, mind you, Munsey, this is said

without the slightest vanity, only yours truly holds the
recipe."
"You're a dandy!" exclaimed Munsey, his admiration
evidently springing from the entire tale which his com-'
panion had recounted, but of which Lee had caught only
the conclusion.
At this moment a young man with a smooth, fat, boyish
face hurried out of the adjacent room.
" Where are
you off to, Chubbs?" cried he of the tall hat.
" Wait a second, I know you were on the point of suggest-
ing it, and I don't mind if I do. I'll go with you."
Neither the question nor the proffered company halted

the young man, who continued his way to the elevator,
merely waving his hand hastily in token of recognition.
His passage through the room attracted the attention of
the bearded gentleman who had been addressed as " Mun-
sey" to where Lee was standing awaiting the approach of
33 2 RA YMOND LEE.
some one to put him in communication with Mr. Balder
the City Editor.
The tilted chair was suddenly brought to its four legs,
and Munsey cried
"Fleck !"
The individual thus summoned was seated at a desk with
his back turned to Raymond. He was engaged in tearing
the wrappers from a vast pile of newspapers. Apparently,
the use of his name had a habitual signification,
for, paying no heed to Munsey, he turned instantly
to where Raymond was and, seeing him, began to
arise, an operation which required time and was worked

chiefly with the arms. Not that Fleck was either ancient
or infirm. He was not over 30, but having been for many
years the guardian of the approach to the Sanctum his sur-
roundings had impressed themse-lves upon his habits and
manner. He was dirty and slovenly, with an outward air
of hostile vulgarity. He wore a shiny black alpaca coat,
which extended scarcely below his waist and added nothing
to his diminutive stature. He moved with a shuffling gait,
as though his feet were in slippers.
"
We-al ?" he drawled, saluting Raymond as he approached
him.
Lee inquired whether he could see Mr. Balder.
"Does he know yer?" Fleck jerked out, after cogitating
a moment over Raymond's name.
"
No. I come here by appointment made with Mr Moyle."
"Oh, you want to see Mr. Moyle ?"
"
No, no Mr.
; Balder."
"Well I'll see."
Fleck slouched off into the inner room whence the young
man had emerged a moment or two before. Raymond
waited many minutes before any word from Balder reached
him. To pass the time he interested himself in his queer
surroundings.One of the little cupboards in front of him
opened and a huge bushy-haired man, wearing big, gold
spectacles, came out with
several sheets of manuscript in
his hand. He
passed into another of the little boxes,
whence issued, after .a few moments, the noise of much
hilarity. Moyle appeared for a moment in his shirt sleeves
RA YMOND LEE. 333
puffing an immense cigar, but, though he looked Raymond

straight in the face, he paid not the slightest attention to
the latter's salute. The color came to Lee's cheek, and
he began to wonder whether Ralph hadn't made some
mistake about the appointment with Balder. He was
on the point of telling Munsey that he would call
again, the City Editor

apparently being busy but ;
as he was about to speak a diminutive messenger boy

arrived with a telegram, and peremptorily pushing his book
under Munsey's nose told him to " sign it." Then he began
"
to whistle and "squared off to box another urchin who
happened to enter at the moment with "proofs" from the

composing room.
Before Raymond could beat a retreat Fleck returned,
holding leisurely conversation with a stout, bald-headed
man who seemed to be pushing the greater part of himself
before him with the gait of a fat turkey. The latter spoke
energetically and sententiously.
"You're safe, Fleck; stick to it. Don't mind what they
tell you. I tell you Buts can't do it. The Englishman will
be beaten before he puts the gloves on. Mark me, he
won't last four rounds. We beat 'em at every game they
know. You can put your money on the U. S. every time
and go to sleep over it."
"You're right," said Fleck, in a tone that asserted fel-
lowship and implied that he himself had long ago reached
the same indisputable conclusion.
With a nod of the head the fat man sailed away, then
Fleck turned to Lee.
some distance from the latter, he beckoned to him.
Still at
"
Hi This way."
!
Thus summoned, Raymond was conducted to the adjoin-

ing room. It was filled with a .score or more of little
desks, suggestive of school. Half inclosed in a small

alcove, occupying one of the corners, sat the City Editor.
He was busy at the morning "assignments," and when
Lee approached scarcely glanced from the book in which
he was making sundry entries. He pointed, hastily, with
his pen to a vacant desk.
"Take a seat there. I'll attend to you in a minute."
334 RAYMOND LEE.
Raymond did as he was bidden, meeting for a moment, as

he walked to the desk, the inquisitive stare of about a
dozen faces. It was a Falstaffian crowd, but its ragged-
ness was of the
intellect. There were one or two
faces there which one might predicate gentility
of
the remainder were Tramps of the Pen, members of
that great army of vagrants of the literary world which the
"
newspaper has created brainy, breezy, newsy;" scribblers
men possessed of a cheap smartness which readily catches
the superficial tone of the hour, or the flashy complexion of
an event, or dullards who have acquired the methods and
tricks of their trade and bend themselves to their work
machanic-fashion all bitten through, inoculated and dis-
;
eased with the vices and vulgarities of Journalism. What

would Old Musty, the Rev. Plausibility, Mr. Goodman and
"
our scrupulous matrons and all the " constant readers of
the newspapers (each reading that one that most vigorously
scratches his particular mental itch), think could they see
every morning what lies behind the white sheet they read ?
The types have not a changing physiognomy to reveal the
flippancy, cant, ignorance or insincerity of the writer,
and one may print on paper the secrets and shames
and heartbreaks which dirty curiosity and menial
search have discovered without making it bleed. And
all for two cents Really machinery has cheapened
!
things when for two cents daily one

. can buy the
nerves and the sensibilities of hundreds. Miss Prior .
old Prior, you know, is a proud man and loved his

daughter deeply registered alone last night at a second-
rate Broadway hotel and shot herself through the temple
in the early morning.
Great opportunity this for the. View.
When Raymond met Balder he was busy about it. Some-
body must be deputed to view the room where the girl died,
describe how and when and by whom the body was found,
the clothes worn by the unfortunate and her appearance,
and snatch, if possible, for
publication every letter or scrap
of writing found upon her. Her signature that assumed
name, a last feeble effort to close the door upon the world
must be copied and reproduced with crude illustrations of
the hotel, the room where the tragedy occurred, the dead
RAYMOND LEE. 335
girl's face. Then Prior himself must be seen his grief is

a public occasion the family must be questioned, school-
mates and associates interviewed. And the reason for the
deed ? Ah !
Suspicion points strongly in one direction.
Could it be ? Unfortunately, on this matter we can only
hint. Besides, sir, you musn't imagine from anything the
prejudiced author of this history may tell you that there
are not limits which a respectable journal will not overstep.
There was also the divorce case of Spill vs. Spill, the
co-respondent being a married man of position with daugh-
ters just entering society. That important matter was also
on Balder's hands. Secretary of the Navy Finch was about
to marry, and as he wished the ceremony to be private he
had to be watched. At the moment all the steamer piers in
the city were under surveillance because Finch's fiancee was
expected from Europe and Finch had dared to keep secret
the name of the boat she was traveling on. The Press
that boasts of American chivalry to women once dogged a
President's fiancee, so the idea that a mere Finch could
secure privacy for his little affair was absurd. At that
time, too, Chief Justice Tod was dying and it was necessary
for Balder to keep his men alert on the dying man's doorstep
as well as in the vacant house on the other side of the street,
so that servants and doctors and visitors, including Death
himself, should be under espionage. Balder's hands, indeed,
were full, many dirty corners and forbidden
there were so
places in the city to be looked after. Raymond watched
him as he called up each of those present to his desk,
instructed him and packed him off on the hunt for " news."
Balder was not much over thirty a putty-faced, fair-haired
man, with a square, protruding, lumpy forehead. His man-
ner was dictatorial, and in tone of voice, words, gestures, he
was perpetually asserting a force and dignity which evidently
he could not definitely persuade himself he possessed. It
was curious to watch his puffed self-importance manifest
itself. The world, one would think to see him, revolved
around his little corner; indeed, when Raymond afterwards
came to think of what he witnessed, the strangest part of
all was the serious way in which everybody from Balder
down took themselves. All acted as though the affairs

336 RAYMOND LEE.
they were about were really important and of some concern

to humanity. There was about them something of that
sacerdotal air of gravity such as gives importance to the
petty personalities of priests the big house and its import-
ant transactions were behind them. When Balder had dis-
missed the last of his band he turned his attention to
Raymond.
To be continued.
Annapolis, Md. FRONT OF THE SCOTT HOUSE.
Vol. III. 4. I.
Baltimore, Md. PORTICO OF "HOMEWOOD."
Baltimore, Md. HALL AT "HOMEWOOD."
Annapolis, Md. PARLOR DOOR IN WHITE HALL.
Annapolis, Md. OLD GOVERNOR'S BUILDING,

1894-01-03

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tTbe

VOL. III. JANUARY-MARCH, 1894. NO. 3.

EFORE beginning even And now, I am

country, the beautiful and romantic accomplished on a small scale. There-

to .give the water an ample

and if we have to cart it from a

scraped together into one

Stone foundation wall. Brick foundation wall

other excavated earth and eventually slight projection, as shown in the

plain lime mortar. Cement, a material

it was well known that certain limes

were to be preferred, that they set more

nents are clay and lime in certain pro- things.

Elements of braced frame construction. Framing of braced frame construction.

intermediate posts will be required. pronunciation according to my audi-

Then carry the floor

weak for weight,

give objection much

stops either frame can be

enough for ordinary houses.

"parchment" papers the genuine Jock; if of the latter, which is a weaker

called cross-bridging, short pieces set mortar and boot-heel

and so must the beams upon which

preference, a layer of soft deafen-

titions set, comes the work of

as after a while the soft brick dis-

Next in importance to the qual-

of the inside of the flues. This is

cautious, it is cheaper and more effica-

John Beverley Robinson.

COLONIAL BUILDING IN NEW JERSEY.

LI, nations have yoke of oxen and a log chain. There

Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and lasted long enough to give a dis-

FURLEY PLACE, 112 YEARS OLD.

found in history. In New York, and reconstructed on the original lines. It

never conquered. He has maintained the original proportions, was made in

dal, or a soul very deeply aggrieved, lines undisturbed. It belongs also to

MANTEL IN HOPPER HOMESTEAD. CUT WITH A PEN-KNIFE.

DUTCH TILES BIKLICAL SKETCHFS.

PANEI.ING IN THE MANSION HOUSE. WRITING TABLE l6o YEARS OLD.

T the close my before it could hope for immediate or

briefly indicated, reason that critics and students are not

Again, the objection would obviously

August, 1887, as outlined in

oration outside that centre, about 1600 B. C.

represent traditional survivals of earlier

music and bring us proofs from Egypt." Egyptian

which the artist did not himself per-

Detail from a tomb picture, showing a conventional

various results. It is not essential to-

Detail from a tomb picture. Showing elimination of

Voluted lotus trefoil with central members consisting of

that they cannot represent the same

immediately obvious to one unfamiliar nature, as urged by Professor Paine in

Trefoil type from a tomb pattern showing a decora-

tive exaggeration of the central sepal with a

with the actual monuments and their

Stone relief trefoil of Karnak ; repeated from page 264

cated by the illustra-

develop from this