12 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



July, 1906 



Monthly Comment 



HE summer season is naturally the period of 

 greatest anxiety to the agriculturist. The 

 anxiety with which the warm season is 

 awaited by every one engaged in outdoor 

 pursuits or avocations is never lessened for 

 a moment until the cold weather has finally 

 set in and the summer is confessedly at an end. The dis- 

 comfort experienced by the suburbanite and country resident 

 from unduly warm weather is, in itself, a comparatively 

 slight matter, be the personal inconvenience as great as it 

 may; the more serious aspect of very hot weather is that pre- 

 sented to the farmer and those dependent on the weather 

 for their sustenance. And this, in its turn, is not a personal 

 matter, but a national affair, affecting the crops, producing, 

 often enough, extraordinary effects on the money market, 

 and resulting in colossal national losses. The hot wave of 

 1894 is estimated by the national government to have cost 

 the State of Iowa alone the immense sum of $50,000,000, a 

 total that cuts a considerable figure when compared with the 

 loss occasioned by the San Francisco earthquake, and is 

 actually double the loss incurred in the Galveston disaster. 

 Such weather losses are liable to happen any year, and to af- 

 fect much larger areas than that of a single State. There 

 is always great personal discomfort in unseasonable weather 

 at any time, but the most serious aspects of the weather 

 are those which affect great areas at times when large crops 

 can be permanently harmed. Such disasters are without the 

 spectacular elements which make catastrophes like those of 

 Galveston and San Francisco so thrilling, but they are just 

 as real and just as serious in their results. 



At first glance mid-July may not appear to be a particularly 

 seasonable time at which the householder should take up 

 the question of his household heating, but it is nevertheless 

 the very time of times when this most important domestic 

 matter should be attended to. The furnaces and boilers are 

 now out of use; they can be taken apart, repaired and put to- 

 gether again without inconvenience and without trouble. 

 This, therefore, is the time when they should be attended 

 to. Every furnace should be promptly cleaned out at the ex- 

 piration of the winter's use, and the whole apparatus im- 

 mediately put into good working order. There is still a 

 good two months from the first of July before these things 

 will be called into use, but any adjustment or change that 

 is needed should be attended to while there is no possibility 

 of use. There are few things more awkward than to have 

 to hurry up furnace work. 



The only distinctions that come to architects are derived 

 from foreign sources. Success, and distinguished success, 

 is obtained at home, but honorary distinctions for archi- 

 tectural achievements — except honorary degrees from col- 

 leges and universities — are exclusively of foreign origin. 

 And this comes, in most instances, in the form of member- 

 ship in architectural bodies. Foreign, honorary or corre- 

 sponding membership in foreign architectural societies come 

 to but few American architects. The greatest honor is un- 

 questionably that of the Royal Gold Medal awarded annu- 

 ally by the Royal Institute of British Architects. But two 

 .American architects have been deemed worthy of this honor 

 by the great representative body of British architects. The 

 late Richard M. Hunt received this medal in 1893, and Mr. 

 Charles F. McKim in 1903. Six American architects have 

 been found worthy of admission to the class of Honorary 

 and Corresponding Members of the Royal Institute. French 



recognition is, perhaps, more highly prized than English, 

 since our leading architects now living have been educated 

 in architecture in France, or follow the French school as 

 the latest expression of modern ideals in architecture. The 

 latest French honor accorded an American architect has been 

 worthily accorded to Mr. Whitney Warren, who has been 

 made a foreign correspondent of the section of architecture 

 of the Academy of Fine Arts of the Institut de France. 

 It is a rare and unusual distinction, and one which Mr. 

 Warren richly deserves by reason of his own achievements 

 as an architect, and for the zealous zeal he has shown in 

 furthering the ideals of the French school in America. 



The lamentable state of affairs whereby the American na- 

 tion fails to house its foreign representatives, either properly 

 or in buildings of its own, is a favorite subject for popular 

 debate. It is, quite seriously, a reflection on our public spirit, 

 our generosity, our justice to our public servants. The spec- 

 tacle of the American ambassador hunting for a house has 

 more than once been held up as an illustration of our in- 

 ability to understand how to conduct ourselves as a nation 

 abroad. And in truth it is a sorry sight, and one that calls 

 aloud for remedying. Meanwhile, however, it is a matter of 

 some interest to note that no ambassadors are housed so 

 splendidly as those of the United States. Dorchester House 

 in London, the official home of Mr. Whitelaw Reid, is con- 

 fessedly the most splendid embassy in Europe. The Pring- 

 heim Palace in Berlin, occupied by Mr. Charlemagne Tow- 

 er, the Nassau Palace in Vienna, lately occupied by Mr. 

 Bellamy Storer, the superb house occupied by Mr. Robert 

 McCormick in Paris, — all these are palaces of the first rank, 

 houses great in every sense, and admirably adapted to their 

 present uses. The official salaries of the gentlemen occupy- 

 ing these dwellings do not even so much as pay their house 

 rent, and in this the impropriety of the American method 

 calls loudly for remedy. But it should not be supposed that, 

 because the United States provides no houses for its ambas- 

 sadors the public state is not sufficiently upheld by its foreign 

 representatives. It is, however, a gross reflection on our na- 

 tionality that our ambassadors must meet the cost of this dis- 

 play from their private purses. 



The adjournment of the various State legislatures has 

 been met with varied feelings on the part of the automo- 

 bilists and the much larger non-automobiling population. The 

 former have for so many years disregarded the rights of 

 the latter, they have killed so many people, injured so many 

 others, created so much alarm, and raised so much disturb- 

 ance generally, that the non-automobilists have risen in their 

 might and demanded, and in some cases secured, the enact- 

 ment of laws restricting the performances of the automo- 

 bilists on the public highways. Obviously it was quite time 

 something was done. The necessity for the doing has long 

 been obvious. Both sides have doubtless been unfair, the 

 one unwilling to concede enough, the other demanding too 

 much. It will probably take several years and a good deal of 

 legislative tinkering to put the automobile question right, 

 and it is likely that some hard knocks will be given to 

 one of the most delightful and exhilarating of sports. But 

 any sport that endangers life calls for restriction. There is 

 no room for debate on that question. The State legislatures, 

 however, do not attack the automobile, even in enacting 

 stringent regulations concerning its use; but are endeavoring 

 to give both parties — the automobilists and the non-automo- 

 bilists equal rights. The situation seems hardly helped by the 

 fact that the former constitute our richest class. 



