The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-02-21

Rod of the sos nor yet for that dull
time called nowadays.
This fine medieval era, Astounding
in the towers that it's name suggests,
may be fixed in the early '70s-the dec
ade between 1868 and 1873.
st. Paul was then as prosperous as
a mining town. The Civil war, like
most successful wars, had scattered
speculative fortunes throughout the
country. St Paul and Minneapolis
healthy suburb-were picking the first
fruits of agriculture from the new
Northwest. Railways, the tentacles Of
commerce, were stretching north and
west and south Lines were building
which eventually became the ST. Paul
& Duluth, now the Northern Pacific;
the st. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba,
now the Great Northern; the ST. Paul
& Sioux City, now the Chicago, st.
Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha
1t was time to make money; and,
by the same token" it was a time to
build new houses, establish new homes.
Ideal Dwellings of the '70s.
And what was the ideal dwelling in
those days? Nothing colonial-by no
means; houses with columns support
ing front portioo were not unfamiliar
along Eighth street and out on Fort
street (noW West SEVENTH. But they
were old-fashiOned houses ;>~they were
Southern houses, too, such as the hate
full planters had filed with slaves and
pride "befoh de wah." The North was
too intensely Northern in the '70s to
spend its money on an cole Ferginny''
mansion. The colonial style and it's re-
lated changes upon the helpless Gre
clan being quite impossible, nothing
American would serve.
Society turned instinctiVely to Eu-
rope Americans were learning more
of Europe than they will learn again
A multitude of families enriched by
the war, were exploring the continent
and astonishing their relatives at home
with information. Mark Twain's In
nocentS Abroad" title unintentionally
comprehensive, spread more facts Eu-
lTopean throughout the States than
eBaedeker can ever hope to contradict.
Society talked of Paris with and with
out an IS" The Empress Eugene
and her mustached cavaliers were the
dream companions of "our daughter"
On all Columbia. Even after France
had lost her battlefields to Germany.
she became, as often happens, still
more influential on the fields of art and
fashion.
Must Have Mansard Roof.
Thus every successful American
wishing. to enthrone himself within a
stylish dwelling agreed with his wife
that they must abide beneath a Man
.sard roof For Mansard roofs were
French, are French, will continue to be
French until Paris herself is trans
formed. 1t wasn't a new style upon
the Seine; old Mansard had been dust
for half a dozen generations. But in
st. Paul his stately roofs were novel;
ties to be sighed ADJUST the very
same kind that they've put on the new
Palmer house down in Chicago, and
you know it's the biggest and grand
'Aest hotel in the world everybody down
therell tell you So"
Having agreed upon the roof as the
foundation of his new house the aff1u-
ent man, and his wife, proceeded to put
up the walls. The walls must be brick
stone was so old-fashioned, 1t went
with the big columns of those horrid
old houses. And the brick must be
Milwaukee brick. Not because Mil
stwaukee was yet famous-though some
of the brands were popular-but be-
cause Milwaukee brick was pressed
brick of rude sort, and its color was a
picturesque suggestion of foam-tfnted
amber; yet chiefly because MilWaukee
brick had been selected for their house
by the most artistic representatives of
Chicago prosperity.
The general shape of the new houses
Appropriated to the squares. The de-
sign fitted that Mansard roof, no doubt.
and suggested those strange French
flats in Paris, where half a dozen fam