The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-07


Yet sink moi, weary. TO the welcome land,
Though the dark night bee near
George Du AIaurier is never weary OF
quoting these lines; lines which. in the de
Mussct French he loves to write, he as
serts to have a strange. uncanny fasci-
nation for him when ne looks about him
from some immense hight. Du Maurier
says that Goethe conquered vertigo by as
cending 10 the roofs OF towering struc-
lures and looking about him. but he Won
ders how the author of Faust resisted the
impulse to leap out into space. The au-
thor of Trilby has quite an essay on the
subject in the pretty collection Ct liter
airy bric-a-brac written in French years
ago. For Du Maurier wrote for his bread
and butter long before he took perma-
nently to the pencil. but only the French
public knew him. It surprises the Gallo
readers TO find their Du Maurier now
hailed as an artist turned author. To
them he is an author turned artist.
But that. as Thackeray would say, is o
DEPRESSION. Du Maurier can only be
brought into court on the plea Of his
connection with the theme of bird's-eye
views from the Hottest structures with
which man has yet wounded the amour
proper Of the hills. Some opponents Of
the extreme would prohibit the sky scrap
ers. What would they say of that tower
ing structure. the highest yet erected IN
New York. the new building of the Ameri-
can Tract Society. now rising like Guilt
yer. to its fun twenty-five stories. among
the ten-story Lilliputs that now cluster
about New York's city hall? Ft is a
skeleton In armor now. all iron. bolts.
beams and windlasses. pushing the birds
nearer and nearer the constellation as
each setting OF the sun ages this year of
our Lord. From Nassau street flies can
be seen crawling over the skeleton, like
the wasps Dante dimly discovered on
the giants head In hell. Only the priv
neged pilgrim who is favored with a
permit has a chance to satisfy himself
from personal observation that these
flies are men, and instead of feasting
Off the giant, they are putting flesh and
blood upon him.
II is very strange. tho psychological
as well as the physical effect of vast
hight upon a human being. One of
the greatest experts in mental healing
in this land, DR.. S. Weir Mitchell has
given his attention TO the mental in
huences upon men and women of con-
slant sojourn in the human hives that
tower in every city nowadays. 1t is a
fact that to look out OF a window. day
after day, that affords a view. unim-
peded, of miles and miles of streets. Will
in time seriously affect the brain. This is
because the psychological effect is very
&c
impressions. 1t is almost like the crisis
of a man born blind and restored to sight
in a fash.
What must the effect upon the men
whose livelihood is gained by toiling upon
the SUBMITS of these Pelions of architect
ure? They gain courage for one thing
On the Tract Society building these men
are now grating here and there on dizzy
distances, splicing, mailing. running, shout
ing, as If a step downward meant getting
on log instead of descending plumb
from a steeple. AS for the casual visitor.
the effect upon him is eeric. Miles and
miles of street, brick, stone, mortar, river
and even ocean. when the day is clear.
sprawls away to the sky like travelling
herds Everything seems to be walking
slowly away. and the sailing clouds seem
empty chariots barking back for more
passengers.
So much for the objective aspect Of it.
Sub1ectively, the effect Is battling to all
attempts at portrayal one SUDDENLY
finds out that there never was a Pecksniff.
The big city one assembled to such a hight
TO see is not a big city. New York becomes
a lot of buildings precisely as the new
philosophy calls the social organism lust
lot of people. One returns to earth a
skeptic. but with a very dim notion Of
what one is skepucal about
The thought that when this vast edi-
&C. Fu H.
Will be the scene of the days labor of
thousands of people. means that the aver
age mental psychosis, II one may coin the
term, OF so many people will be gradu-
ally but surely changed 1t may seem
incredible to many to assert that only
TO spend four hours a day in such build
ing for year would modify the theo-
logical opinions of any man. But If the
new theories of mental reaction be sound
~ based, 1t would do more. There is a
more intimate connection than is usually
suspected between ones physical outlook
and the impressions which, reflected bv
what psychologists call appreception, are
synthesised into generalized thought. Any
class looking out upon the world from
eighteen story windows every day COM
munes with nature in other fashions than
do the shepherds. And precisely as the
Egyptian rulers became astronomers from
having once been shepherds. must the
office class. If the term be appliable. be-
come something or other as a result of
their lofty perches. So much for the new
Tract Society building as a factor in
psychological development.
Meanwhile, the men who build these
monsters go bravely about their work.
little rocking of the importance that
attaches to their labors from a slibiec-
tive point of view. They are surprising
" sure-footed. They step from beam
to beam with the temerity of mountain
goats or Alpine guides. They are al
ways carefully selected by the contract
ors. Occasionally it is asserted that these
brave fellows are poorly paid for such
risky toll. The reverse is the case. 1t is
a rule in the building trade to night shv
of a contractor who loses man in the
course Of construction of an architec-
tural monster ii is, in the superstition of
the trade,a sign of bad luck for the build
ing. Its offices viii not rent. or the ghost
of the dead toiler will always haunt *.
BE this as Il may. the odium attaching
10 contractor and building after a fatal
accident has prompted extreme caution
in the selection OF the men who go IN
10 these far nights. Such "A aborer
must be known to be careful. expcrt
in his trade, slow TO take a risk. quicl,
Of eye and not easily "phased" in an
emergency For sudden and extreme are
the emergencies arising every day on these