American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-03-23
American HOmesteadS.

THERE is a peculiar charm about old
, houses, which is seldom felt in America
In Europe, one finds everywhere quaint
old buildings, in which generation after
generation have been born and reared,
| and have married and died. Every nook
and corner of the building is clustered
over with memories and associations.
The change of such a mansion from the
possession of one family into that of
another is regarded as a humiliation, and
mourned as disaster. This feeling is not
without salutary moral effect. 1t cult
Yates family pride, feeling of honor
in the family name, which, handed down
from father to son, is sought to be main
| tanned through successive generations.
| 1t begets sentiment of unity among
those who bear the same name and are
connected by ties of blood, which
strengthens these ties, and tends more or
less to make each regardful of the in
terests of ali.
But here in America there are, as a
rule, no old houses. The son tears down
what the father built, or passes it into
other hands with little or no regret or
conjunction. He builds again that
which his sons shall raze or sell, regard
ing merely his own convenience, and
careless who shall dwell in the spot he
inhabIts after he has quilted it forever.
We erect with view to tearing down,
not for permanence, and hence it is that
our architecture has an unsatisfactory
air of instability, of cheapness, and tenn
porary eXpediency, which offends cult
waited taste, and goes far to justify the
assertion that American architecture as
an art is scarcely to be met with in our
hoIies.
1t is true there are some fine and costly
IL. Al. IL
country and grouped in our large cities
but throughout the land, cheap frame
buildings, with scarcely an appearance of
design, offend the eye by uncouth forms,
shapeless sculpture, and glaring white or
dingy mud-colored exteriors. Though
we do not dwell in tents, like some of the
Tartar tribes, we are essentially nomadic
in our habits and taste. Bows escape
as soon rs possible from untttractive
homes, to chance their luck in
cities or hew out fortunes on
frontiers Young men clear off farms in
the far West sell them at the first appar-
emily good offer and try it over again.
Land, with us, is not a thing to be kept if
possible, but to be speculatcd in. Guilt
walton of soil is too often only the
temporary Improvement preparatory TO
sale.
Thus increases and flourishes that rest
less, wandering spirit winch cflaidctcrlLes
the true Yankee born American. Con
siderations OF love for the spot, on which
one has been born and bred, are feeble
when placed against hopes of profit.
All this may, perhaps, find some compen-
sation in the enterprising spirit it cngen-
ders; but it does not make our rural
homes picturesque piles half hidden by
honcysuckle, ivy, and woodbine, like the
garden embowcrcd farm houses and
cottages of England.
Much has been written with view TO
improve our architectural taste as a
nation but we are vet too young to pro-
gress rapidly in this respect. The greater
portion of our land is too cheap. We
have too much elbow room, and we are
too fond of change. We do not wish to
spend much money on what we may, in n