German Houses and Gardens 
OLD HOUSES OF A GERMAN TOWN 
THE SO-CALLED ALPINE STYLE OF TODAY 
must be such little garden-houses in quiet 
nooks, leaning against crumbling walls, where 
young people walk along planted paths 
hand in hand, their hearts filled with that 
tender love of which they sing. 
Two little books by a painter and social re¬ 
former, Mr. Paul Schultze-Naumburg,give us 
a fine opportunity to look into this romantic 
world. The illustrations accompanying this 
paper have been taken from these works, 
which are the honest and intelligent labor of a 
thoughtful man. Not only a pleasing impres¬ 
sion of romantic self-forgetfulness is to be ob¬ 
tained from them, their author as well as the 
present writer thinks less of contemplative po¬ 
etry than of practical reforms. Their 
author has wandered through our 
country and has experienced what we 
all know, that the houses, a hundred 
or eighty years ago, were much more 
beautiful than those of the last dec¬ 
ades, and that only the most recent 
movement in art is changing these 
conditions timidly and in a manner 
that is far from effectual. But what 
Mr. Schultze - Naumburg has been 
doing for Germany and that to which 
his pictures certify, is certainly true 
for America. For what we see in his 
illustrations strengthens our opinion 
that our bad examples have their 
counterpart over the sea. It seems to 
me that in America that mania for 
style is reigning which has spoiled the last 
third of the century in Germany and Austria, 
and it might be profitable to show by some 
examples of the good old and the bad new 
style the possibilities that exist for reform. 
Let us look at such a plain, simple, old- 
fashioned home as our first illustration. It 
has a smooth exterior, simply-finished win¬ 
dows, arranged quietly one beside the other, 
without prominent shutters or ornaments. 
On the side is a round bay-window. The 
roof is of shingle rising toward an unpreten¬ 
tious octagonal tower, not too lofty—-just 
high enough that one may look from the 
little hall above over the houses and trees of 
the neighborhood out into the distance. 
You ask for the style of the building? It 
has none. It does not remind us of the an¬ 
tique, nor the Renaissance, it does not show 
any relation to historic data, it does not even 
possess intended artistic beauty. Nothing 
has been put into this structure, but one 
thing has been accomplished: the fullest 
appropriateness in the most touching sim¬ 
plicity. How many charms, how much 
nobility lie in this little home ! 
A second picture : a house on a rising 
road. The ground is uneven ; there is a low 
bank covered with green, and from it a few 
steps lead to the entrance. By the side of 
the house is a garden, enclosed by an irregu¬ 
lar stone wall. The trees of this garden 
send their branches out into the street and 
cover the entrance. The house has few 
windows in the front, even the second story 
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