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UR English exchanges have a good deal to say about the late John D. Sedding, who died suddenly last spring, almost at the same moment with his wife, who was to a certain extent, associated with some of his work. Sedding was, we imagine, regarded here generally as something of a sentimentalist, and English artistic sentimentalism finds a feeble response among Americans; but he was something more than that, and his personal influence upon the younger generation of architects was excellent. It is curious that Sedding, William Morris and Norman Shaw were, at about the same time, pupils - in the office of the late George Edmund Street. With Street, sentiment and the main chance went hand in hand, but he certainly inspired his pupils with lofty ideals. Morris, perhaps the most thorough artist of them all, left the office, after a year’s trial of architecture, to make himself immortal, first as a poet, and then as the apostle of art in daily life, and Norman Shaw developed into the most successful dwelling-house designer of modern times. Sedding was called away by circumstances to the West of England, where he assisted his brother Edmund, and, after the latter’s death, succeeded him. Ten years of Devonshire and the Welsh border do not do much to expand a man’s artistic nature, and, while Morris was writing the “ Earthly Paradise,” Sedding was working patiently at Bristol, and using his holidays to study the old churches in the neighborhood. Soon after his marriage, in 1872, he came to London, where, in the ample leisure attending the first efforts of a young architect, he became interested in the ideas of Mr.
Buskin, and began to copy the plates in the “ Seven Lamps of \
Architecture.” Later, he became acquainted with Mr. Ruskin himself, and drew for a time under his direction. Some of his earlier commissions were for designs for embroidery and goldsmiths’ work ; and his young wife executed many of the embroidered pieces, one of which, in particular, a children’s pall for St. Alban’s Church, covered with flowers, was used at his funeral. His practice increased rapidly, hut he kept, throughout his life, to one of the principles which he had learned from Ruskin, if not from Street: — that toilsome correctness of style was of little value beside the freshness of inspiration which is best derived from the study of nature. Although nature apparently produced upon Mr. Sedding, as it has upon Mr. Burne Jones and others, impressions which ordinary mortals find it difficult to comprehend, the principle is not the less the only correct one, and the progress of architecture is simply a matter of its judicious application.
TIE police of Camden, N. J. appear to be persons of great energy. Within a few weeks, a certain unfurnished house had been observed to be much visited by parties of men, and the neighbors reported the circumstance to the officers, who immediately decided that the place was used for the manufacture of counterfeit money, and that the visitors were accomplices in the crime. A nocturnal raid was therefore organized, and at a signal, the doors were broken down, and a strong force of policemen took possession of the house. Instead of counterfeiting tools, however, they found a patented apparatus for the utilization of sewage, owned by a Philadelphia man, who had hired the house to set it up in so that he could show it to persons interested in the subject. On this being made clear to them, the police apologized and withdrew, much to the amusement of all the other people concerned.
A PECULIAR decision has recently been given by a court
in Germany in regard to the conditions of railway building. Two residents of a small town near the line of a projected railroad subscribed liberally for its construction, on the condition that the station for the village should be in the village itself, and not at some distance from it, as is frequently the case with Continental roads. The railway was built, but did not pass within a mile of the town, and, of course, the station was at the railroad. The two citizens, thinking that a station a mile away could not be regarded as being “in the town,” and finding that the personal advantages which they would have derived from having it close at hand would be lost, refused to pay their subscriptions, and the company sued for them. The defence was that the subscriptions were conditional, and the condition had not been fulfilled; but the court held that as the exact distance within which the station must be built had not been defined, a location a mile off must be regarded as a compliance with the condition, if, as in the case in question, it appeared that, for engineering reasons, it was not advisable to have it nearer; and condemned the citizens to pay their subscriptions. The moral of the story appears to be that subscribers to such enterprises will do well to see that their conditions are exactly expressed, and to ascertain beforehand that engineering considerations will not interfere with the plans on which their money is to be ventured.
THE report of the working of the “zone tariff” on the Austrian State Railroads has been published for the year
ending in June, 1891. From the figures given in the report, the Schweizerische Bauzeitung draws the conclusion that the number of passengers carried during the year, the first of the operation of the “ zone tariff,” was 43.45 per cent greater than during the previous year. The average price paid for tickets was, however, much-less, this being, indeed, a part of the plan ; but notwithstanding the reduced cost of travelling, the net receipts from passenger traffic were 3.61 per cent greater than in the year before. This appears to be a very favorable showing. Although the immediate increase of net profit from the increased traffic is not large, it is an evidence of the financial soundness of the plan that there was any increase at all, and as railway managers usually consider that the development of new passenger business, even if it is done at a loss, brings an indirect profit through the increased freighting and other business which follows the greater movement of passengers ; the far-seeing official who devised the plan has good reason to be satisfied with its first year’s trial.
point, usually requires the intervention of the County Commissioners, and is an extremely rare event. The consequence is that driving through the Boston suburbs is to a strangei generally one of the most exasperating experiences of his life, Starting, let us say, on a country road, which, however, soor takes a direction away from the point he wishes to reach, he endeavors to find a transverse street which will lead hint toward his destination. Of what appear to be transverse streets there is no lack, but to find a navigable one, so to speak, is quite a different matter. Three-fourths of them, in some oi the towns, are marked with the warning “ Dangerous,” and the prudent charioteer takes care not to tempt the perils which lurk within them. Reaching, at last, one without the alarming sign, lie turns into it, and drives a few hundred yards, when he reaches a fence, at which the street terminates, either in a neat oval, or a jungle of weeds. Turning, with difficulty, he makes his way back to the high-road, and proceeds, getting always farther from the place he wishes to reach, until he finds another promising-looking street. This, on trial, proves to describe three sides of a square, and conducts him back to the high-road, half a dozen rods beyond where he left it. The next street that looks feasible takes him, between two rows of handsome houses, straight to a pond, and, unless his horse and carriage are adapted for swimming, there is nothing for it but to return to the high-road again. The next public way, perhaps, brings up against a gravel bank, and another, beautifully macademized, leads him to a circular “ park,” from which there is no other outlet. By the time he has studied the varied topography of all these specimens of suburban engineering, the day has nearly passed, and, he returns to his starting point, with thoughts upon suburban town governments which would hardly bear expression. Of course, the natives understand that the reason why “ Arlington Avenue ” comes to a dead stop under a tree is that the owner of the land beyond the tree “ went back ” on his promise to extend it through his property ; and that Smithdale Street forms three sides of a square, because Mr. Smith only had six acres of land, and wanted to have his street all on his own ground; but the knowledge of these personal matters does not do much to console the people who would like to use these avenues for the purpose of getting somewhere, and not as subjects of ethical study ; while even the tax-payers, when they find themselves confronted with a heavy appropriation for extending a few of these culs-de-sac to a proper outlet, begin to regret that means could not have been found for having the proper disposition made at the outset. Such a means the citizens of Boston have now provided for themselves in their Board of Survey, and, although it has only been constituted a few months, its work has shown itself of such immense utility that the general feeling of the citizens, as expressed in the newspapers, appears to be one of deep regret that they had not thought of it before.
UR English exchanges have a good deal to say about the late John D. Sedding, who died suddenly last spring, almost at the same moment with his wife, who was to a certain extent, associated with some of his work. Sedding was, we imagine, regarded here generally as something of a sentimentalist, and English artistic sentimentalism finds a feeble response among Americans; but he was something more than that, and his personal influence upon the younger generation of architects was excellent. It is curious that Sedding, William Morris and Norman Shaw were, at about the same time, pupils - in the office of the late George Edmund Street. With Street, sentiment and the main chance went hand in hand, but he certainly inspired his pupils with lofty ideals. Morris, perhaps the most thorough artist of them all, left the office, after a year’s trial of architecture, to make himself immortal, first as a poet, and then as the apostle of art in daily life, and Norman Shaw developed into the most successful dwelling-house designer of modern times. Sedding was called away by circumstances to the West of England, where he assisted his brother Edmund, and, after the latter’s death, succeeded him. Ten years of Devonshire and the Welsh border do not do much to expand a man’s artistic nature, and, while Morris was writing the “ Earthly Paradise,” Sedding was working patiently at Bristol, and using his holidays to study the old churches in the neighborhood. Soon after his marriage, in 1872, he came to London, where, in the ample leisure attending the first efforts of a young architect, he became interested in the ideas of Mr.
Buskin, and began to copy the plates in the “ Seven Lamps of \
Architecture.” Later, he became acquainted with Mr. Ruskin himself, and drew for a time under his direction. Some of his earlier commissions were for designs for embroidery and goldsmiths’ work ; and his young wife executed many of the embroidered pieces, one of which, in particular, a children’s pall for St. Alban’s Church, covered with flowers, was used at his funeral. His practice increased rapidly, hut he kept, throughout his life, to one of the principles which he had learned from Ruskin, if not from Street: — that toilsome correctness of style was of little value beside the freshness of inspiration which is best derived from the study of nature. Although nature apparently produced upon Mr. Sedding, as it has upon Mr. Burne Jones and others, impressions which ordinary mortals find it difficult to comprehend, the principle is not the less the only correct one, and the progress of architecture is simply a matter of its judicious application.
TIE police of Camden, N. J. appear to be persons of great energy. Within a few weeks, a certain unfurnished house had been observed to be much visited by parties of men, and the neighbors reported the circumstance to the officers, who immediately decided that the place was used for the manufacture of counterfeit money, and that the visitors were accomplices in the crime. A nocturnal raid was therefore organized, and at a signal, the doors were broken down, and a strong force of policemen took possession of the house. Instead of counterfeiting tools, however, they found a patented apparatus for the utilization of sewage, owned by a Philadelphia man, who had hired the house to set it up in so that he could show it to persons interested in the subject. On this being made clear to them, the police apologized and withdrew, much to the amusement of all the other people concerned.
A PECULIAR decision has recently been given by a court
in Germany in regard to the conditions of railway building. Two residents of a small town near the line of a projected railroad subscribed liberally for its construction, on the condition that the station for the village should be in the village itself, and not at some distance from it, as is frequently the case with Continental roads. The railway was built, but did not pass within a mile of the town, and, of course, the station was at the railroad. The two citizens, thinking that a station a mile away could not be regarded as being “in the town,” and finding that the personal advantages which they would have derived from having it close at hand would be lost, refused to pay their subscriptions, and the company sued for them. The defence was that the subscriptions were conditional, and the condition had not been fulfilled; but the court held that as the exact distance within which the station must be built had not been defined, a location a mile off must be regarded as a compliance with the condition, if, as in the case in question, it appeared that, for engineering reasons, it was not advisable to have it nearer; and condemned the citizens to pay their subscriptions. The moral of the story appears to be that subscribers to such enterprises will do well to see that their conditions are exactly expressed, and to ascertain beforehand that engineering considerations will not interfere with the plans on which their money is to be ventured.
THE report of the working of the “zone tariff” on the Austrian State Railroads has been published for the year
ending in June, 1891. From the figures given in the report, the Schweizerische Bauzeitung draws the conclusion that the number of passengers carried during the year, the first of the operation of the “ zone tariff,” was 43.45 per cent greater than during the previous year. The average price paid for tickets was, however, much-less, this being, indeed, a part of the plan ; but notwithstanding the reduced cost of travelling, the net receipts from passenger traffic were 3.61 per cent greater than in the year before. This appears to be a very favorable showing. Although the immediate increase of net profit from the increased traffic is not large, it is an evidence of the financial soundness of the plan that there was any increase at all, and as railway managers usually consider that the development of new passenger business, even if it is done at a loss, brings an indirect profit through the increased freighting and other business which follows the greater movement of passengers ; the far-seeing official who devised the plan has good reason to be satisfied with its first year’s trial.
point, usually requires the intervention of the County Commissioners, and is an extremely rare event. The consequence is that driving through the Boston suburbs is to a strangei generally one of the most exasperating experiences of his life, Starting, let us say, on a country road, which, however, soor takes a direction away from the point he wishes to reach, he endeavors to find a transverse street which will lead hint toward his destination. Of what appear to be transverse streets there is no lack, but to find a navigable one, so to speak, is quite a different matter. Three-fourths of them, in some oi the towns, are marked with the warning “ Dangerous,” and the prudent charioteer takes care not to tempt the perils which lurk within them. Reaching, at last, one without the alarming sign, lie turns into it, and drives a few hundred yards, when he reaches a fence, at which the street terminates, either in a neat oval, or a jungle of weeds. Turning, with difficulty, he makes his way back to the high-road, and proceeds, getting always farther from the place he wishes to reach, until he finds another promising-looking street. This, on trial, proves to describe three sides of a square, and conducts him back to the high-road, half a dozen rods beyond where he left it. The next street that looks feasible takes him, between two rows of handsome houses, straight to a pond, and, unless his horse and carriage are adapted for swimming, there is nothing for it but to return to the high-road again. The next public way, perhaps, brings up against a gravel bank, and another, beautifully macademized, leads him to a circular “ park,” from which there is no other outlet. By the time he has studied the varied topography of all these specimens of suburban engineering, the day has nearly passed, and, he returns to his starting point, with thoughts upon suburban town governments which would hardly bear expression. Of course, the natives understand that the reason why “ Arlington Avenue ” comes to a dead stop under a tree is that the owner of the land beyond the tree “ went back ” on his promise to extend it through his property ; and that Smithdale Street forms three sides of a square, because Mr. Smith only had six acres of land, and wanted to have his street all on his own ground; but the knowledge of these personal matters does not do much to console the people who would like to use these avenues for the purpose of getting somewhere, and not as subjects of ethical study ; while even the tax-payers, when they find themselves confronted with a heavy appropriation for extending a few of these culs-de-sac to a proper outlet, begin to regret that means could not have been found for having the proper disposition made at the outset. Such a means the citizens of Boston have now provided for themselves in their Board of Survey, and, although it has only been constituted a few months, its work has shown itself of such immense utility that the general feeling of the citizens, as expressed in the newspapers, appears to be one of deep regret that they had not thought of it before.