The Idaho Springs siftings-news. (Idaho Springs, Colo.) 1905-19??, 1915-09-24

little individuality to start with, the adventures
and patchings of time have endued it with
pcturesqueness OF its The builders gave
1t practically no decoration, but such solid works
receive all they need from the hand of time.
which adds detail with unerring TASTE The
palmer an edifce may have been to start with
the better time adorns it, provided 1t has been
quilt with sound Materials good workmanship
and In good proportions. Most of Englands noblest
castles must have looked gaunt and even Ito
contemporary eyes, ugly. To the Saxon citizens
OF London the White doubtless whitewashed)
tower can hardly have conveyed esthetic pleas
ure But time has decorated Norman cas-
ties, SO that not the baldest modern sky-scraper
need despair OF future admiration il it can hold
itself end up long enough
Amersfoort tower is anything rather than plain
On the contrary it is in the Gothic style tending
towards famboyant while its general design is
OF the type of the tower at Utrecht, which, indeed
being only fourteen miles away, doubtless sug-
gested It, That was built during the middle half
OF the fourteenth century; Amersfoort at the
very end of the fifteenth. Both have the open
octagonal top story already described. Utrecht is
1913 feet high. Amersfoort 312 feet The latter is
considered to be the finest Gothic tower in Hol
land suppose 1t to have been surmounted or
intended to be surmounted by plain spfre but
the present dubious top and open work crown
were put on in 1855. Where did Holland get fts
taste for these bulbs? She did not have a mo-
nopoly OF them. for they numerous enough in
Germany and even in Switzerland An oriental
foort church was built in the fourteenth century
and the tower may well have been projected from
the first. An explosion damaged the building, but
the damage was made good and the tower for
tunately escaped.
Few tourists stop at Amersfoort but plenty Of
them can see the tower from the train on their
way eastward from Amsterdam The summit Of
Il looks northward far away over the Zuyder Zee
ana IN every other direction over 4 country as
nat as water. There some fun In building
nigh towers In Holland they could be seen from
so far away. Amersfoort hail Utrecht on any
clear day, and both of them Rhenen II ina inel
which Rembrandt jsketched
Anyone who has landed at Flushing and pro
ceeded thence anywhither by train has been
carried for the first few miles over the am
phibious region OF the island of Walcheren He
mas passed Mfddelburg and presently, il he looked
away on to the left, he will have seen at a dis.
lance OF two or three miles. the little town of
Veere Both are old towns and highly pictur.
esque So indeed Durer recorded them 10 be
when he visited them in the cold December NJ
1920. "Middelburg" he said lis a good town a
fne place for sketching 1t has beautiful town
hall with fine tower. There is much art shown
in all things here All he has to say about Veere
Is that 1T is a fine little town where lie shtns
from all lands" The object of Durer's unfor
tunate winter journey to the islands Of ICELAND
was not. however to see towers and town halls
but to satisfy his Unsuitable curiosity about
natural history. He wanted to make a drawing
OF whale that had been stranded in those
parts Such curiosity in the case of men IKE
Durer and Leonardo 10 the first indication va
possess Of the approach Of the age Of science.
Tho whale had been washed away before Durer.s