The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-04-08

being kept quiet. But what is to be said of
the architecture that compels well disposed
human beings thus to afflict and IMPURE each
other in their own homes
Not far off, in the most hideous block of
buildings that remember to have seen in any
quarter of the globe, a huge, tawdry pile,
with shutterless, glaring windows, like lidless
eyes, lived other friends, husband and wife,
the latter a fine musician and great social
favorite. This poor little woman being nerv
GUS and sensitive, was made ill by the annoy
ances to which she was exposed. Her fellow
dodgers, above and below, seemed actually to
be living in her apartment, and word spoken
at the front door reverberated all through the
house. 1t was mere shell and sounding
board Such dwellings are more than COM
Fortress they are sordid and actually immoral.
Children born and growing up in them would
never know the meaning of the word home
or what it is to enjoy seclusion and repose.
In the oldest part of the city the plainest
houses i'll the least embellished streets are at
least well built, solid and substantial the
more stately squares and grand monuments
are triumphs of genius and lofty thought;
they express the courage, fortitude endur-
ance and good faith which was formerly
John Bulls acknowledged characteristics
while the mushroom superbs of the presenS
day typify only too plainly the folly, frivoi-
ity and irresolution of declining race, wls0
las Carlyle says of the Parisians before the
revolution) are dancing upon tie verge of
precipice While England remains the
wealthiest nation in the world, and the center
Of artistic activity, palatial mansions and
grand ediices will be reared when occasion
| calls for them, by well trained architects, but
notwithstanding this, the virus Of decay must
be flowing in her VEINS or she would be in
capable of condemning the masses of her
people to dwell in the sordid, con emptible
tenements that have described.
The exact reverse of this picture Is seen in
our own country. Americans who remain
abroad for a term of years are amazed, on
their return, to note the improvement in our
great cities. During the last decade they
| have gained character, FORM individuality,
variety, splendor. Even the most unpreten-
tious houses i'm the small towns are well and
solidly built, and often in addition are taste
full and picturesque, while in the handsome
new streets there is most gratifying display
of genuine architectural good taste and mag
nificence. And this is true of all our prin-
cipal cities-New York, Washington, Chi
cago, Cleveland, Cincinnati. Everywhere
our architects are full Of earnestness and EN-
thusiasm; our rich men, as soon as their for
tunes are made, like so many beavers begin
building palatial residences. In Short the
building spirit is awakened in this people;
the movement is natural, spontaneous one,
and so strong and well directed that we are
justified in predicting that it will lead to
| md t,.ocu No in, ha futttr
The radical distinction between architec-
ture of antiquity and that of modern times
is too well known even to the most superficial
readers to require more than a passing com
ment Architecture of old was supreme
among the arts absolute, all embracing;
sculpture and painting were merely embel-
lishments of the temple; poetry and music
composed and chanted the temple service
the hymns of the gods. The true poems, the
true looks of the Egyptians, Arabians, In
dams, in short, of all the early nations, were
written in stone; they were the stupendou;
| AMI marvellous monuments which have re-
manned, up to the present day, the wonder
Ci all succeeding generations Even IL
dhe transcendent Greek era (althougf
poetry, painting and sculpture alike re
ceived, at that time, separate and sublime
manifestation architecture still asserted it
supremacy, while the Gothic cathedrals o
the middle ages completed the great architec
tural orders that were evolved by the early
nations This continued up to the Fifteenth
century, when the invention of printing anG
the reformation completely reversed the pc
sition of the arts. Literature now assumed
the first position, and architecture declined
or it ceased to be creative and became imita
tive and subordinate All that the modern
architect aims at is to reproduce and recon-
| bine styles already in existence, and with the
foregone conclusion that his work will be in
ferior to that of his predecessors. According
to some authorities this is all that architecture
can hope to accomplish henceforward. Theil
energy will not again flow as of yore, they
maintain, in a comparatively exhausted
channel. This may be true as far as Europe
is concerned, for we must remember that the
whole continent of Europe is richly decorated
with superb monuments, the legacy of the past
-cathedrals, castles, palaces, which possibly
may outlast the civilizations of which they
are one of the chief glories But how differ
emit is the condition Of things in this cou try.
In some respects we are as old as our pre-
decessors; we have taken up our line OF
| IldTCH WHeIo I4llSithu anu oho Noilbhtci'
stand, and yet as distinctive race we ere IN
our earliest youth, at the very commence
ment of our career, and we possess con
tinent, broad and wide, which, still almost q
virgin soil, is awaiting its befitting archi
tectural adornments. There is not the same
need for great architecture in Europe that
there is in this country. Whatever may be
the problems which these architects are
called upon to solve, ours at least should be
men of genius, bold innovators daring
original, able to create modern style equa
to those of the past, monuments which vii
be to the west what the pyramids ant
obelisks, the Gothic cathedral, and DoriC
aud Ionic temples have been to the east Fol-
my own part have no doubt that the move
lnent already begun will continue until thi.
has been accomplished; probably here, a
elsewhere, it will be upon the basis of G
splendid architectural :efflorescence that tht
other arts, more subtle and personal, enter
into their great triumphant epochs.
GEORGE PERCY.