Workmen's advocate., 1890-12-06
LITERARY NOTES.


 society of architects, has just published underline above title an interesting, in. slructive and captivating pamphlet of 64 pages. In a preliminary chapter he touches upon the present condition ot individual competition and its concom- itant of monopoly; then he takes up in successive chapters several of its de- teriorating effects such a social order has upon man and his works; how en- ergy is wasted and frittered away; how mutual contentious tend to still further depress the products of the community; how the highest capabilities of woman are thereby left unutilized, how human strength is further lost by the great number of crimes and diseases which the system breeds; how, again, extravagance is born of such social maladiustment, and in it's turn engenders exclusiveness; how the system fosters idleness and sloth with some, throws upon others increased toll and thus James its powers; and finally, how the anarchy of produc- ton, inevitable under such conditions, crowns the long catalogue of wasted energies and renders purposeless as far as its highest aim should be, the handi- work of man.
 Each one of these indictments is ac- companied with it's correlative effect upon modern architecture. Individual effort, diSorganized, decentralizcd, pal sies the hand of the architect; not what is fittest or best, but what will give him job often controls his conduct; present dwellings reveal the anti-socal spirit of the community; monotOnous rows of inharmonious faCades now crowd close. ly together, largely to the exclusion of sunlight.
 This line of argument takes up A pages. Then follows an elaborate show | ing of the nature of the architecture that would spring up under the CO., operative commonwealth, Graceful ediices, standing in open spaces wide enough apart to give ample chances for air and sunlight to bathe them, would rear their symmetric statures in style that would be productive of results un- paralleled in history.
 Numerous exquisite cuts adorn the pages of this pamphlet, taken from the great French architect Viollet,le-Duc. whose universal genius Mr. Putnam brings into strong light by aptly quo- ting from him the thought that, We must look upon all that is not made for the pubic-the entire pubic-as tran sient"
 To NatiOnalists, Socialists and all those who, not yet calling themselves such. have, neverthess, their faces set, not | against, but towards human progress. MT. Putnam's pamphlet will be found pleasing at every turn. Even those who have not yet thrown off the shell of the individual stage of development will enjoy the work greatly. It is a little manual on architecture, full of points and suggestive hints on this in- teresting and time honored line of art. Pity, only, the type is not larger. SAVED UNDER NATIoNALIsM
 H, B. Salisbury, of New York, gives this appropriate title to a pretty novelette, of It pages just issued by him through the Nationalist Educational Association of Boston It tells the story of a New England village, tlourishing and happy in its woodland seclusion before the ag- gresslve spirit of capitalism struck it like a cyclone. The Arcadian days of yore disappear as if they rever had been. Capitalism, and all that if i'm. plies, becomes triumphant and continues in full sway until the Nationalist revolu. ton comes, and, just in the nick of tune, saves the village from final de- struction The picture here drawn bears the appearance of being faithful DOT trait of some actual village in the mind of the author. The decline of such rural settlements in New England is a conspicuous feature of our commercial development" Mir. Salisbury has done justice to his subject, and given another graphic pen picture of things as they are and things as they should be.