The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-22

style, which presents very different bproblem from the Gothic. Romanesque or Renaissance structures more famil- jar to American travellers. In Byzan- tine art interior decoration plays q most important part and the marble, and mosaic work. on which so much of the beauty of the Westminster Cathe- dral is to depend. may not be finished for a century.
 ,The Gothic RomanesQue Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which will bear comparison in size as well as in beau ty with the most famous edifces on the other side of the Atlantic, has al- ready advanced an appreciable dis tance toward completion and three or four years should see the choir and the crossing" ready for services. This will make the structure, in techincal language, about twenty per cent coni- pleted, but the rest of the work, it is believed. can be pushed far more rap- idly Even If 1t should be forty years before the last stone is in place, St. Johns would be among the quickest in erection as 1t Is among the largest in size of the cathedrals of the world.
 Towering above the Heights along the Hudson. St Johns will occupy in the cosmopolis of America much the same position as St. Paurs does in London. Old St. Paul's. which took 8 matter of two centuries to complete. was burned in the great fire of 1866. and eight years were devoted to clear ing away the rubbish. Of the new building. on which work was begun in 1875, only the walls of the choir had been finished by 1885 and 1t was twelve years later before any services were held in it. In 1710. thirty-five years after the beginning of work. St. Paul's was finished. With the exception of Salisbury. 1t is the only English ca thedral designed and completed in one style of architecture. The others growing slowly from generation to generation, embody the changing taste of the men who worked upon them.
 The most pretentious churches of the world are in large measure the result of civic pride as well as religious en- thusiasm. To the burgher of the Mid dle Ages his city took the place of the nation and in no better way could he show his patriotism and his piety than by the erection of as imposing a ca- thedral as the city's wealth could pro- duce. St. Marks in Venice and the Florence cathedral, to cite two of many instances. are as thoroughly civ- ic undertakings as the bridges now spanning the East River.
 One of the most interesting and com plete records of the way in which a mediaeval cathedral was built is fur nished by Sienna, once one of Italys most fiourishing city-republics and now an almost unrivalled relic of the Middle Ages. As the city rose to greatness the citizens grew discon tented with their old church interior. they thought, to that of their rival. Pisa. Some time in the thirteenth cen- tury--the wonderful cycle of the Mid dle Ages--work was begun on a new cathedral, the earliest visible parts of which date from 1245. More interest apparently was taken in Sienna in the building. of this cathedral, The Work" as 1t was significantly and tersely called. than New York took ip its subway. An elaborate system Of regulations was drawn up and count. less precautions were taken to see that profit
 On August 15--the Feast of the As- sumption and the great Siennese holi- day--every citizen was compelled to contribute to "The Work" money or candles, for which there was a steady demand for use as votive offerings. The money was kept and the candles sold to swell the building fund. In the surrounding country one robber  of arms to contribute to the same pious object. All through the thirteenth century, when Sienna was at the height of its power. these resources proved ample and the cathedral rose steadily.
 About 1885 the ever-increaslng pride of the Siennese inclined them to re. gard with little favor the plans which had seemed so wonderful to their an- cestors and it was proposed to build another and yet grander cathedral In order not to throw away the work already accomplished the citizens de- cidsd to make out of the old edifice the transcepts of the new. About nine years after work on this stupendous scheme had been begun the great plague of 134S devastated Sienna. Two thirds of the population perished and the city never recovered courage to go on with The Work" which it had undertaken in its prosperity. In 1857 the new scheme was abandoned and work was resumed on the old plans of the thirteenth century edifice nearly