DECORATIVE MATERIAL 



merely to lift it Into view, a couple of feet suf- 

 ficing for a life-size figure. Statuary Is raised on 

 lofty bases only when It Is desired to make it 

 *' tell " at a distance. It would be the twelve- 

 foot height of absurdity to put a twelve-foot 

 pedestal under any figure with which we sought 

 to ornament our yard. Mounted In that fashion 

 its place would be the front of a capltol or city 

 hall. And mind, I am rather insisting that while 

 there may be a statuette there shall be no statue, 

 unless there is a wall for a background, and we 

 do not build many walls in this country. I can 

 remember hardly a dozen on the Island of Man- 

 hattan, that surround estates of consequence, 

 though I do recall some ancient defenses of the 

 sort In Its upper districts, now gone to rack and 

 ruin, through the cutting of new streets and 

 subways, the building of elevated roads and via- 

 ducts, the appropriation of adjacent fields for 

 tenements, and the Incoming of that disturbing 

 horde which defies the blandishments of soap. 

 With such a canvas as any one of these estates 

 offered in its best day, what pictures might not 

 one create upon It! May I draw one here, of 

 what I would have In this garden of my fancy? 

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