ers to warrant authors and publishers in gathering together from the daily, the weekly, and the monthly the writings that a modest vanity hopes were not born to die?

IV.

If a distinctively American architecture could be created out of such stuff as dreams are made of, aided by the earthly suggestions of the Grand Cañon of the Colorado River, we might expect to astonish the world. A vague idea of such a construction has long been floating in the air, of buildings that should express the vastness of the country and the freely acting peculiarities of its people. The notions of what this should be are very nebulous. Traditional forms enter little into this conception, which may perhaps be defined as the aboriginal log cabin flowering into the grandiose picturesqueness of the buttes of the Arizona desert. But whatever it is, it will be a joy forever to those who never are so unfortunate as to see any other architecture, if it is only confessedly "American." This patriotic desire is paralleled by the belief in the practicability of an American financial and commercial system that shall be wholly independent of the rest of the world. And this at the period when more than ever before the world is bound together by swift ships and bands of steel, and when a pain or a joy or an emotion in any one part of the globe is instantly transported to every other member by an electric current. The simple truth is that this American experiment is not a "sport" without a parent, but the heir of the growth of the ages. And, of all things, its architecture cannot be the baseless fabric of a vision. Mr. Montgomery Schuyler, in his altogether admirable Studies in American Architecture, makes the wisest remark that has been printed on this subject when he says that "if American literature or painting or architecture be good, the Americanism of it may be safely left to take care of itself." This observation is so sound and comprehensive that a great many ambitious candidates might safely say that they would rather have made it than be President of the United States. What one ought to wish is good architecture, and that is not, as the author says, a question of morals, but of knowledge and competency. We should not expect much from a presumptive man of letters who did not know the

alphabet, nor from a painter who had neither learned to draw nor to mix colors, nor shall we have any creditable architecture from men who have not thoroughly grasped the principles and styles already developed. There is no chance for the full display of individual genius unless a man is master of the tools of his art. Without technical knowledge there is no freedom, and traditional rules hinder only the individual development of the incompetent. As the author says, "the restraints in architecture of a recognized school, of a prevailing style, are useful and salutary in proportion to the absence of restraint that the architect is able to impose on himself." The American architect is working in an age when the idea of ornamental design has taken the place of sound construction, when “features are more regarded than unity of effect, or, as Mr. Schuyler puts it, "the radical defect of modern architecture in general, if not of American architecture in particular, is the estrangement between architecture and building-between the poetry and prose, so to speak, of the art of building, which can never be disjoined without injury to both." The idea is not that the building as a whole must be constructed on sound architectural principles, but that you can build a house and put on the "architecture" afterwards. So it is, as an architect is quoted as saying, that American architecture was the art of covering one thing with another thing to imitate a third thing, which, if genuine, would not be desirable." Once the laws of architecture are learned, and its historic genesis is kept in mind, and the best that has been done is known, genius will go on and go far in devising habitations and edifices that ought to express the character and provide for the wants of a civilized people, and bear some relation to the climate in which they live. But first knowledge and law. The attempt to Whitmanize architecture is not promising. The transferrence to the city streets of the bizarre constructions of sea-side idlers gives our towns the aspect of a perpetual picnic encampment. carpenter's architecture when he did not know anything was preferable to his architecture since he has learned to be fantastic. Better decent monotony in form and color than a town which looks as if it were struck with the jimjams. Mr. Schuy ler will excuse these untechnical terms in

66

The

which we call attention to a treatise which should have a great influence on the student and practitioner of architecture. If we ever have a style in any of the arts that can with any credit to us be called American, we may be sure that it will be a legitimate growth out of the past, and that in the

POLITICAL.

UR Record is closed on the 12th of July.— In Congress the Senate passed the (Stewart) Free Silver Bill July 1st. The House passed a bill for the admission of Utah July 8th.

John W. Foster, of Indiana, was appointed, June 29th, to succeed James G. Blaine as Secretary of State.

Nelson W. Aldrich was re-elected United States Senator from Rhode Island June 14th.

The Democratic National Convention met at Chicago on the 21st of June, and nominated Grover Cleveland, of New York, for President, and Adlai E. Stevenson, of Illinois, for Vice-President. The party through its platform reaffirmed its allegiance to the principles formulated by Jefferson and exemplified by his successors; deplored the existing tendency towards the centralization of power; stig. matized the policy of Federal control of elections as an act of legalized force and fraud full of danger to the republic; denounced the Republican poliey of protection, and declared itself in favor of a tariff for revenue only; exclaimed against "sham reciprocity" with foreign nations; demanded the rigid enforcement of laws for the control of trusts and other combinations of capital; declared itself in favor of the coinage of silver and gold "without charge for mintage," and demanded the maintenance of the parity of value of gold, silver, and paper currency; called for the honest enforcement of all laws regulating the civil service; demanded the rigid prohibition of Chinese, pauper, and contract immigration, but denounced all efforts to restrict the immigration of "the industrious and worthy of foreign lands"; recommended the repeal of the prohibitory ten per cent. tax on State banks; approved the granting of liberal pensions to Union soldiers, but denounced the present administration of the pension office; asserted allegiance to the cause of popular education, and opposition to State interference with parental rights; recommended the passage of laws for the protection of railroad employés, for the abolition of the sweating system, of contract convict labor, and of the employment of children in factories; and declared its opposition to all sumptuary laws.

The National Convention of Prohibitionists, which met at Cincinnati June 30th, nominated John Bidwell, of California, for President, and J. B. Cranfall, of Texas, for Vice-President. It adopted a platform urging laws for the suppression of the liquor traffic; demanding woman suffrage; calling for government control of railroads, telegraphs, and other public corporations; demanding the restriction of immigration and the suppression of speculation in margins; favoring the free coinage of silver and gold, and calling for an increase in the volume of money; and declaring that tariff should be levied only as a retaliatory defence against foreign governments. VOL. LXXXV.-No. 508-64

The National Convention of the People's Party met at Omaha on the 4th of July, and nominated James B. Weaver, of Iowa, for President, and James G. Field, of Virginia, for Vice-President. The platform declared the party to be in favor of the general union of the labor forces of the country; demanded the government control of all railroads and telegraphs, the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold, an increase in the amount of circulating currency, the establishment of a graduated incometax, and the organization of a system of government savings-banks; and declared itself opposed to the ownership of land by aliens and by public corporations for purposes of speculation.

On the 30th of June the Homestead Iron-works, near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, were closed on account of a threatened strike among the workmen, and all members of labor unions were refused employment. On the 6th of July a force of Pinkerton men, who were employed for the purpose of protecting the works and the non-union employés, were attacked by the strikers. In the fight which ensued ten strikers and four detectives were killed, and more than 200 of the latter were wounded. The strikers remained in possession of the works. The civil authorities being powerless, an appeal was made to the Governor of the State. On the 10th he issued an order to the National Guard of Pennsylvania— 8500 men-to repair to the scene of the disturbance for the purpose of restoring order and enforcing obedience to the laws.

The British Parliament was dissolved June 28th, having been in existence since August 5, 1886.

The elections held in Belgium in June for members of the Constituent Assembly resulted in favor of the Liberals by a small majority.

The Brazilian Congress, July 1st, extended General Peixoto's term of office as President until 1895.

DISASTERS.

June 14th.-In the harbor of Blaye, France, the tank-steamer Petrolia was struck by lightning, and fifteen persons were killed.

June 15th.-By the breaking down of the false work of a new bridge over the Licking River, Kentucky, more than twenty men were killed.

July 9th.-A great fire in St. John's, Newfoundland, destroyed property worth $20,000,000, and made 15,000 people homeless.

OBITUARY.

June 29th-At Clinton, New York, Theodore W. Dwight, professor of law in Columbia College, aged seventy years.

July 10th.-At Bloomfield, New Jersey, George W. Bungay, author, aged seventy-four years.

July 12th-In New York, Cyrus W. Field, aged seventy-three years.

"Take off your waistcoat." He obeyed.

make themselves apparent in a way leaving little room for doubt that they are accidental.

"No. Clasp your hands."

He did so, and she raised the hickory and brought it down "swauo" across his back. Again there was a gasp throughout the room, which came every time a lick was given. Uncle Jack was the only one who uttered no sound. He stood like a statue. When she finished, he put on his coat and sat down. School was dismissed.

Next day Uncle Jack was at his old place at the stable.

"Why, I thought you were at school?" said his master, who had heard something of the trouble.

"Nor, suh; I got 'nough edication,” he said. He stuck his curry-comb into his brush. There was a pause; then: "I tell you de fac', Marse Conn. I is too ole to be whupt by a ooman, an' a po' white ooman at dat."

It was several years after this that Uncle Jack was working one day at a water-gate, when the children came down the road from school. They stopped and peeped stolidly through the fence. Among them was Jawnie," Mrs. Scott's hopeful, who had proved an apter scholar than his father. His bag was on his arm. He climbed over the fence, and from the bank gazed down apathetically at his father in the water below. Presently he said: "Or, poppa, de teacher say you mus' git me a geography."

Uncle Jack's jaw set. had not heard.

He dug on as if he Then he repeated to himself: "Geog'aphy-geog'aphy. Marse Conn, whut is dat? whut is a geog'aphy?" he asked, looking up.

"A geography?” said his master. "Why, a geography is a-is a book-a book that tells about places, and where they are, and so on." He gave a comprehensive sweep around the horizon.

erected with a strict regard for honesty which does honor to all concerned. The three citizens of credit and renown who formed the construction committee saw that the work was done faithfully, and then handed back to the treasury a large surplus. The names of these gentlemen-inscribed on a small and not at all conspicuous plate in the building-are Robb, Steele, and Swindell.

In the same city, not long ago, two physicians happened to rent offices in the same house, and the wayfaring public saw displayed over its door the startling signs of Doctor Slay and Doctor Blood.

It would be strange if chance did not sometimes bring about a really appropriate conjunction of titles. It did this with great success in the case of a recent marriage ceremony, when a Miss Post and a Mr. Stump were fitly united by the Rev. Mr. Lockwood.

THE MODEL GALLEY-SLAVE.

IN the early part of Louis XVI.'s reign a German prince made a tour through the south of France, and was shown, among other points of interest, the port and naval arsenal of Toulon. Having expressed a wish to see the galley-slaves, he was conducted through the dock yards where they were laboring, and, in compliment to his rank, permission was given to him to set free one convict.

Naturally wishing to use this privilege for the benefit of some one who really deserved it, the prince mingled with the criminals incognito, and asked one of them what he had done to be sent there.

"Nothing," growled the felon; "it's easy to imprison a man on a false charge."

Presently he stopped, and looked up at "Jawnie." "I say, boy, you tell de teacher I say you better stick to you' a-b abs an' you' e-b ebs, an' let geog'aphy alone. You knows de way now to de spring an' de wood-pile an' de mill, an' when you gits a little bigger I's gwine to show you de way to de hoe-handle an' de cawn furrer, an' dats all de geog'aphy a nigger's got to know."

fact, on their own showing, no more innocent and injured men had ever been wronged by human injustice. At length the prince espied a sad-looking man a little apart from the rest, and put the same question to him.

"It was all my own fault," said the convict. "Your own fault?" echoed the prince. "Yes," said the man, ruefully. "If I hadn't let myself get into idle ways I should never have been here. Idleness led me to drink, and drink emptied my pockets, and I took to thieving to fill them, and this is the end of it."

“Then, you rogue," cried the prince, "what business have you among all these unocent and high-principled men, who are here by no fault of their own? Why, by your own admission, you are enough to corrupt the whole gang; but I'll take care that you do not contaminate them any longer with your bad example. You shall be set at liberty this very day!"

AN EXPENSIVE LAMP SHADE.

HIGGINS, the street-car conductor, was on the night turn last week, and he did his sleeping in the daytime.

When he woke up from his much-needed rest one afternoon his industrious little wife brought out for his admiration a lamp shade made of colored tissue - paper. She had made it with her own pretty hands, and its scalloped border was perforated with innumerable little holes, through which the light of the parlor lamp would fall on the table.

"Tell me if you think it is pretty,” demanded Mrs. Higgins, holding the shade out for her husband to inspect it.

"It looks lovely," began the man; but as his eyes fell on it more closely he turned pale, and said, in a hoarse voice, "You made those holes with my bell-punch ?”

COLONEL H. AND THE ROMAN BEGGAR. COLONEL H., of Baltimore, settled in Rome some years since, and for a time received his mail at the bank, to which he always walked morning and afternoon, passing en route through the Piazza di Spagna, where a venerable beggar sat, and to whom he gave alms each time he passed. But after a few months' knowledge of Roman beggardom he suddenly ceased to drop the accustomed copper into the extended hat. Whereupon the beggar brought suit for 600 lire, which he claimed to have loaned to Colonel H., producing at the same time two witnesses to the fact. The victim of this trick lost no time in consulting a native lawyer, who remarked that while he had no doubt of the utter fraudulency of the claim, still the testimony of the beggar and two eye-witnesses must stand in the absence of any rebutting evidence; but that if the Colonel would spend half the sum involved he would undertake to defeat the stratagem. Outraged as he was, the Colonel concluded to accede to the attorney's terms; and when the case came up, and the beggar's two witnesses had testified to having seen the beggar lend the money to the defendant on a certain day, the latter's lawyer promptly called two witnesses who made oath that they had seen Colonel H. pay the money back to the beggar on a day that proved to be just a week after the date of the alleged negotiation this to the amazement of the Colonel, and sternation and defeat of the beggan

ILE OF ERIN.

MR. G. was an Irishman of the old school, and of course possessed some peculiarities of speech. To discover whether he was conscious of them, I said to him: "Mr. G., I presume you have noticed among the curions things of our language that in many instances the same word does duty for various purposes, and may express several meanings, or designate several things widely different. For instance, the word isle you would not distinguish from the aisle of a church, or from o-i-1, except as it is written."

"Yis," responded Mr. G., "it is one of the fatures of a language drawn from so many soorces, that this word ile, as we spake it, should have its various manings distinguished only by its spilling. Were these various wurrds spilt aloike as well as pronounced oidentical, one could niver till the other from which." JOHN PAUL.

ON THE BEST AUTHORITY.

A STORY is told of a trial for burglary in which one of the jurymen seemed to be so certain of the prisoner's innocence, and pleaded for him so eloquently and so convincingly, that the eleven others (who had no particular bias either way) allowed themselves to be argued into returning a verdict of "not guilty." A few days later fresh facts came to light, which proved the accused man's innocence beyond a doubt; and one of the eleven wavering jurymer, happening to meet with the man who had so powerfully influenced them all, thanked him warmly for having saved them from the commission of a great injustice.

"And yet, now I think of it," he added, "you could not have known then anything about these new facts, so how could you be so sure that the man was innocent?"

'Well," replied the other, "my chief reason for thinking that he did not commit the crime was that I committed it myself."

Such authority was certainly not to be disputed; but a yet more startling case of the same kind occurred not many years ago in Paris, at the first representation of a tragedy that had for its closing scene the murder of a Swedish king, which had taken place nearly half a century earlier. All went well till the murder scene came on, when a very dignified old gentleman in the stage-box showed signs of strong dissatisfaction, and at length called out, angrily:

"Absurd! they've got it all wrong!"

The manager himself heard this plain-spoken comment, and being naturally disturbed by so sweeping a condemnation, he sought out the critic, and politely begged to know what fault he had to find with it.

"Why, my good sir," cried the old man, with an air of authority, "the whole grouping of the scene is incorrect. You have made them kill the king to the right of the door, whereas we murdered him on the left!"