The Ornamental Movement of IVater in City Streets 
torrents and running in all directions through 
the plain.” 
American cities, noisy, impatient, utilita¬ 
rian to the last degree, are singularly in need 
of the refreshing influence upon mind and 
body produced by flowing water. Let it be 
but so much as a slender jet, breaking into 
myriad drops as it seeks the sunlight, and it 
will appreciably affect its surroundings. As 
water is the greatest of mechanical solvents, 
so it acts here as a sort of flux, by whose 
aid the slow furnace of the mind reduces the 
more quickly to definite sensation the story 
implied in architecture and environment. 
Three uses are distinguishable, in American 
cities, for moving water in streets: first, the ' 
purely decorative or monumental; second, in 
THE TYLER-DAVIDSON FOUNTAIN, 
CINCINNATI 
drinking fountains ; third, in irrigating canals, 
limited to a few Western towns, such as Colo¬ 
rado Springs. It is a combination of the first 
and second classes, of the monumental struc¬ 
ture with the fountain available for slaking thirst 
of man and beast, that should commend itself 
to the enlightened municipal art committee. 
Every one, nowadays, admits the value and 
necessity, especially in warm weather, of a 
supply of free drinking water in public 
streets, though even this attitude is compara¬ 
tively recent. It was as lately as 1859 that 
London was practically without such facilities, 
and that strong economic and social arguments 
had to be advanced before the city government 
would act. Temperance advocates showed 
how, by slaking the thirst of workmen, the 
J 5 2 
latter might save five or six per cent, of their 
wages, otherwise sure to be spent at the nearest 
public-house. It was stated that in Liverpool, 
in one day of 13 hours, 8 minutes, 24,702 
persons drank at 13 street fountains, an 
average of one every 25 seconds. Granting, 
however, that in this year of grace 1902, no 
THE ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON MEMORIAL, 
SAN FRANCISCO 
great persuasion is needed to convince city 
councils of the wisdom of spending money on 
drinking fountains, this sentiment should be 
utilized by municipal art committees to obtain, 
for such street fountains as deserve it, a treat¬ 
ment distinctly decorative. Another argu¬ 
ment for architectural or sculptural setting is 
the practical necessity, even in a drinking tap, 
of a continuous, if small flow. Although this 
may seem a useless expenditure of water, no 
system of faucets quite serves the prrrpose in 
view. If the water must run all the time, it 
might as well be employed ornamentally. 
Chieflv available for street fountains in 
American cities are the occasional circular or 
triangular spaces formed by the junction of 
several thoroughfares, and the much more 
