Evening star., 1935-03-17

chosen a far less interesting person.
ality, a far less brilliant man, than
he chose in his biography of Sydney
Smith. The Smith of Smiths" which
was published about year ago and
is one of the most satisfying of mod
ern biographies. But England has
produced only one Sydney Smith.
ROBERT MILLS. Architect of the
Washington Monument. 178l-1855.
BY H. M Pierce Gallagher. New
York: Columbia University Press.
4 S THE shaft of the Washington
Monument has recently been clad
with elaborate scaffolding for repair
work, its gracefulness has been tenn
porarily lost, but its height and the
stupendousness of the task Of its erec-
ton have been accentuated. While
thousands of people from all over the
United States have gazed in adm1ra-
ton at the obelisk from the near van
tage points of the Monument Grounds
and WaShingtonianS have looked for
it as a beloved landmark from every
part of the city, it is doubtful If many
have known anything about the archi-
tect beyond his name. Robert Mills
was "our first native-born architect
regularly trained for the profession.
= Harrison, Hoban, Thornton, Had
field and Latrobe were English born;
L'Enfant, Hallet, Mangin and Code
froi were Frenchmen; Jefferson and
Bulf1nch were American gentlemen,
self-trained in architecture" Born in
Charleston in 1881. Mills studied
architecture under Hoban, Jefferson
and Latrobe, representatives of three
architectural styles, the Palladian, the
Roman and the Greek.
The architectural accomplishment
of Robert Mills was not limited to the
Washington Monument. He worked in
South Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsyl-
vania, Maryland, Virginia and Mas
sachusetts, as we'll as for the Govern
ment in Washington. His work in
cluded churches, college buildings,
bridges, monuments, court houses, Gus
tom houses, prisons. hospitals and resi-
dences. Some of his most important
structures, of which there were about
so, were the old State Capitol at Har-
risburg, the Patent Office, old Post
Office and Treasury in Washington,
the New Bedford, Mass, custom house,
the Congregational Church in Charles
ton, the Monumental Church in Rich
mond, the First Baptist Church in
Philadelphia, the Washington Column
in Baltimore.
The author of this biography of
Robert Mills, a woman, has spent
many years in her study and has dis
covered many of Mills papers and
many of his drawings, which are re-
produced among the illustrations. She
divides her text into two parts, the
first dealing with Mills personal life
as citizen and friend of Presidents"
the second with his work as "archi-
tect and city planner." The five chap
ters Of the second part are devoted
respectively to public buildings,
churches dwellings, monuments, and
his work as engineer and nation PLAN
ner. Mills is placed among the most
brilliant of the Greek revivalists in
America" A number of appendices
add to the value of the book, which is
an important contribution to early
American biography and history.
HIGH SPOTS IN THE ANDES.
Peruvian Letters of a Mining En-
gineer's Wife. BY Josephine
Hoeppner Woods. New York: G.
p. Putnam's Sons.
IN VIVACIOUS, slangy letters to
two school friends, Mrs. Woods
describes: with the detail that most
readers delight In. the life Of herself