ARCHITECTURE AND ORNAMENTATION. 311 



a profound and permanent impression and a broadening of the 

 artistic sense that has resulted in the formation of such societies 

 and organizations as the American League of Civic Improve- 

 ment, Architectural League of America, American Park and 

 Outdoor Art Association, and numerous other like parent bodies, 

 each with an ever-extending realm of influence. In effect, the 

 movement is the American Renaissance, calling into life a dormant 

 instinct implanted through divine purpose, prompting the beautify- 

 ing of the ordinary and useful, until the instinct of the artist 

 shall have entered into the conceptions of humbler artisans 

 delving and fashioning the homely articles of commercial and 

 domestic necessity, until as in those older days "the guilds of 

 the painters and sculptors shall be fraternal to those of the 

 weavers, the armorers, the brewers, and the bakers." 



Until this awakening, a few individual efforts marked here 

 and there a desire for more beautiful surroundings. 



L'Enfant laid out our Federal capital upon broad and artistic 

 lines, but only since the present century has his careful and loving 

 efforts received their merited recognition; now a committee of 

 noted artists and architects are devoting their talents toward 

 building the city of his imagination. 



Marvellous as has been the growth of industrial and scientific 

 America during the past century in artistic cultivation and the 

 aesthetic treatment of our surroundings, as a nation we are woe- 

 fully behind those of the Old World. Picture the Venetian Cam- 

 panile beside the wonderful church of San Marco and the superb 

 palace of the Doges. Only a bell-tower, yet its fall in 1902 shook 

 the world! 



With this pride of Venice contrast the following: 



From the water of a Southern seaport city the land slopes 

 back to a commanding height, and upon its summit, surrounded 

 by handsome homes, stately live-oaks, and overlooking a grand 

 view of harbor shipping and inland country, there rises a 

 gaunt steel stand-pipe, its faded sides tinged with yellow rust 



