Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-03-21
American HOmesteads.

THERE is 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 humiliation, and
mourned as disaster. This feeling is not
without salutary moral effect. 1t culti-
Yates a family pride, a feeling of honor
in the family mamie, which, handed down
from father to son, is sought to be main
tanned through successive generations.
1t begets a 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 all.
| But here in America there are, as q
rule, no old houses. The son tears down
what the father built, or passes il into
other hands with little or no regret OF
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
inhablts after he has quilted it forever.
Almost all our building is for the present.
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
vated taste, and goes far to justify the
assertion that American architecture a:
an art is scarcely to be met with in oul
homes.
| 1t is true there are some fine and costly
residences, scattered about through the
country and grouped in our large cities
but throughout the land, cheap frame
buildings, with scarcely an appearance o.
design, offend the eye by uncOuth forms
shapeless sculpture, and glaring white ol
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. Boys escape
as soon as possible from unattractivt
homes, to chance their luck II
cities, or hew out fortunes OF
frontiers. Young men clear off farms il
the far West, sell them at the first appar
emily good offer and try it over again
Land, with US, is not thing to be kept i
possible, but to be speculated in. Guilt
yation of soil is too often only tht
temporary improvement preparatory tC
sale.
Thus increases and flourishes that rest
less, wandering spirit which characterize
the true Yankee born American. Con
siderations of love for the spot, on whicl
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 engen
ders; but it does not make our rura
homes picturesque piles half hidden b.
honeysuckle, ivy, and woodbine, like til
garden embowered farm houses an,
cottages of England.
Much has been written with view t
improve our architectural taste as
nation, but We are yet too young to pre-
gress rapidly in this respect. The create
portion of our land is too cheap. W
have too much elbow room, and we al
{ too fond of change. We do not wish
spend much money on what we may, in