New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-11-15
4 WORD or JUSTICE on BEHALF OF
ALnN0LEuR MANNARI.


All cities built mainly or in considerable
part of combustible material bum up sooner
or later Flimsy and inGammable construc-
tions like those Of Chicago are lucky II thoy
last n decade. More soidly reared erections,
which still stop short of absolute incombusii-
bility, like those of Boston and other Eastern
cities, may stand perhaps for generation.
But their fate is inevitable All that is burma
BILE about them will burn up sooner or later
and IN its cOnhagratiOn it viii wreck the sohd
and incombustible parts with which it is united.
1t was natural that at the outset Americans
should build their towns of anything which
came to hand When stone was cheapest, 1t
was used, though its seemingly indestructible
walls were frequently crowned with shingles
and tnrreted with pointed dOrmer-windOws, as
inflammable as lintels or sashes Off yellow
pine could make them; when bricks were
cheap and abundant they were employed,
though the floors, partitions, roofs, staircases,
and indeed the whole interior which they in
closed, was built of kindlng wood But in
regions where timber was cheaper than stone
or brick it was used without scrpple as the
substance of the structure, and buildings so
reared cover square miles of the suburbs OF
every considerable American town. These
buildings invite fire, and their wantOn solicita-
ton is not disregarded forever. If they are
not burned up one year, they are another.
Experience afrms that they cannot perma-
ncntly escape.
There j. no prospect that all cOmbustible
material will at once be thrown ont of the
builders calendar, but surely within the linz
- L., e,I pcgIv
Iron beams and girders in place Of wooden
jOists, iron frames and sashes for windows
tiles in place of board flooring, may be en-
ployed without serious increase Of cost and
with an important augmentation of security.
This will of course not be done when it can
be avoided. The avarice Of prOprietOrs and
the incapacity Of builders and architects are
constant forces they viii continue to operate
everywhere, and to rule whenever they arc
not oyerb0ne by the MS rite of public deter
mination not TO allow its interests to be
needlossly put in peril. The Understanding
Outcry against the Mansard roof, not because ill
built, but merely as a roof, is not to be wondered
at, though it is quite irrational. After such an
overwhelming calamity, the public naturally
desires some tangible and visible object on
In Chicago it was Mrs.
OLeary'5 COW. In Boston it is the Mansard
root. But the roof is not at all at fault. The
fault is in the municipal law Of Boston Gas
well as New York ami al other American cities,
which permits any city roof, Mansard OF other,
to be superposed upon a framework, and
bjssed with hiagree ornaments OF kindling-
wood. The Mausard roof is handsome it
lends grace and adornment to our thorough
fares. i liheralizes- and adqrns the pinched
and rectangular architecture Of our cities. 1t
ampliGcs and renders more cOmmodiOus the
structure which it shelters. It has everything
esthctic and useful in it's favor and
there is no valid argument against IT,
Let it be built solely Of materials that rOnf
burn, and ii becomes a helmet of protection
worn CALAMITY and gracefully upon the brow
which it protects and decOrates, instead Of an
unkinded torch ready to spring into plumes of
fire at touch. Still, such is the extraordinary
clevcrness and wisdom Of mankind, so pro-
found and accurate are it's judgments in pc
RODS Of public emotion, that the Mansard
roof will doubtless go out Of fashion for
a lustrum. The old fiat hideous abom-
nation will be restored, and the build
loads along the thOroughfares. They will be |
lgcr but no safer than the ornate pavili0ns |
which they succeed They will be laid, as
usual, on wooden rafters and wooden /
boards, the cOrncc will be of thin metal /
stamped to resemble solid sculpture, and the |
scrolls and molillions Will be carved. as they /
Utmost always are, preposterous as the state
nent may seem, of pitch (or yellow pine.
Having avoided the perilous angles and de
stroying concayes of Mansart, and surmounted
a structure with covering of this sort, both
proprietor and builder will doubtless consider
hat they have complied with all tho neces-
Sary conditions Of safety. Such are the ex-
remes of faulty and stupefactiOn to which
the capitalist and the stOne-layer sometimes
on the whole rather frequently come.
In truth, no change of form in our aTchitcc-
ure will bring security. That must proceed
rom change IN the materials employed. In
Florence, Rome. Naples. and other continental
titles the casa outlastS the latest generations of
he family that reared it; the palace remains
ong after the dynasty has persisted. They
,uild more wisely than we, of materials which
neither burn nor decay. The Florence of our
.ge is the Florence of the next. In Genoa
We look upon the porches and facades which
Columbus looked upon, may even lodge in the
hambers where he may have lodged; in
Ienicc we sail under the sculptured cOrnices
md grinning gargoyles which Swallowed the
nnual marriage journey of the Bucentaur for
lalf dozen centuries. Paris and Madrid,
amsterdam and London, Vienna and Dresden,
bide from generation to generation, waxing
llways in interest and accommodating in splen-
Tor. 1t is only in America that the cities of
ne day are the bale fires of the next, and it
4 nnrbopo tip,o thot ,ro oHonta1 MON, ,,t. "a