The Ornamental Movement of IVater in City Streets 
THE ORNAMENTAL MOVEMENT 
OF WATER IN CITY STREETS.—I. 
T i l E municipal renaissance begun in many 
American cities within a few years, and now 
spreading rapidly through the country, may 
he compared to the process whose results are 
visible at intervals in the Vienna Royal Opera 
and other European theaters of the first rank. 
One after another, the older operas in the 
repertory are taken up and re-studied. Music, 
text and action that every singer concerned 
knows too well, if that be possible, are 
examined anew, and an effort is made to 
eliminate encumbering tradition and habit, 
and to realize afresh the significance and func¬ 
tion of every factor. Orchestra and chorus go 
over the score as if for the first time, and the 
or, better yet, the streets themselves, noting 
undesirable effects to be eliminated, and 
studying how to preserve or enhance public 
utilities and still avoid imposing upon any 
thoroughfare or square an aspect not in keep¬ 
ing with its inherent character. Often enough, 
such a committee will find that cost of ground 
and the demands of commerce or traffic con¬ 
spire to prevent radical alterations like the 
cutting of a new street or the widening of an 
existing avenue. The committee therefore 
limits itself to planning minor embellishments 
instead of large schemes of reconstruction, 
—for not every American city can be a 
Twentieth Century Washington. 
Far more likely than most other archi¬ 
tectural or sculptural decorations, to be satis¬ 
factory under such circumstances, are street 
K FT M Hi 
HSk 1 
— 
'JtAm 
THE PIAZZA OF ST. PETER 
principal singers read their parts with the idea 
of embellishing them, and bringing more fully 
into relation with the whole drama episodes 
not previously utilized, so as to present a vital 
and complete interpretation. Even costumes 
and scenery are renewed. 
Municipal art societies and other civic 
organizations are now doing this sort of work 
for their several cities. Committees of archi¬ 
tects and laymen are going over street plans, 
ROME 
fountains, devised for the ornamental display 
of moving water. Should it be determined 
to reclaim some neglected fragment of public 
property in the city’s busy quarter, or to erect 
a modest monument to a local or national hero, 
what more fitting than a design in which the 
beneficent influence of flowing water is felt ? 
Even when the appalling lack of general 
knowledge in our country of what is good and 
what vicious, in sculpture, is responsible for 
i 5° 
