Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1885-01-30
THE ALBANY CAPITOL.
THE MOST EXPENSIVE EoIFicE ON
OUR CONTINENT.
A Magnificent Mass Of Stone-Description
Of the Interior-A Furniture Factory
Inside the Buiidiny-Jeal-
ousy of Officials.
r'Gath'' in New York Tribune. ]

lie state capitol billdlrS is the most ex-
pensive edifice on this continent, having now
) cost approaching SID i0J,0Jo. The capitol at
/. Washington was summed up ten years ago
to have cost about $1,000. 900, and since
that time nothing has been added except the
improvement of the capitol grounds. The
superintendent at Albany told me that he
thought he could finish TIE capitol if lie had
s3,oO0,oo0 voted in one lump. Some Eceptics
there say that the capitol will take SO. COZ, 900
more. Ii it Is to lie I.nishei with the
tower, should think it would cost nearer
So, 90O, coo than so 0J0,0c0. While the AL
bany capitol has great depth it is in its
longest part hardly half the length of the
national capitol. A good dea! of the latter
eIIiice Is ners!y curtain or screen to connect
the wings with the old center. The Albany
capitol has three great stories mounted upon
u great basement, and above the cornice are
payiliOns, Themselves as high as ordinary
business blocks il New York The architect
ure Of the capitol has manifestly changed,
and beginning with hard and massive Renais-
sance rltsticatel, it seeks in the higher stories
10 get INTO Gothic, Eastern and Moorish
! forms, 80 that it may be likened to stone
ho"er-ppt with the flowers popping out
! above
1t Is iinpossiDle.n5t to admire such a mag
! likes the latest additions the best We have
| had much Roman Renaissance put I'D in
this country IN the past fifteen years that it
I has become monotOnJus One of the archi-
tects OF the Albany capitol was given the old
| court house Of New York city to extend and
with complete indifference to what had been
already done he put his Oriental architec-
ture upon he classical body Of the building
Yet saw prominent architect not long
! ago reading book o. essays On architecture
/ by this same man. and he said: Here is the
best writing have ever seen in America by
| an architect
The state Of New York has reached in the
| new capitol at Albany the highest monu-
mentallz;nE Of a province known III modern
d PERHAPS feudai times / can think OF no
public building in the old ducal sovereign
ties OF Europe which approaches in any way
The proportions and expense of this capitol
OF a mere state Neither the American con-
gIess nor parliament nor any aw-Inaking
bofy on the globe has such surroundings rs
the senate and assembly of the prov
ince Of New York One architect
took the assembly in hand. and another
to Use the words Of Artcmus Ward. put
soul into the senate. A fine foreign critic
Oh such matters would express the same as
that the Official classes Of England DO at tie
magnitude Of the FEDERAL printing When |
Ar. Hendricks was at Albany a week or two |
ago. lie exclaimed that hc had seen nothing 1
an Europe like this capitol, and he may live |
many hundred years in America before he |
VIII see anything like il. Tbs world seems |
{" have been raiisached for building ma
terial
The assembly sits under roof that would |
make Old William Rufus pale with envy 1
Tier are great fire. places in thes. chambers I
WHICH sem designed in some distant future /
t. bs the tombS Of great governors The
paintings III the assembly chamber are about
100 years ahead Of American appreciation.
and as art - forever moving alony, trey
viii perhaps be 310 years behind it when
the proper generation catches up. The very
subjects indicated seem to show that the
artist, like the architects, working for
the encomium7 OF Po,terity. This pupil Of
Couturc> is of honest Republican descent
aud the Flight Of Night" ani the DIS.
coverer' might have been Couture. own II,
spIsat.OI. The Gothic stairway OF one are
i,ect is now lem. thrown into ner,. de 30 c
.acy by tie stairway Of his compstit =.
watch is for the present half covered win
scaf.ldmg.
Ii people are iuquisir.ve abont the h:-h
pIics OF furniture, they can understand it g.,
looking into the Albany state hone Tn,
architects have furniture factory rig!t ia
the capitol. for they would be ashame / t.
GaNe ~-torr furniture Put under tEe.r ma
n Hccnt embossed ceilings and against TIER
beautiful lnatber walls; hence every CAR j.
DcsiInei for particular room. and niaho.-
any = preferred above all things, with wal
net at a discount, though now aud then
s":nc OAK or ash is allowed to come in You
can see clocks there twenty feet high. looking
Ike Goth, towers taken from cid
ialacgs-~n Zig, indeed that if YOU
IUt y,ur ear TO the case YOU can
hardly believe the clock is going, rs The
dimensions almost exhaust the carrying
power 81 s.Eni. In som, Of the Greplaces
ti.e carving i 50 minute that th, workman
viii lie month at cool fat price a day
executing few square feet Of it. Marbles ,
are brought here from ii ma because they
have certain flesh tint or yellow tint which
sill st ri tie lFUsi properly. The w o,ien
laurl> are ma "a To- receive paintings or
symbols IN gilt. ~ you go from room to
/, on, Zach, on putting royalty hack in the
cradle, you are hardly surprised to hear
that tie officials are jealous of each other or
the question o: room, AMI that man with
cSa;nter only 100 feet square j. not ON speak
iuC terms with arut ~ ofiicer who has a
hambcr ~ fe,t quar-.
The very judges. IN .,!eratc in all other re-
Sp-cts, were !ufeNI.l, ON this subject of
arcLite tural position. Soon after they
verr lCt N tie court chamber on tine north !
SIDE Il tie new capitol. they resumed the
r"lr' tLeir ancestors had thrown away, in
order not to seem out of keeping with the
architecture. BY the time the architects
st through they VIII have all the messengers
uniformed piehald. AMI it will lie reni- ,
tcnti:It ,Ee;i. q To appear out % ones series
Of apartments with an Irrelevant color The
judges found. when they lad resumed their
rub-s, that they lad north light upon
thenI W lich was entirely unartistic. So they
demanded a south hight under penalty Of
taking III the roteS, and some unfortunate :
person. perhaps the state librarian, was
driven out Of the receptacle of his treasures.
and there the court sits IN brand-new robes
in q most delightful room which to ueholi
only once would make the supreme court at
W ashiugton sEou; Ont for envy Around
tbs room the heads Of eli the great iurists If
the pat ami yesterday are beginning to come
ont ever the IenCh on one side ! Chef
justice Fo.Ecr AMI on the other i, Chief
justice Church. Before they get through,
I aiutii-s ere 10 To- everywhere around thi,
room " TIC juristS of New Yori;
On some II the horse car lines at New
Yors and Brooklyn little heaters are used in
tie cars. AMI the passengers pronounce them
I. .... :iei success \ small cylindrical stove
o. IA II in re miille Of the ar. On one 1
nd, lie seat being cut away - admit il. /
lmc-inci partitions run up on either side to !,
,rr;est s.Ie passengers from undue heat \
III. Harvest Time.
TDetroi; Free PresSl .
Unier date Of Toronto, Dec 5. a former