Rosebud County news. [volume] (Forsyth, Mont.) 1901-1906, 1903-08-20
THE CITY OF COLOR.
NEW YORK A PICTURE OF PLEASING
CONTRASTS IN HUES.
Ihe American Metropolis In This
Respect Surpasses All the Great
Monotone Tinted Capitals of the
Occidental World

esPect SurpasseS All the Great
Monotone Tinted Capitals of the
Occidental World.
New York has been written about
from almost every possible point of
VleW-architectural, commercial, pOlit.
zeal and social Yet so far as we know
1t has never been properly appreciated
for the one thing in which it surpasses
all the other great capitals of the occi-
dental world. and that is for it's color
Those of us who live here all our lives
or who absent ourselves for only brief
and inconsiderabe periods of time
never know how extraordinary is the
environment in which we have been
placed. 1t is only the stranger with an
artistic sense or the native who has
been long away who gets the full eff
rect of this city of ours in its unique
prismatic tloridity of hue such as vivi-
ties no other city of its kind
If You will think for a moment and
visualize from memory the great cities
of Europe as cOOrist would see them
you will be struck by the fact that each
one is monotone. London has the
dull. dingy. smoky hue of it's own No
ven.ber fogs. and as you pass along it's
miles and miles of streets, welter of
unvariegated facados and hOmely chin
ney pots. your impression will be
more and more that London is one
great smudge hdeous and unrelieved
beneath Sky of watery paleness
which merely accentuates little more
the dingy hue of everything beneath it.
Paris equally represents a monotone, a
delicate gray that is neat and clean and
that adds to the symmetry and har-
mOniousness of the whole effect, but
that is seldom diversified by warmer
tones. Berlin is a monotone in buff,
and Rome. like Paris. for the most
part, a monotone in gray.
One thinks at first of Naples as q
city brilliant with the hues of the
south. but little reflection will show
that it is not the city itself which can
be rightly so regarded. but rather the
setting of the city as one perceives 1t
from the ship on which he enters the
glorious bay or from the Capo di Posi-
lipo. The intense blue of the sky, the
SIIt1 dlu VI Tie SuIIOuIluluS HIS, IuG
sparkle on the waters that lap it's
crescent shore. the huge dun slope Of
Vesuvius. with its golden smoke, and
Capri in the distance swimming in. a
golden mist-these things afford an un-
fOrgettable dream of perfect colOring.
But Naples itself. The place is as
commonplace and dirty and depress-
ing as Constantinople which also from
a distance cheats you into thinking it
a colorists paradise.
1t is New York alone which, after
delighting the eye with the beauty of
it's harbor. embraced by the long
slopes of bilowy green, fascinates the
eye by the briliancy and diversity Of
its color scheme. The sky is as blue
as that which is arched above the
Mediterranean. Its sunshine is as
bright. and it is sifted down upon the
city like gold dust scattered by law
ish hand. But the sky and the sun
light merely intensity the vividness Of
the color contrasts which are visible
at every turn. Here is no convention,
no conformity, no desire for harmO-
NOUS effect. The snowy wilderness Of
marble and the clean gray of granite
are everywhere intermingled with the
cheerful buff or the warm, rich reds
of brick. Patches of green appear at
the end of every vista.
The enormous display windows of
the shops are Il riot of blues and yel-
lows and pale rose and heliotrope and
scarlet. Gliding catches and reflects
the sunlight at every turn. Flags and
streamers and multicolored awnings
add to the effect, so that every street
is a veritable spectrum. Throughout
the whole length and breadth of the
island city color abounds in f1ecks and
splashes. 1t is just a bit barbaric,
possibly, but it is also wonderful and
striking.
To the sober dullness of Madrid or
Rome or London it is what the Pom
peiian wall paintings are to the quiet
canvases Of Harpignies-nOt art, but
instinct nevertheless with sensuOus-
ness and glow that stir one strange
ly. If you are a native of New York
perhaps you never noticed this. Yet
all the same it is set before you every
day. and if you will only think Of it
the next time you go out of doors you
will perceive it as a revelation and
will know that whatever else New
York may be it is, at any rate, color
city. and as such it is one that has no
rival-New York Commercial Adver-
tiSer.
Where Invention In Necessary.