The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-24
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why, At the centre of the mystery
there Is a social impulse; some vehicle
of expression is developed, as a sport
is developed; 1T comes to fill a new
spiritual need, as an interest, as a
passion, as a resource,
Stanford White was just the man &c
become a leader in an epoch Of this
kind. He had the vitality of a giant.
He had the same divine frenzy for
making himself known that great pol
iticians are born with. Disraeli, for
instance, had this instinct and spent
years OF his early life in doing the
most foolish, outrageous, notorious
things-like wearing jewelled rings on
the outside of white kid gloves, like
challenging old Daniel O'Connell to a
duel, &c.-because Disraeli needed to
make all England ring with the name
of Dlsraeli. So also Roosevelt in
early life made the New York Police
Department into a shambles every day
for months, drumming like a ruffed
grouse and proclatming himself to be
somebody, till the name of Roosevelt
got dinned into the New York con-
seriousness. President Wilson did a
similar thing when he was at Prince
ton. He managed to focus the atten-
ton of the whole of America for
months upon a college squabble and
managed to emerge from the fracas as
a national figure. It takes talent to do
these things. Popularity is gift; but
1t is also a profession and has a tech
nique of its own. Stanford White was
one Of these dynamic trumpeters. He
was pervasive. Not n day passed
without ones hearing something new
about him. His flaming red head
could be seen a mile; and every night
at the opera he would come in late,
and sit for an hour in the centre Of
the house, not purposely advertising
himself, but intuitively knowing that
every millionaire In town would see
him and that the galleries would whis-
per. and the very supers on the stage
would mutter, There's Stanford
Whitel'
TT was Richard Hunt In the proceed
ing generation who had begun the
process Of educating the rich. Hunt
also was a man of immense social
power. The Wall Street magnates
we're his friends. He had as much
brains as they and a higher kind of
brains, and they knew 1t. Hunt was
tho first American architect who
taught our rich people to spend money.
He abolished the brownstone epoch
and, greatest work OF ALL he made the
American business man respect the
artist. The authority of architecture
came into American life through
Hunt, and in lesser degree through
Richardson, who was also a man of
the dinner table and the club, a social
dominator, a fascinating person who
would have had a personal following
no matter what profession he had pur-
sued These men prepared the way
for Stanford White and his contem-
poraries Between 1870 and 1890 the
higher education Of a whole genera
ton of American architects had made
possible a revival of architecture.
This came TO blossom in the Chicago
Exposition. The magnanimous coop
Grafton at this time OF all our archi-
tects, sculptors. painters and business
men is a landmark in our history.
They coalesced with the ease of
medieval craftsmen, and indeed with
out the Jealousies and chickering's that
have often marked such movements in
tho earlier centuries
During this time and for twenty
years thereafter Stanford White was
tho proiagonist II popular art in Flew
York city. His was the prevailing in
1uence not only in architecture but in
everything connected with the arts of
design and decoration. He was the
greatest designer that this country has
ever produced. And yet he was as
much an interpreter of the age as he
was an originator. For Stanford
White was primarily n great human,
natural leader. lover OF man. born
to success, predestined to be popular,
forced by his demon to boom and to
awaken-a revivalist; and he APP
peared at time and with such talents
and such education that he could do
this. and did do It. through building
and decoration.
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