The record-union., 1891-08-06
OF AWNINGS ONCE MORE.

There is and can be no law to compel
the owner of building to erect an avn
ing projecting from it. When he has
built to the line of his lot he has exer-
cised personal right, and no authority
can require him to expend his means to
provide shelter over part of the street,
which is public property.
But if one does build an awning local
government may require him to con-
struct it in a particular way. For the
awning extends over the public highway
and is, to certain extent, an obstruction
of common. For fire prevention and
extinguishing, for sanitary reasons, and
for beautifying the city, local authority
may, therefore, regulate the construction
of awnings.
Now regulation should not amount to
prohibition by reason of the heavy cost
it entails, or for any other reason, and
while the law prohibits certain kinds of
supports to awnings, it does not, or
should not, prohibit awnings The
whole crusade of last year was against
post awnings; great, unsafe, numbering,
pillared and propped up structures, some
of them three stories high, and all of
them denominations to the eye, and a
threat to the people who had to walk
under them. They rendered fire extin-
gushing dangerous and difficult; they
promoted confagrations, and were the
speediest of conduits for the passage of
flames from one building to another.
Every citizen recalls how in fires the
flames used to travel with almost light
ming rapidity beneath the old sheds, and
all but defy the firemen to check them.
More than this the post awnings often
fell and injured people; they were neg
lected and suffered from dry rot, and
presently tumbled down. They became
lumber rooms, kitchens, gardens, wood
sheds, and even water-closets. They
were, in short, public nuisances. They
made house fronts look squatty and
mean; their roofs were the gatherers for
refuse, dust, filth, cast-off clothing, and
all manner of unsightly objects.
So the abolition of the post awning was
wise. What few remain ought to go.
Let us hope that the Trustees will not
grow weak in the knees on this subject,
and permit the old post and shed nuisance
to be revived. But, we are told, we
must have substitute" Yes, if prop
erty-owners choose to furnish it. In that
case the Trustees regulate the matter. If
they go so far as to prohibit all but one
style of awning, we think they commit
mistake. The rolling steel or iron avn
ing we believe to be the best, and the
RECoRD-UNIoN so held from the outset.
They are to be seen in many cities; they
are neat, strong and last for an age. But
II overhangs of iron or wood upon pro-
leetlng supports, approved as amply
strong,' are erected, we can see no objec-
ton to them. In the case of the rolling
awning, IT can, in time of fire, be put up
quickly; in the other case there should be
strength sufficient to enable firemen to
carry hose over and upon them, and to
mount light ladders upon them. Several
such awnings are to be seen in this city.
Any one of them will bear all the firemen
who will ever be called to mount upon
them.
AS for cloth awnings, they have to be
replaced now and then, it is true, but we
doubt if the cost is greater, or as great, as
vas the annual painting and repairing of
the old-style wooden awnings, while as a
matter of fact Mediterranean cities use
such shelters upon buildings of the most
imposing order. Still, we prefer the
metal-rolling to the cloth-rnlling awning.
Of course, the Trustees are right in de-
string to secure uniformity of the line of
the awnings, and so far as may be, in the
character of the awnings. But, we re-
peat that this weak retreat on,the part of
some people in favor of post abomina-
uohs, because property-owners have not
yet all put up hanging awnings, is de-
fenseless and unreasonable. The situa-
ton is not now different from what it was
last summer when the awnings came
down on the run; some OF them. by the
way, at the pull of weary iackass upon
a feeble halter. 0verhangs OF wood or
iron, folding or permanent, will protect
us from sun and rain just as web and
better than did the old drippingb leaking,
dirty sheds, supported by rann-shackle
posts and bits Of studding.
Yes, ''let us be honest with ourselves, .
as is suggested, and if we are wew will re-
fleet that we were right last summer and
we ought to remain SO this summer, and
that if some property-owners viii not
put up good sun and rain shelters over