Evening star., 1925-02-10
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
l. G.. M.

/. G.. M.
STICKS AND STONES. Lewis Num-
ford. Boni & Lfveright.
By way OF Sticks and Stones"
Lewis Momford presents a markedly
Intelligent and a deeply. satisfying
Interpretation of American architec-
ture. 1t Is the special standpoint
from which the Interpretation is
projected that gives to the study it's
fine sum Of plain logic, natural de-
velopment and practical appeal to the
man Of common understanding Read
Ing here. one says to himself over
and over again, '1f all art-not
architecture alone, but letters and
music, painting and sculpture as well
were interpreted in the broad out
look and In the general sound sense
so manifest here. then art would not
be the high walled demesne Of many
exclusions that it now is, but rather
the open road free to every mans
understanding and appreciation and
enjoyment. But IL almost never is
so projected. Instead, the arts one
and all are offered piece by piece,
fragment by fragment As If a little
twig from some mighty tree had been
broken OH and set before us for con-
sideratfon. The twig itself bears
bright leaves. maybe, and shows the
green tinge OF coursing life. But
IT is only twig, nevertheless. OF
its common life in the great tree il
tells nothing Nothing of the united
instinct OF the whole, nor of the
combined outreaching impulse to-
ward sunlight and growth and full
hllment. 1t tells nothing of the soil
that nourished it, of the roots that
held IT, of the great stem that up
lifted it, of the countless other
branches that companioned it. Moth
ing or the grand total-the tree it.
self, no part of which is negligible.
Every part of which depends upon
the whole for its characte and ac-
counting.
We. without question, come upon
ART chiehy In its piecemeal aspect
IKE the twig raped from the tree
Inls approach gives no chance to Law
the foundations of genuine apprecia-
tion ana love 1t does provide a GER
tain means of sensuous surface
pleasure, and it does open the way
Tor endless hypocrisies. for innumer-
aoie insincere posturings before art
as the emblem Of culture.
X
Architecture Is to many the lowell
est of the arts. And certainly there
is in all art no other object that set
ties more satisfyingly into ones deem
instructive sense of pure beauty than
does some structure of harmonious
design, one that is at home in its
setting. one that is adequate to its
own purpose and fulfiIlment Worked
out in sticks and stones" it stands
a thing Of benignity and blessing.
Certainly a basic art, this, from
which both painting and sculpture
derive much of their own prime pur-
pose. A democratic art, as well
opening out under the eyes of all
men inviting their interest and con-
sideration.
In his study of American architec-
ture Lewis Mumford takes up the
whole tree, paying particular atten-
ton to it's roots and to the soil that
holds and feeds them That is to saw
history and architecture are to him.
the root and the branch. The quality
and character of the common life of
the colonists set the pattern of their
architecture AS the character of the
common life changes, so does the
architecture change, along with many
other of the outer signs of this COM
mon life. This is an attitude so SIM
do away with any impulse toward
contention in the matter and to do
away as well with the many futile
gestures toward "revivals' of archi-
tectural periods. A fascinating story
this one. of those early settlers who
by their mode of life along the New
England coast preserved the medic
val tradition of the community for a
hundred years after its practical dis
"a IN,
such thing as an intelligent seizure
OF colonial architecture, according to
Mr.. Mumford. apart from an under
standing of the New England village
in Its origin and growth. In the
villages of the New World there
hickered up the last dying embers of
the medieval order" Whereas in
England the common lands were be-
ing confscated for the benefit of the
aristocracy ." in New Eng
land the common lands were re-es-
tablished with the founding of a new
settlement" I'm the organization of
our New England villages one sees
resemblance to the medieval Utopia
of Sir Thomas More" The settlers
laid out the village "in the best or
der to attain two objects; first, the
tilfage acd culture of the soil; sec
ond, the maintenance of a civil and
religious society. Around the meet
ing house the rest of the community
tight and homogeneous" At first
each village was laid out completely,
in order to surround it with a stock
ade against danger from the Indians.
When the Indian figured less in the
affairs of colonial life the village be-
came a long strip upon high road,
and the arabic land stretched in mar
row plots from the house to the wa
ter. so that the farmer might better
protect his crops and his live stock
from the fox and the wolf the wood
chuck, the hawk, the skunk and the
deer"
These seventeenth century houses,
built at first with one or two rooms
seem crude and mean to the
modern. AS a matter of fact, they
were we'll up to the standards for
similar homestead in England.
BY the time America was settled the
division into rooms had just COM
menced among the better sort of
the rest of the house and the bed
chamber was becoming separate
apartment" Here Mr.. Mumford gives
us brief view of one of these
seventeenth century buildings, the
John Ward house in Salem. which
till survives as a relic" Not a relic
Of architecture, separate and apart,
but q relic of the whole life of the
New England village in which archi-
lecture was rooted and from which it
took it's character and its appearance
X X x X
And Mr.. Mumford passes on out of
the medieval tradition operating in
the colonial days and on into the ef-
.ects Of the Renaissance upon the
architecture Of America, into the re-
suit of the infringement of the
classical myth. upon it. into ro-
nautfcisn, as IT affected Architectural