The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-09-27

maintain the ranks of the professions
of law and medicine. 1t is notorious
that even in these vocations scores
Of incompetent men are each year let
loose upon society to work no end of
mischief through allied ignorance and
presumption. How much more then,
it is asked, must this be the case with
the profession of the architect. unpro-
tected as it is by legal enactments
and open to the entrance of all classes
who, because they may profess some
knowledge of building, or have OBJ
tanned smattering of the science of
designing, have the impudence to
deem themselves, and to hold them
selves out to the world, as fully COM
petent architects and designers.
These are what we term the $50
called architects, and woe be unto
the community which gives them
place and employment. Again it is said,
the true architect is one possessing
an innate love and appreciation of the
true, the beautiful and the grand in
form, taste which has been purified
and enriched by years of study and
committing with the most perfect of
earth's buildings; a skill, the result of
long and thorough study and con-
slant practice and a practically of
mind which enables one to adopt old
and recognized forms of beauty to
the want and convenience of modern
times. Such architects are to be
found in considerable numbers in
Great Britain, France and Germany,
where they are first thoroughly in
sFructed and drilled in the great tech
meal schools which exist i'll those
countries, such instruction being fur
ther supplemented by years of care
full study under some experienced
architect. This is the estimate placed
on the requirements for true archi-
tect by the writer in the Journal, and
it is correct. One who has not been
schooled in studies, requisite for a
careful training of the mind in the
direction required, can not be true
architect. Some one might contend
that it is of poor Importance whether
one know "Minaret" from "Minuet"
so he lift the thing itself into proper
shape on proper base, but, in our
opinion, an ignoramus is by no means
the proper person to shape into the
so-called architect. The Journal wri-
ter says:
How stands the case i'll America?
| IJprn IL n with litfln ndnnn-
ton and often with lamentable de-
| iiciency of natural or those other quail
| ilicationS which should be possessed
by an aspirant to so important pro-
| fession, enters the Office OF an prac-
ticing architect and studies for year
| or two the designing of ordinary
buildings and the drawing of plans,
with hardly any acquisition of knowl-
edgeSof details, of the materials en-
ployed in building or the builders art.
At time when he is just beginning
! to understand the rudimentS of his
profession and would commence
to investigate thoroughly its various
departments, he rushes into the bust
ness world, and in a glazing sign an
nounces himself to the public as
competent Architect and Superin-
tendent." The next step with this
bold adventurer is to toot or drum for
business, and with unblushing af-
frontary he makes thorough eXplo-
ration OF the town or city in which he
may reside, and interviews every I'M
lucky individual who may by any
| probability be likely to erect build
| ing within the next five years. The
principal, and often the only argu-
ment that he can urge in favor Of his
employment is the cheapneSs with
which he will do the job, thus degrad-
ing the standard of an honorable pro-
fession, and tending to bring into
equal contempt with the community
the true architect and the charlatan.
The result is what might naturally
be expected, buildings constructed
with total lack of taste and with no
regard to the fitness of things; designs
copied bodily from some cheap book
of plates and adopted with serene
contempt for all actual surroundings;
matters of detail and of construction
turned over entirely to the mason and
carpenter, who work their own sweet
will upon the building. The frequent
result is structure alike devoid of
beauty and OF utility, an edifice which
is likely to stand for a considerable
number of years, fitting monument
alike to the incapacity, want of taste
and lack of skill of architect, builders
!, and proprietor.
Not unfrequently the most serious
accidents occur through the incompe-
tency and carelessness of these
mushroom architects; but the
cheapness with which their SER
vices can be secured seems to
| be, to the general public, an
attraction which no amount of reason
or common sense is able to prevail
against, and the grossest blunders,
with results that cannot afterwards
be remedied, are constantly to be found
in pretentious and SNOWY houses.
The true architect is the cheapest
man. He holds his services at re-
spectacle figures, while the so-called
architect, blowing his merits, takes
what he can get. and then the
house owner takes what he gets
often, unless ready made copies of
plans. struck off by the hundreds, be
closely adhered to, falsely con-
structed building, the walls of which
crack and after awhile crumble. or
whose superencumbent weight, being
too great for the base, fall. Every once
in while we read of terrible eatastro-
phies, of destruction of life along
with the falling of impeIfectly con-
structed buildings. Such buildings
are the work of the so-called architects,
who combine from ready made copies,
and who thus often get two or more
things together never intended for
combination. That work has been
done in Austin by such men
is not denied. That it will
never be done again is by no
means assured. As to the pres
ence now of so-called or real archi-
tects in our midst, house builders are
left to dt eide. 1t is said quacks exist
everywhere. and generally they are
the most pretentious persons in their
professiod. In one sense, they are the
cheapest but in all other relations
they are expensive, some times de-
structively so.
TIE Houston Age thinks Gen. L. s.
Ross would make a most worthy chief