The Portland daily press., 1897-11-25
FINEST IN THE WORLD.
An Englishman's Opinion of Washing ton
Capital.
(London Daily Mail.)

(IOnuOn Oally MAIL.
| London's ohildren-such of them as
have not sharpened their impulse to COM
parison by travel among other capitals
are wont to conceive Of their mother city
as .hideous, but monstrously impressive.
Those who have travelled and compared
will usually tell you the exact opposite.
A few years ago Grant Allen labeled Lon
don ''a squalid village" and instituted
an elaborate comparison, to London 8
humiliation, with-Brussels. 1t was hard
to bear, but it was largely true. Where
Grant Allen was unjust. if I remember
him right, was in denying London, not
only form and comeliness, but beauty al
together. / should urge against him that
London is the most beautiful and at the
same time the most provincial, of all the
capital cities Of the earth.
Some capitals were born; some were
made; London grew. In the task of look
ing like capitals, the cities which were
born start naturally with huge adyant-
age. To look like capital city wants
order. unity of plan, the impression of
stately completeness. You see it best,
where you would least expect it, in the
United States. Washington Is the best
example; the men who laid it off, as
their expressive phrase is, put the Capt.
toll on an eminence in the middle, and
grouped everything symmetrically, ar
round it, The streets were arranged in
the national gridiron, with the Capitol as
center; the Mormon layer-of of Salt
Lake City did the same with their temple.
In Washington they relieved the monot-
ony of this plan by broad avenues cutting
the gridiron diagonally. The result is
that Washington is Enthusiastically one
city, as much a complete and artistic
whole as is play of Sophocles or sym
phony of Mozart. All the parts relate
one to another. Washington has grown
out of its complete symmetry, 1t Is true,
1t has spread, as cities will, moro on one
side than on another. But 1t remains a
coherent whole; when you are in one part
you carry the locality of all other parts
in your head, and all its architectural
jewels are presented in the openest and
most advantageous setting.
The European capitals are too old for
this deliberate symmetry. Mostly they
come into the class of cities that were
made. Paris was carved into cohesion by
Haussmann, with its circle OF boaievards
and system of avenues. Chicago, which
is really capital also, is following the
example with difference; the magniti-
cent avenues and gardens on the blue sea
front of Lake Michigan are at It's base,
and it has buttressed It's ring of boule-
wards with noble parks.
Vienna transformed itself from a
oramped, medieval town to q capital !;
by leveling its Notifications into the ring
"a circlet of palaces and parliaments,
museums, galleries and court opera and
university, without an equal for imperial
stateliness. Other cities. less successful
in grouping their features, have aligned
themselves along a great street. U inter-
den Linden is one example, with two
palaces, two museums, opera and univer-
sity and a dozen statues in a length of
q mile. with a triunphal arch at one end
and a square with palace, gallery and Ca
thedral at the other. The Rue Royale,
at Brussels is another-lined with public
buildings, with panorama of the whole
city breaking away from one side and the
elephantine palace of justice blocking ii
at the end.
After all these take the night boat home
and run in at sunshiny dawn upon our
dear London. You will have seen moth
ing in all your journeyfng more beautiful