The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-04-08
ABOUT ARCHITECTURE.
THE LESSON 1T TEACHES HERE AND
ABROAD.

and Immoral Architecture-The Noble
Structures Found in New York and
Other American Cities.
Especial Correspondence
New YORK, March 29-The Society of
American Archi ects gave their first exhibit
ton of architectural drawi IS recently in
connection with the Salamagundi Sketch
club, of this city. The display was so excel
lent that it excited wonder and awakened
New York to the fact that American archi-
lecture is not only holding its own, but likely
to soon excite the envy of older countries
Until this exhibition was given, Americans
hardly realized that the building art has been
making gigantic strides in this country since
the war. We have at last awakened to a con-
seriousness of its immense unspeakable i'm
portance, and have been animated by newly
reused ambition to give our wealth and
power magnificent architectural expression.
According to the English standard our
efforts, however commendable, have not been
altogether successful. The best authorities on
the subject assert that we are still far behind
them in this as in all other respects, and while
admitting that we have erected some Every
snowy buildings" maintain, with arrogant
condescension, that 'there is not one among
them that can be seriously considered as an
artistic design, and still less any one that can
be quoted as well thought out expression of
a mind imbued with architectural taste and
knowledge"
In spite of this adverse Judgment, l have
been deeply impressed by the fact, on return
ing from England after residing there for
several years, that the architecture of
that country not one whit less than the vacil-
lation and irresolution, the fatuous' weakness
and folly of her government is Indicative of
retrogression and decay, while the decried
art of the United States of America illus
trates with no less completeness the youth
and boundless resources, the progress, free
dom and development of this immense con-
tinent. have not arrived at this conclusion
by instituting comparison between the
great churches and secular edifices that may
have been erected during the last two de-
cades in either country. The architects of
the old world, surrounded as they are by the
splendid structures of the past, with the
spirit of which, studying them as they can
do without effort, they become thoroughly
imbued, have so many advantages over their
brother craftsmen in the west that it would
be objectionable and almost unaccountable
if they did not still maintain a certain pre-.
eminence over us in the grand styles of
architecture, whether ecclesiastical, civic or
domestic.
base my opinion upon the rapid deterio-
ration in England of the building art in its
hurnbler utilitarian aspect; upon the mean
ness and discomfort of the dwelling houses
Hk,nNn L,,,, b.. g.,
DOR and the middle classes, and the extraor-
linary Improvement here in the same class
of dwellings. 1t is thus alone that the
national tendency and movement is to be
traced, and the lesson taught in each country
S clear and unmistakabe.
Let me make my meaning clearer by few
examples ......,
In several of the suburbs of London there
is a quarter set apart for the working
man, the honest daily laborer of whatever
craft or trade; and instead of being models
of thrift, comfort and comeliness as they
should be, nothing can be imagined more
Squalid and ignoble than the small comfort
less domiciles-cottages as they are called by
courtesy-of these appallingly dreary and
desolate districts. The tourist who APP
proaches Vienna sees before him city of
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custom that prevails in that city of lodging
the poor in the upper stories of handsome
buildings, the lower stories of which are oc-
cupied by the wealthy and prosperous The
approach to London is rendered hideous by
the English Custom of herding together the
laboring classes like so many pariahs in
houses upon whose very walls is branded the
pitiful tale o. their disinherited and oppressed
estate. Ruskin, that master of style and bril-
liant art critic denounces these melancholy
districts with imprisoned eloquence; and
tells story, l remember, in one of his essays
of a clergyman with very sensitive organi-
zation, who unable to go to London from his
country seat without passing one of them,
was made so i'll by the spectacle that
he gave up visiting the city. alto
gether, save ON the rare occasions when
e was called there by absolute ne
essity. Standing in uniform rows, all
mostly alike, and without CLEAN of beauty,
OF even of comfort in any of them these
wretched one-story brick huts, each with
little scrubby back yard, over whole acres of
ground, and in looking down upon them
from the carriages of your train you
imagine that you are looking at a city
of dwarfs, manikins and liliputians. You
ask yourself in amazement what sort of pop
ulation England will breed for the coming
generations in these detestable abodes, ques-
ton to which there can be but one reply and
that fearful one: A population of apa-
tletic dronns, incapable of progress, or of
brutes ready made to the hand of any des-
perate criminal leader; population of hui
man vermin and savages so degraded that
they will scarcely deserve to be called hui
man. But let us look a step higher
London, that immense metropolis, with its
100000 of inhabitants, and atmosphere
blackened and poisoned by the smoke of IN.
Vulnerable hous eholds, already far too enoIr
nous for safety and comfort, is increasing as
rapidly as one of our western towns. The
suburbs are stretching out in every direction.
and with the exception of the splendid
streets occupied by the palatial mansions OF
the wealthy, and some few sites built and
patronized by aesthetic noblemen, they arr
made up almost exclusively of two kinds OF
dwellings-villas, as they are called; small,
gingerbread ornate abodes in the poorer
streets, utterly contemplate; but sometimes,
in better quarters externally, at least, pretty
and attractive-these small villas and large,
comfortless, badly constructed apartment
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