The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1885-01-23
NEW YORK'S CAPITOL.
Said To Be the Most Expensive Edilce on
this Continent.


on this continent, having now cost ap
preaching SIG, 100000. The capitol a
Washington was summed up ten year
ago to have cost about S13, 900, 900, anC
since that time nothing has been add
ed except the improvement of the cap
itol grounds. The superintendent a.
Albany told me that he thought he
could finish the capitol if he had 49,
100000 voted in one lump. Some
skeptics there say that the capitol will
take S10,000,000 more. If it is to be
finished with the tower, / should think
it would cost nearer 1926, 100000 than
520,00.000. While the Albany capitol
has great depth, it is in its longest
part hardly half the length of the ma
tional capitol. A good deal of the lat
ter edifice is merely curtain or screen
to connect the wings with the old CEN
ter. The Albany capitol has three
great stories mounted upon great
basement, and above the cornice are.
pavilions, themselves as high as ordi-
nary business blocks in New York.
The architecture of the capitol has
manifcstly changed, and beginning
with hard and massive renaissance
rusticated, lit seeks in the higher stories
TO get into Gothic, eastern, and Moor
ish forms, so that it may be likened to
stone flower-pot with the flowers
popping out above. 1t is impossible
not to admire such magnificent mass
of stone. Nearly everybody likes The
latest additions the best. We have
had so much Roman renaissance put
in t-u %
years that it has become monotonous.
One of the architects of the Albany |
capitol was given the old courthouse
Of New York city to extend, and with
Indifference to what had been
already done he put his Oriental archi-
lecture upon the classical body of the
Yet saw a prominent
not long ago reading a book
# essays on architecture by this same
nan, and he said: "Here is the best
writing have seen in America by an
rchitect."
The state of New York has reached
1 the new capitol at Albany the high
st monQmentalizing of province
nown in modern or perhaps feudal
mes. l can think of no public build
lg in the old ducal sovereignties of
urope which approaches in any way
lie proportions and expense of this :
lpitol of mere state. The great :
axes of Burgundy, who aspired to be
ngs, have left but a pitable pile to q
mpare with New York's elephant. 8
ne houses of parliment, splendid as h
ey are in external effect, cost less o
an Aloany's capitol. Three million z
unds sterling was expended there, n
d the building contains eleven +
urts, one hundred staircases, LOO
partments, and has three towers
ch over three hundred feet high.
e Albany capitol has but ope court,
hink. 1t is generally said to be h.
out 400 by 800 feet, and it has W
eady cost more than the American VIC
oitol by S3,500,000 and nearly ST. F,
1000 more than the Westminster r.
uses of parliment. 1t must be said, cc
viewer, that the Albany building is ar
re splendid within than the palaces tb
Washington or Westminster Very he
ch seems TO have been spent at AL w
~ in minute elaboration and in the fe
rying out of details which will pro- fo
lily be better appreciated by our tb
terity than by the present race of w,
payers. fin
f we consider the population of 81,
W York at 100000 people, they Of,
e already spent between SO and 81 bo
cad on the Albany edifice. Taking hn
number of voters at 100000 as TL
of the true taxpayers, 70,
y have paid something like S14 a lee
d to have the greatest state capitol &c
he world. Yet if we would poll sta
v York state to find its wi
ivated members, they would far cle
eed the cultivation of France when m a
Tuileries and Louvre were built, II
q in matters of art and architecture. sta
seldom that the great body of the mo
Pile have any technical acquain- bo,
,e with the prevailing art. When cor
Norman monks and architects put lar
he glorious cathedrals in the north Ian
rance, in Belgium and in England, mn
r dukes and kings could neither tr;o
nor write. Consequently we far
suppose that the most ignorant cen
lber of the assembly who sits -, q,
or the vaulted roof of stone, sup ia;d
ed on its four polished columns of m =
lite, knows more about the art Tor,
h surrounds him than the dukes xan
who founded the royal avo
e of England. n not
either the American congress nor inc,
ament nor any law-making body wee
lie globe has such surroundings as stsI
enate and assembly of the province can
ew York. One architect took the 70 O.
nbly in hand, and another, to use on co
words Of Artemus Ward, 'put SOUL com
the senate. A fine foreign critic IS,
such matters would express the vris
establishment entering these two
lbers that the official classes of
and do at the magnitude of the
al printing. ''How in the world G.
III get so much money!" said an youi
r of the British census, looking at ger
magnificent volumes of Gen. com
er's late census. When Mr.. sens
ricks was at Albany week or then
go, he claimed that he had seen If vo
NC in Europe like this capitol, zers
le may live many hundred years rewa
merica before he will see any, The
like it. The world seems to have prod
for building material. little
assembly sits under a roof that stanc
make old William Rufus pale redit
,nVV Thara ro orroot froo1a..z I'll