House and Garden 
entire interior effect, and it is enhanced by a 
few pieces of old furniture, fine antique mir¬ 
rors and exquisite wrought metal work, much 
of which was obviously collected abroad. 
The facings of the fireplaces are of the same 
kind of bricks which form the exterior of the 
house, but they have been skilfully waxed 
into indoor gentility. The floors—largely 
A PAUSE in the Manhattan Bridge con¬ 
troversy has been ended by a declaration 
on the part of the New York Art Commission 
that a board of engineers of recognized expert 
ability should pass final judgment upon the 
respective structural merits of the eye-bar 
and the wire cable systems,—from which it is 
to be supposed that, regarding the matter 
of design, either p'^tem is satisfactory to a 
Commission whicn is limited in its jurisdic¬ 
tion to esthetic questions only. An eminently 
satisfactory design based upon the former 
method of construction has been prepared, 
made public and officially approved. Ex¬ 
actly why the whole matter should be re¬ 
opened and the bridge redesigned is not to 
be explained. Certainly it is not a question 
of civic esthetics, but of politics, and of a parti¬ 
sanship existing among official engineers for 
or against a certain theory of construction. 
It is the architects who are commonly sup¬ 
posed to be the theorists; but in this matter 
they have proved themselves a most adaptable 
fraternity. If it is not the first architect who 
conceived the bridge, it is another firm that 
quickly renders in architectural terms an en¬ 
tirely different structural form. Meanwhile 
the attitude of the Art Commission repeats 
the adage that “ there is more than one way 
to skin a cat”; a serious question of profes¬ 
sion ethics among architects is opened ; and 
public interest is focused upon a detail, being 
withdrawn from the vital point of preventing 
a repetition of such an esthetic disaster as 
the Williamsburg Bridge. 
D URING the past summer efforts have 
been made in several cities to relieve 
the monotony of closed houses forsaken by 
those people who habitually spend the warm 
weather out of town. The simple expedi¬ 
ent of the window-box filled with flowers 
has not only transformed each house-front, 
exposed as they are — are unobtrusive in 
themselves, for the herring-bone pattern 
formed by the oak strips is one to be sought 
in order to be discovered. Solid dignity is 
the impression one obtains from examining 
how things are made, as well as how they 
appear, and in this the house properly em¬ 
phasizes a characteristic of its own locality. 
but has enlivened and beautified the aspect 
of entire blocks. Instead of the mute win¬ 
dows heretofore left to collect dust inside 
and out, despite newspapers stuffed within 
quickly taking on the air of preserved yellow 
journalism, have been seen masses of gerani¬ 
ums and nasturtiums and refreshing beds of 
green foliage, all wreathing pilaster, window¬ 
sill or column. In some of the Western 
cities residents were influenced to thus em¬ 
bellish their houses by the work accomplished 
in the schools and the rivalry between the 
pupils in rearing the finest window garden 
and thereby obtain a prize. In Philadel¬ 
phia an appeal was made by the City Parks 
Association to residents in five consecutive 
blocks of one of the principal streets. A 
request that window-boxes be put out about 
May i was accompanied by the hint that 
“ a very pretty window decoration can be 
secured for three dollars a window, complete, 
including plants, box and brackets.” The 
names of florists were given who would sup¬ 
ply and fill such boxes and, at a slight addi¬ 
tional charge, would keep them watered and 
tended during the season. One-fourth of 
the persons so addressed replied by adorning 
their houses in the manner described. 
Those whose occupations hold them pris¬ 
oners in town have grown not only to notice 
these refreshing spots along the streets, but as 
the flowers have budded and bloomed, they 
have learned to watch and love the tiny gar¬ 
dens in which, as daily passers-by, they have 
taken to themselves the interest of the owners 
who have fled. And now that these owners 
are returning and the houses opened, the 
window garden might be appreciated by the 
occupants of the houses also. But the sum¬ 
mer has waned, the flowers of the season 
are fading, and the question arises, should 
the window-box be deemed appropriate for 
the summer only ? Certainly not. When 
