The sun., 1916-12-10
BY MILO HASTINGS.

bard's favorite story ended:
'Orc horseshoe means good
luck, but a ~wagonload Of horscshoes
is junk Likewise one woclworth
Building is a thing Of beauty, a city's
pride. a testimony Of mechanical and
architectural achievement n a
monument to Mr.. woolworth. But a
city fun OF Afty-nve story buildings
would he a calamity.
Did Mr.. Woolworth have a right 10
build a fifty-five story building? and II
so, why should this right be hence.
forth denied and similar buildings ne
lcgislated against as the Connecticut
blue laws forbade silver bucklee?
Few rights are inslicnable when too
many people wish to exercise them at
one time and place. And there are two
many people in New York who need
light and air and their right not to be
stepped on to allow Mr.. woolworth {,
have many imitators. So We have the
new laws limiting building heights
and the use district" laws telling
where we nay live. where We may
trade. what we may make and where
We may make II.
Only ten years ago the twin nag
poles OF the Park Row Building,
breaking through the ragged skyline
OF Manhattan. marked the tailest
building in the world. Shooting up like
mushrooms in the nights Of those brief
years came our fairyland of towers.
and we held our breath and wondered
where would be the next. And now.
ten years a New Yorker. we 90 down
TO meet the incoming Western cousin
Ct a jersey ferry. and. pointing out
the old Park Row towers midheight
IN a carnival Of architecture. w claim
oil above their level as our very own
New York and feel metropolitan In
deed.
II Is our Manhattan: and as one
digs into the ashes OF Pompe.i to learn
OF the past. so We gazed into New
York's filmy sky to learn Of the future.
We did not say. See, 1t Is finished"
but blinked wonderingly at the gold
trimmed tower flashing In the sootless
sunlight. read OF the strength Of steel
columns guaranteed not to buckle
short OF a hundred st ,ries. AMI
awaited the super-Woolworth.
But our fancy born castles that out
topped the steel are now tumbled to
the commonplaceness OF legalized
height mediocrity and hopeless uni
formity. The solid rock Of Manhattan,
the half tried possibilities OF steel. the
unsatiated vanity OF builders. all these
forces thai were making the sparkling
shooting fireworks OF our inimitaoie
skyline are now damped and squashed
BY the wet blanket of the law.
But not all our pride and glory In
this wonderful decade. was lavished on
the skyline. There was the mystery
Of an UNEMPLOYED cave the fascination
NJ secret passages. as We dtved down
the tile walled stairways and stood be-
hind the motormen OF an eleven car
express, till. shooting beneath streets
and parks n rivers we came out high
and dry on a steel stilted viaduct atop
the houses Of another city.
There Is nothing that gives n so
keen a sense OF the future laughing at
the past as a "a OF New York with
the subways printed in blue n the
projected subways linked in with red.
For in New York when a man walks
abroad his echoing footsteps tell him
that he treads on hollow ground. and
from out the depths comes the chug-
chug of the rock drill. the quaking
boom OF the electrically shot blast be-
meath its blanket of rover rope. the
muified beat OF air pumps as they drive
their mole-blind shields beneath tbs
silt of harbor-digging, tunnelling'
boring. mining n eXcavating: a
never ending rebuilding OF an e~ternally
unfinished city; a ceaseless catacomb
Ing of our restless Rome-not for can
onizcd bones, but for the rush and roar
OF traffic.
Then came the doughnut wheeled
low frightening miladys
rrancing carriage horses of the ave
nue.. In this, 90. We gloried and we
watched the gaps fil up, till a slow
moving endless procession might have
told a visiting Marian that the king
Of the world had died. Moving, halted
by s~cmaphores, wriggling on, 1t wa
like a specified black serpent Of traffic
worming and sliding along on asphalt
creased with the oil Of It's drippings.
And We cared not for traffic officials
or traffic problems. FOR traffic too wa
our pride OF growth. And so we glorieG
In a Manhattan that was filling up
flling up and overlooking, crowding
and quivering like new swarmed bee'
In a too small hive-and WI were OF It
Starting at the southern extremity
of a slender island. there were three
directions for New York to gr0w-up'
down and north. And north II grew
by band and belt and stratum till to-
day one can start at Ger trail Park ana
cxcavating toward the Battery. un-
eartn more superposed civilizations
IMAM when digging downward on the
site Of Nineveh or Babylon Church
spires are overshsdowed by sky
scrapers; the columns Of old colonial
mansions stand In the rear Of down
town stables. and UPTOWN stables are
made into restaurants de luxe where
one pays a dollar extra to eat In the
box stall.
So speedy was Manhattan's archeo-
logical shift that one could see the
mlnuta hand mavo. Ten ye0r0 NJ