Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1873-01-30
The Dome OF the Capitol.

Yet, surely, there is some excuse for
the popular admiration of the Capitol,
even if it be called forth by nothing
more In reality than striking bit OF
stage-effect. For, IN the first place,
few great public buildings that we re-
call are so finely placed as the Capitol
at Washington, while many a grander
structure misses the admiration that Is
due merely by being unfortunately
placed where it can be seen at all as a
whole. or where it can only be seen by
getting so far away that all the details
of its architecture are lost. st. Peters
and st. Paul's are never seen until they
hang in far horizons like clouds that
have taken shape. The facades OF
Notre Dame of Paris, OF the Cathedral
of Rouen, Of the Cathedral OF Stras-
burg, are really never seen at all,
though they might be much better seen
than they are by the destruction OF a
few of the surrounding buildings. But
our Capitol is as city set on hill that
cannot be hid, and Washington may
grow ad li6it,6na, and line all her prai-
ries of avenues with lofty buildings;
the Capitol will still crown the view,
and draw all eyes to itself. This is one
advantage not to benied, and the size
and Whiteness of the dome are no doubt
Impressive at first view to everybody,
though the structure cannot stand a
thoughtful examination, and will one
day be outgrown by all Americans
1t was childish, if not a barbarous
taste that erected the present dome;
and the confidence we have confessed
in the good sense and good taste of the
public at large will no doubt bejustified
when we shall all see, what already a
great many see, that this is not archi-
lecture, properly speaking, at all, bu!
mere mechanics, having no connection
whatever with the art of building, and
no more capable of exciting enthusiasm,
in the mind of a sincere person who
knows what art means, than the boiler
of q steam-engine-nor indeed SC
much; for the boiler is at least a real
| thing and not sham, it obeys the laws
of boiler construction, and it has some
honest work to do in the world and
does it.
The dome, on the contary, is sham.
1t springs from well-built building OF
white marble, and it passes itself off. to
people who do not know that such a
dome could not be built of marble, for
marble dome, and by ninety nine
people out of every hundred who see
| it, it is believed to be of marble. And
built of marble it should have been, in
which case there would have been
probably, no disproportion between ii
and the building of which it is a part,
for the architect would not have SET
himselfa task he could not perform,
and the natural limitations of the struc,
ture would have kept all in due pro-
portion. The moment, however, the
architect permitted himself TO think Of
putting an iron dome upon a marble
building, he was no longer restrained
by the law Of the building itself, which
law should have had his full allegi-
ance, but he felt himself at liberty to
do whatever the laws of his new ma
terial would permit, and there resulted
an Immediate and fatal disproportion
The dome is not only an excrescance,
having no structural relation to the
building proper-it is an ugly excres-
cence, ugly in its lines, ugly in its dis,
proportion, and We shall, we hope, live
to see the day when it will be taken
down and a real dome be put up in iti
place.-Scri5ner's for February.