ON AMERICAN GARDENING 



successful. To a certain extent Mr. Piatt 

 has been the leader and spokesman of this 

 group; and his work, as much as any, 

 shows a real individuality and a masterly 

 good taste. 



The progress of the Italian style in 

 America, however, has been one great 

 unified movement. By some it has been 

 regarded as a mere passing cult, an artist's 

 whim, a temporary aberration of good taste, 

 which would soon give way to saner things. 

 This view is prejudiced, short-sighted, 

 wrong. The appearance of the Italian 

 style on our soil at this time was just as 

 natural, even inevitable, as the Declaration 

 of Independence or the Meat Trust. It 

 has been the outgrowth of our state of 

 civilization. Given, on one hand, a group of 

 architects whose training has been largely 

 European, and whose ideals have been 

 formed in Paris, Rome and Florence, and, 

 on the other hand, a group of excessively 

 wealthy clients who are also fairly well 

 Europeanized, and nothing under the Stars 

 and Stripes could prevent the introduction 

 of those methods which made the gardens 

 of Versailles and of Rome the wonder of 

 the world. 



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