The Treatment of City Squares 
planted as not to close the vista of the 
church, would vastly enhance the beauty of 
the spot, would relieve the monotony of the 
neighboring streets, and would not impede 
travel. This is speaking, of course, from 
the esthetic point of view, for historically the 
square’s emptiness is justified by the games 
of which it was once the site. 
Without so good an excuse, one must find 
the like emptiness in, for instance, Fork’s 
not with too much sentiment, as having a 
relation to public life quite akin to that of the 
open hearth to private life. It loosens fancy, 
in the very center of business, and ever bids 
the spirits rise. 
In front of St. Mark’s in Venice there is 
one of the most famous squares in the world. 
This is bare, only the Campanile and the 
ornate flagstaff's before the cathedral tres¬ 
passing upon it. But could there be any- 
Piazza Vittorio Kmanuele after the market 
has been swept aside. In fact, municipal 
neglect of vegetation is a typical original sin 
in the cities of garden-like Italy. But the 
new civic gospel has attacked it; and the 
original sin, it ought to be added, is partly 
atoned for by the constant virtue of running 
water, in fountains. These, to be sure, 
originally served a useful purpose, were not 
provided merely for embellishment; but the 
city fountain has been described prettily, and 
thing else here? In a city where there was 
plenty of room for walking, turf might have 
been planted to advantage so that the palaces 
would have looked on a garden-court. But 
in Venice the space is too precious. As 
“ the focus ” of the city, “ Keep off the 
grass” signs would have robbed the people; 
water here would have mocked them ; while 
merely a decorative pavement, well setting 
off' the architecture, is substituted appro¬ 
priately for turf and flowers, and in its 
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