New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-08-12
TIE FALLEN C4HP4NILE.
NOTES BY AN EYEWITNESS OF THE
VENETIAN CATASTROPHE.

NOTES BY AN EYEWITNESS OF THE
VENETIAN CATASTROPHE.
Nj c. Howard Walker, of Boston. has recent
ly been travelling in Italy. He was in Venice
at the time the CampaniIe collapsed and wit
messed the event from his hotel Under the
date Of July % he wrote from Venice letter TO
the editors of The American Architect when Is
printed in the current number of that periodical
He records that within five days nearly $3oaUoo
was subscribed for the restoration of the for
mer tower. With the aid Of several friends he
himself got together some $500 Mr.. Walker
notes that IN various newspaper accounts OF IN
terviews with architects some American mem
bers of the profession have been reported as
ascribing the fail OF the tower to the settle
ment OF the foundation. That" he says
shows absolute ignorance of the facts and
continues his letter follows:
From distance I saw the angel slowly de-
scenG, swaying, but upright, and my daughter
and her goVerness were on the Piazza not Two
hundred feet away They both say IlaI spur
Of lime dust puffed from the tower about twenty
feet Up from the ground, and that then crdchS
appeared at the base in the curtain walls be
tween the buIJresses which opened upward with
great rapidity, and the base OF the tower spread
like the roots of a tree" There was little OF
no shock. The angel descended in an upright
position until the cloud Of dust rose and covered
it, and must have come down full one hundred
feet before topping. When found ii was directly
under and within the main portal or 81 MAJ n =
The Italians say the tower Sc sedesse i e,
sat down upon itself. If there had been settle
ment il would have leaned. My own impression
is this: The top of the tower has been con-
tinuously repaired with new material; the Dol
tom less so. The LCggetta concealed the cohuI-
ton of the bottom wall behind it, and 1t was
neglected. The series of windows just inside the
corner in order to light the stairs was always
a structural weakness in this type OF tower
There has been work going on IN hashlng lHe
Of ha log
very slight and harmless under usual cOnU4tto
under these special conditions began to snow
great weakness at this point ms was ac-
knowledged two months ago The continuous
repairs etc, had produced in the brlckWorh'
&c .tainlv Of the outside wall, state to Which
I can give no better definition than that II was
d state OF unstable equilibrium
Energetic organized action was imperative
and was not taken from a lack OF appreciation
Of the facts. ] very much doubt If any action
could have averted the disaster after the crack,
which started at the lowest window toward St
Marks a week ago, had begun to snap from
window to window. all the way up. because
snoring up would merely have transferred me
weak point further and further up the shd.I
ard 70 the right and left the outer wall
BIT the mira culous thing is that St Marks IS
absolutely untouched-not a piece or mosaic
fallen The Library has at its end, IN the
second story. two columns with archeS ana en-
IA hlat1re torn out. The Gates of the Loggetta
the figure Of Mercury, and two Of the carEeu
blocks with putte are practically uninJureo- me
ree+ are hurled still I sincerely hope that
America will literally contribute. There mas
heen a good deal of talk in Paris that re-
erection of the old Campanile would not express
the present advanced state OF architecture, an
some saw that the Piazza is more harmonious
without It. Fortunately, 10 my nina, no aIteIl-
ton is being paid to these redt rs. en- ,+
arr Il was a noble foil. and dominated lhe
long lines Of the palaces. from every approd1l.
That the form OF this vanished ollciL1 a
should be perpetuated is no mistaken cohc7p-