Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-09-21
RESCUE THE BUILDINGS.
A PLEA FOR THE CONVERSION OF
DEPRAvED STRUCTURES.
What an Observant Artist Says Concern
ing New York's Bad Architecture.
Houses That Are Moral Sins and Streets
That Are Monstrosities.

wicked
ssWickedf'
eyes Worse than than that. Positively
immoral"
az don't see it exactly in that light"
''Of course you don't. That is because you
are reporter and to You any house Is good
! house so long as the rooms are clean, com
Portable AID well furnished. Now II you
were an artist you would very soon discover
/ the depravity OF New York architecture.
| Look at that house across the street"
! A square plain front this house had. with a
narrow, CRASHES plot on either side OF the
! broad steps. So far this house was as moral
a dwelling as the most orthodox and straight
! laced artist could have desired The windows
were large and the interior was concealed by
broad curtains of dark green material.
| There was nothing sinful about the windows.
| The wickedness was shown in the roof, which
! was gabled and otherwise distorted out of all
! semblance Of Christian form.
What do you think of thatl" asked the
artist
| THAT is somewhat faulty"
| Somewhat Why, dear boy, it not only
breaks all the commandments at once, but
| positively grinds the stone into sand for its
l
am no theologian But that is not all Look
| along that line of abandoned structures. Oh
serve the rascally contour of the roof. There
is no grace, strength, evenness or picturesque
unevenness in that line. 1t is not even bad
enough to be good. 1t lacks the graphic vii
| lainy of band of Texas train robbers, which
| pleases the eye and interests the intelligence,
| however panied the heart may be. 1t only
! ha b.olI nd of n
! collection of stale beer drinkers in an east
side police court on Monday morning. Such
depravity is disgusting"
Aren't you a little hard ON our architec-
ture!"
| 4 MORAL MONSTROSITY.
at is not our architecture. 1t is not any
one elses architecture. 1t is not architecture
at all We can't be too hard on such an in
decent exhibition of criminal taste. In every
| large European capital there is symmetry in
| the STYLES of architecture. 1t is divided into
! the old, the renaissance and the modern
usually. and the buildings are grouped to-
| gether in an honest and virtuous way. Such
| buildings are models They are patterns and
do the world good. Take Boston, and parts
OF Washington. There you find architec-
! tural rectitude But in New York all the
/ crimes in the artistic calendar are eXempli-
fed with a diabolical plenitude that must
! warm the cookies of the old boys heart every
/ time his mind reverts to the subject. Fifth
| avenue is a moral monstrosity. Broadway
! is an example of abandoned wickedness that
ought to make Christian shudder to con-
| template, and the side streets from Tenth
| street to the Harlem river contain rampant
| crime enough to keep tie hangman busy
! until the morning after the crack of doom.
| You never looked ct it in that light, did
you?"
''No, not exactly
"Wel that is not the worst Of it. The eff
! feet of living among sins so generously dis
| played and universally condoned must be per-
nicious in the extreme. 1t stands to reason
/ that a man must de-eriorate who lives in a
| structure which has robbed the grave of the
/ Sixteenth century for its roof, stolen its stoop
from the tomb of the Seventeenth century,
robbed the archives of the last century for its
/ windows, and purloined its cornices from the
notebook Of dipsonlanacai builder in the
! last stages of mania potu Can you be sur
/ prised when such man RODS bank, murders
his wife, runs for political office or commits
some other social error? No, sir; our alleged
architecture is fruitful cauSe OF crime, q
national curse, a social pest, and the sooner
law is enacted Furnishing such crimes as Sc
verely as they deserve, the better it will be
for this country What we need is a homs
missionary society for the salvation of de-
PRAYED buildings, with mission house on
Fifth avenune, opposite st. Patrcks cathe-
dral, where the chief offenders may have an
opportunity close at hand to mend their ways
and be saved before a seismic Nemesis avenges
their crimes against patient ana outraged
! nature New York Mail and Express