Evening star., 1923-01-25
AMERICAN IMPRESSIONS
By EMILE COUE.
ARTICLE v.

Who was that clever cartoonist
who, years ago, did most entertain
ing series of caricatures entitled
"People I Have Never Metz" T am
minded of him as I start to jot down
q few impressions of American cities
cities have never seen. OF course,
st is not. strictly accurate to say that
/ have never seen them-no more
perhaps. than the cartoonist's caption
was. But 1t Is true in this sense. that
1t is impossible to really 'see" cities
IN the course Of short sojourn crowd
ed with engagements such as mine is,
If were to confess my uppermost
Impression would say that feel as
If / had been taken off the ship at
New York and dumped into a lecture
hall and that 1 have remained there
ever since! All else-hotels, streets,
people, motor drives, Pullman nights
ARE a blur, like film too rapidly
turned. Yet there are highlights and
outlines that stand out with COM
who should forget that deep in the
subconscious mind is a complete rec
ord of everything that the eye has
seen and that the ear has heard.
forming an inexhaustible mine of
thought and impressions ready to
feed the trained conscious mind.
Ugly and Magnificent.
other day: What do you think OF
our towns?" And 1t seemed to me that
she was not surprised and only lit
tie panied when / answered with
more truth than tact: i don't think
I have ever seen uglier streets than
1T n erv,tf f7ssatn
I hastened to add. with equal truth
fulness. l was thinking of 5th ave-
nue., into which. 1 imagine, twenty
streets like the Paris Rue de la Paix
could be slipped quite comfortably
Not that 1 am unduly impressed by
its grandeur expressed in mere di-
mensionS. One gets used to big
things over here, and they are not
necessarily worthy of admiration
But in the wealth and artistic array
of its wares, in the sheer gorgeous
ness of its color and sparkle of its
stately shops, 5th avenue outglitters
even the glittering Rue de la Paix.
have seen other fine streets in the
residential quarters of New York and
other cities. Riverside drive is as
handsome, in it's way, as Park lane.
But they do not dispel the more in
sistent visions of a drab desert of
ugliness with a few cases of real
architectural beauty to remind one
that the spirit of art is watching the
growth of the city.
U. s. Architects BoIdest.
Indeed. if my opinion on the subject
be worth anything, 1 would say that.
Judging from a number of examples ]
have seen in New York and other
cities, American architects are the
greatest as well as the boldest in the
world. Whenever they have really
made an effort to break away from
thing artistic they have succeeded and
achieved a masterpiece worthy OF
comparison with the monuments of
antiquity. The new railroad terminals
the Pennsylvania and the Grand Cen
trail, or the station at Washington
are illustrations of this. To me they
are marvellous. The ancient Greeks, or
the Romans would not have disowncd
them for beauty of line and harmony
of proportions. And, withal, the archi-
tects have contrived to ally with pure
art all that modern mechanical in
genuity has invented in connection
with transportation facilities, so that
these buildings also represent the
last word in utility and in convenience
for travellers and the handling of big
railroad traffic.
Preoccupation OF Past.
1t ought not to be, but it is dis
concerting to- turn from such mani
to the unsightly streets near by, in
the building of which all considera-
tions, apart from the strictly utflt-
tartan, would seem to have been
banished. How odd that there should
be such symmetry in American town
planning. and such complete absence
of 1t in the actual building. Houses
big and small, handsome and hideous
pretentious and insignificant, orna-
mental and sordid, huddle side by side
in jarring promiscuity, in mute testi-
mony to the stern material necces-
sites and preoccupations of the past
One is tempted to liken New York,
architectura1ly, to a garden over
grown with gigantic weeds, cleared
In parts to make room for fair, we'll
trimmed avenues.
Such a superficial impression, how
over, cannot blind one to the rugged
beauty of it ALL What we see today
In American cities is a picture of the
men who made country. And what
q country! A picture that has grown
with each generation, since the early
settlers, portraying faithfully their
efforts as they blaZed the path of
progress. A care for beauty in mat
ter could not be expected to pene-
trate their ideals, concerned as they
were in building the framework Of a
nation, of whose mighty destinies
they must have had an intuition, to
account for their amazingly swift ac-
complishments.
Belt of UEliness.
Can any one see city like Cleveland,
little more than a hundred years old,
and not be moved to wonder? A city
already enriched by industry, a city