PARK AND CEMETERY. 
93 
exist in ithe world, and need not be discussed. The 
high building, as it exists, is an unmitigated evil to the 
many, while it is a convenience to the few, and to those 
few only so long aS ' they can prevent their neighbors 
.from taking advantage of the laxity of the law and fol- 
lowing their example. 
“Boston now limits- its buildings to a height "of ‘125 
feet, or two and a, half times the width of the street; 
this is much less than the limit in Chicago and New 
York, and yet is far higher than is permitted in any city 
of Europe. In Paris, and in general through Germany, 
Italy and Sweden, buildings are limited in height to the 
width of the street. In Berlin and Vienna houses must 
not have more than five habitable stories; Brussels, they 
must not exceed 69 feet in height; and, in London, the 
limit, with perhaps some exceptions on large open 
spaces, is 80 feet. 
“The preservation and improvement of natural beau- 
ties as at Morningside and Central Park, New York, and 
especially the utilization of waterways, is a matter of 
prime importance. In Europe, waterways are almost 
always made accessible to the people, and form a chief 
feature in the beautification of the city. With us, the 
river banks have usually been given over to purely com- 
mercial interests and are covered with dirty mills and 
warehouses. 
“The question of environment, of a suitable setting 
to whatever has a monumental character, is the next 
most vital question. In spite of the fact that in many 
fields we are now producing much better architecture 
than is the continent of Europe to day, our people and 
our city fathers are singularly deficient in demanding 
that it shall have a proper setting. Admirable build- 
ings are placed in narrow streets, or are sandwiched in 
between others of discordant form and color. 
“In the dressing of shop windows, in the arrange- 
ment of flowers and in many minor matters, we have 
learned to avoid the hodge podge and heterogeneous, 
and to strive for unity and harmony. That we have not 
done this in our street architecture and in the setting of 
public buildings is due not so much to our bad taste as 
to our bad politics and to our inveterate jjrejudice in 
favor of unregulated individual taste. This individual- 
ism permits, as regards private buildings, any dozen 
men who happen to own each a 25-foot front lot in a 
given block to mass together a dozen buildings, each of 
different style and color and height and of diff rent 
materials. The Paris law, which requires a certain uni- 
formity of sky line, cornice and balconies and harmony 
of color in any given block, would be a boon to every 
American city. With reasonable laws, our finer building 
materials, more brilliant colors and greater beauty in 
city domestic architecture, would make our cities far 
excel in beauty any in the old world. No freak or 
monstrosity would be permitted, and the subordination 
of each unit to the whole would increase rather than 
diminish the beauty of each, as was evident at the 
World’s Fair. We should simply exchange unbridled 
license for true freedom, and have ample scope for any 
genuine individuality that was worth while. 
“The setting of all works of art is of about equal 
importance to the merit of the work of art itself. Of 
what value to Boston is its statue of Samuel Adams 
with its present background. Who cares for the statue 
of Lincoln freeing the slave amid its sordid surround- 
ings ? Would not even St. Gaudens’ noble statue in 
Lincoln Park, Chicago, lose half its value were it 
transferred from its perfect environment? 
“In the detachment suburban house of flimsy wood 
exists one of the greatest obstacles to beautiful city 
life. Here, jig saw trimming, grotesque gables and 
excrescences, and patches and stripes of various colors 
often make as unpleasant a conglomeration of lines and 
proportions as the world can show. The dangerous 
crowding of such buildings, as the city extends its lim- 
its, makes the detached house (only three or four feet 
from its neighbors) worse than a brick block in respect 
to danger from fire. The law should prohibit any 
wooden building being erected within fifty feet of an- 
other building of wood. Continuous blocks of broad, 
shallow brick houses built around large, open squares 
give all the advantages of air and light and more 
privacy than the wooden house squeezed in between 
others. It can be made architecturally beautiful and 
harmonious, and as is shown by many delightful modern 
English residences of brick for persons of moderate 
means, is far better than the fantastic possibilities of 
the average American wooden suburb. 
“Among less important matters for consideration, 
the growing nuisance of the huge advertising bill-board 
deserves attention. Were it not so temporary in cha- 
racter and so certain to be abolished as soon as an 
aroused public shall demand it, it might be considered 
a matter of great moment, as indeed it is for the time 
being. The desecration of rock and cliff and forest by 
the advertising fiend would seem to have reached almost 
the limit of endurance, were it not that those who 
suffer consider themselves so helpless in the matter. In 
Massachusetts a law has been passed whose enforce- 
ment will materially modify the disfigurement of 
roads. 
“To whom shall we look for a remedy ? To the 
good citizen I It is not necessary that the good citizen 
should know anything about art. It is necessary that 
he should care for the needs of God’s creatures, that he 
should respect the love of beauty and that he should 
have common sense. He may not know Gothic from 
Greek, but he must know that he does not know, and 
that questions of beauty must be left to experts of 
beauty, just as questions of public health must be left 
to experts in the science of health. He must know 
enough to vote for an honest alderman, and be willing 
to take an immense amount of trouble to get others to 
do likew'ise. He must be willing to set his individual 
whim aside, and be glad to submit to the regulations 
and counsels of a board of beauty. 
“A board of beauty made the White City the glory 
and the marvel that it was. When the good citizen 
forces partisan politics to know its place and not intrude 
where it has no business to be, then such a board he 
must again call into requisition and let knowledge and 
taste give counsel and even prohibitory laws to ignor- 
ance and whim. The man, for instance, who fancies 
yellow brick, and wants to put a yellow brick house info 
the midst of a brown stone block, like a slice of sponge 
cake set on edge, must be taught that no man buildeth 
to himself, because no man liveth or dieth to himself — 
that we are all members one of another, and thus no 
man in a civilized community may mar his neighbor’s 
little plot by doing what he pleases with his own. The 
good citizen will find this no tyranny but a welcome 
protection from his neighbor’s follies. In proportion 
as he attains the beauty of holiness in his citizenship 
will he recognize the holiness of beauty in his city. 
