36 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



exquisitely designed. But — not to be invidious — at least, there are 

 'others.' The Cullum Memorial building is quite worthy in its way 

 and standing alone; but its Polonian fairness serves only to 'swear 

 at' the grim granite, buttressed and embattled, across the plain. By 

 the side of the Memorial (as if it had laid an egg) is the officers' 

 mess — that also not bad architecturally, but a little, just a little, one 

 feels, out of keeping. The hotel, of course, is a bad blot on the land- 

 scape, and some other matters need remedying. Let us be patient as 

 well as brutally frank — they are all going to be remedied if the gov- 

 ernment will permit the architects to 'build up the system.' 



T^o mere panaceas for the accident of incongruity; touches here 

 and there modifying or obscuring or obliterating something hideous 

 or something merely obtrusive, saving sacredly all that can or ought to 

 be saved out of the chaos ; never replacing anything really beautiful by 

 something even more beautiful even to propitiate uniformity, and 

 above all guarding jealously the spirit of old associations, always at 

 'arms-port' to cry, 'Who comes there?' to him — even to a friend, 

 without the academy or within, who can not give the countersign, 

 'Propriety,' or seeks to substitute 'Utility.' 



What a superb foundation these artist souls may build upon ! A 

 level square mile, terre-plein whose barbette views throw glances river- 

 ward many miles north and south, a steep scarp of primeval rock 

 plunging down sheer to the glacis of water below; outlying works of 

 precipitous hills, piled terrace upon terrace to the highest peak crowned 

 with the gray vestiges of Fort Eufus Putnam. 



j^ot alone the traditions of the military academy invite the artisan 

 and the architect to his best efforts, but here are older historic associa- 

 tions yet ta stimulate also the poet. To the planning of such work 

 as is here contemplated some measure of fine frenzy must mingle with 

 the dull prosaic details of necessity or expediency. 



The general plans and such details as have been elaborated show 

 conclusively how grand the scope of alteration, how admirably exist- 

 ing conditions are to be utilized, and the natural features are to l)e 

 availed of. In its material phases West Point may»be easily separated 

 into three distinct periods : that of the early academy, of the old north 

 and south barracks — of the academy as it was when Edgar Allan Poe 

 was a cadet, where Whistler stood higher in drawing than in chemistry, 

 and where Grant and Lee, Sherman and Longstreet got their education. 

 Then came the time of the present barracks, Elizabethan, stately, well 

 appointed. It was erected in 1851. The old academic building was 

 built in 1838, and was replaced by the present modern structure in or 

 about 1890, The third period is that about to be inaugurated. 



In the construction of the ISTew West Point the present academic 

 building will be retained; the site of the old chapel being utilized for 



