210 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



work that reaches a respectable age, while that done by the gov- 

 ernment undergoes a rapid decay. The difference between the 

 ancient and the modern method is enormous, and it needs no 

 guide to tell which is the better. In our time, in our country at 

 least, government architecture is considered of more importance 

 for its effect on the " boys " than for any direct relation to the 

 progress of art. There is no limit to the expenditures that are 

 made on our large public buildings, but they are no sooner com- 

 pleted than extensive repairs are necessary that not infrequently 

 amount to as much as the original cost. 



Nothing could be worse than this, yet it is happening every 

 day. Our streets are lined with hideous structures and comfort- 

 less dwellings. Lighting and ventilation, plumbing and heating, 

 and all the requirements of our daily life, are sunk into subordi- 

 nate positions beside the questions of external effect and the sup- 

 port of a large number of political hangers-on whose interest in 

 architecture terminates with the job. It is evident that this can 

 not be continued indefinitely. Sooner or later there will come a 

 revulsion in public feeling, and an insistence that our architecture 

 shall express our civilization in its fullest development, regardless 

 of designs or exteriors. The direction in which we are working 

 is essentially bad ; and it is manifest that, if they did things bet- 

 ter in past time, when utility was the prime consideration, the 

 sooner we return to primitive methods the better it will be. It is 

 a lasting disgrace to our culture that the Bushman and the Hot- 

 tentot, the Indian and the Patagonian have ideas in architecture 

 that put our own attempts to the blush and will render us a laugh- 

 ing stock to posterity. The instincts of animals, even, teach them 

 ways and means of construction that are far in advance of the 

 methods of the men of the nineteenth century. Did not the 

 wise man say go to the ant and consider her way and be wise ? 



The architecture of the past teaches us many facts of interest 

 and value, but none more important than this, that a building 

 must express an idea. It must not seem to be what it is, but be it, 

 without any uncertainty or doubt. In the structures now going 

 up around us, in this land as well as in other lands, this essen- 

 tial element is apt to be found wanting. There are too many 

 buildings that need repairs and alterations before they can be 

 occupied. There are too many structures erected for external 

 effect, without due regard to the planning and the use to which 

 they are to be put. There is too much drawing of pretty plans 

 and elevations on paper, without proper attention to structural re- 

 quirements. There is too much haste, too much careless manage- 

 ment, too much poor construction, too much attention to detail, 

 too much bad taste. As a result, our buildings are bad in concep- 

 tion and execrable in execution. "We must not condemn a build- 



