

VII 



THE MODERN SKYSCRAPER 



average city office building of to-day is 

 the outgrowth of dire necessity. Nothing 

 short of that could have produced it; for man 

 is essentially a terrestrial animal, whatever arboreal 

 habits his ancestors may have had. Left unmolested 

 by enemies, and with the stress of fighting nature for 

 existence eliminated, he would seldom have built 

 two-story buildings, to say nothing of structures of 

 twenty, forty, or fifty stories. But fortunately for 

 progress it has never been the lot of civilized man 

 anywhere in the world to escape both these dangers at 

 any one time. As a result upper stories have been 

 added to his houses either as a means of defense or 

 for economy. 



At remote periods in history when land, building 

 materials, and labor were cheap, there was no reason 

 to add upper stories for the sake of economy; but in 

 those times the element of danger from enemies was 

 proportionately greater than in recent years. Preda- 

 tory animals and men had always to be reckoned with ; 

 so that, although land and building materials cost 

 little, it was necessary to raise protecting walls higher 

 and higher in proportion to the importance of the 

 tenant. The sky-scraping donjon, or keep, of the 



