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Record   and   Guid





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March 16, 1889





story that makes it a tower is pierced by a group of narrow round-
arched openings, tlu-ee on the narrow and eight on the long front.
The carving throughout is in the Byzantine manner, now so
prevalent, and is unfaihngly good in execution and in design also,
unless we except the corbels of the big brick walls. As ha^ been
seen, the building contains some excellent features, and almost
everywhere shows thought and feeUng. Nevertheless, it cannot
be called successful as a whole, mainly for the reason that it is not
a whole. The tower is the most ambitious feature, and it is also the
great mistake in the composition. If it had been treated as a nearly
solid shaft and steeply roofed it might have improved the outline
of the building and added dignity to ifc. But since commercial con¬
siderations compelled the arcliifcect to flll it full of windows he
would have done much better to omit it altogether. It gives the
narrow front, which was none too wide in any case, a painfully
squeezed and huddled aspect, and adds nothing to the effect of the
longer front. The rolls are another mistake in this place. Around
buttress may effectively fortify the angle of a building, though it
oftener weakens it. But a roll too large and protrusive to be a
modelling of the waU itself, which is apphed to it to strengthen it
and is evidently carried by the wall which it pretends to reinforce,
is an irrational aud even absurd object. The exaggeration of fche
cornice is another mistake, which defeats its own purpose. That
purpose must be to make it look very massive, and this is effected
when a considerable projection takes place in a moderate height,
and may be much enhanced by the insertion of narrow slits of
aperture. When full-sized windows are interpolated, as here, the
continuity and the massiveness of the cornice ai-e destroyed, and it
becomes a series of lumps, by no means impressive. It is a great
pity that the effective featm-es and the clever detail of this design
should be in part wasted upon an unfortunate composition.





Postmaster-General Wanamaker is bringing his experience
as the head of a great sfcore to add to the efficiency of the
government departments over which he now^ presides. It seems
that in his store he employs fifty clerks to forward packages by
mail to all parts of the country. The charge for this fourth-class
matter, as it is called, is 16 cents per lb. This he will ask
Congress to reduce to 8 cents per lb. so as thus to benefit the
retail dealers and their customers. The present high charge is, of
course, favored by the express companies, who naturally want to
monopolize the small package business of the country. Em-opeans
have now an immense advantage over this counti-y in the cheapness
of their " Parcels Post," which practically takes the place of our
express companies; but, of course, the cost is ti-ffiing as compared to
the charges of the express monopolies of this country. A great
government like that of Gei-many, France or England can make
much better terms with the railroad corporations than can the
American express companies with those at home, but the competi¬
tion of fche latter often bids up the price against tiiemselves.





The newspapers will probably oppose Postmaster-General Wana¬
maker's proposed cheapening of mail matter. They will say ifc was
suggested in order to help lus own store. The newspaper publishers
now enjoy an exceedingly fat piece of public plunder in connection
with the Post-office Department. While f om-th-class matter costs 16
cents per lb. and lefcfcers 3 cenfcs per oz., newspapers and periodicals,
and even dime novels, are chafged only 2 cents per lb. In other
words, the government makes a present of something over
$13,000,000 annually to newspaper and magazine and cheap novel
publishers ; but we ought to have a " Parcels Post," based upon the
experience aud practice of Europe and Great Britain. It will make
an immense addition to the retail trade of the country. It would,
of course, help to build up vast estabhshments in the leading cities,
from which retail goods could be distributed : but it is one of the
tendencies of the times which cannot be altered. By all means let
us have a cheap parcels service.





Tlie capitalization and profits of the Bell Telephone are simply
monstrous. Literally hundreds of thousands of persons have been
made ricli by becoming interested in what is nothing more or less,
stripped of all scientific mystery ii,nd jargon, than an improve 1
3peaking tube. The telephone ought not to cost the community the
one-hundredth part of what it does, Ifc was the government of the
United States which supphed the money to prove the practicability
of the electric telegraph. The experimental line from Washington
to Baltimore was a success. Had our government, like those of
other nations, taken fche telegraph department in its hands it would
have been a constant source of revenue, whilb telegraphic charges
would have averaged probably one-fourtli what they have done
undei- the control of private corporations. But when the telegraph
was proved to be all right our government was dominated by Jeffer¬
sonian ideas, which forbade the nation doing anything useful, and
hence electrical communication was turned over to stock gamblers
and finally became monopolized by Jay Gould. The possession of
the telegi-aph by the government would naturally have been fol¬
lowed by the buying up of the telephone,  when  its  value  became





known so as to make it an adjunct to the telegraph service  of the
country.





The State Senate bill permitting a husband to sell his real estate
without his wife's consent ought, by all means, to become a law.
Women can sell their property* without their husband's permission;
and what is sauce for the goose ought to be sauce for the gander.
A woman's right of dower ought to be based on all the property of
the husband, provided, of course, her means are much less than
his; but fchis demand for fche wife's consent in selling of the hus¬
band's realty often works cruel injustice, for ifc ties up estates and
throws a cloud upon titles, thus makuig real trouble to the com¬
munity. But we suppose the sentimental view will obtain, and
that the well-meant bill will be killed.





Street Improvements.

One of the most serious problems to be solved by our city author¬
ities is that of sti-eet improvements in the lower part of the
city, where with an enormous increase in ti-affic over that of
fifty years ago the street accommodations have undergone little
or no change. The question has been under discussion for a number
of years; but, owing to the fact that property-owners wish to get
everything and sacrffice nothhig, insm-mountable obstacles have
betn placed in the way of every proposed improvement. The Dock
Department has been able probably to accomplish more than any
other set of officials. It has the power aud fche will to widen the
exterior sti-eets, and for this much we may be thankful; but the
projecfcors of every other plan liave mefc only with disappointment
and delay.

In anotiier column we give a letter from William P. Van Zant,
who has been prominent in his opposition to the Elm street and
College place improvements, and who in his opposition has repre¬
sented many property-holders on the line of the former proposed
alteration. Mr. Van Zant takes the gi-onnd that, in all its work
hitherto, the city has been petty and mean iu what ifc has set out to
do, and that in the future there should be no more piecemeal work.
Nothing but a comprehensive plau, calculated to meet not only afl
preseut but many future necessities, would be of any value. Mr,
Van Zant outlines what he considers to be such a plan, without,
however, specifying the most essential point jjconnected with his
avenue—viz: its situation.

The Record and Guide has always favored tbe prompt execu-.
tion of any improvement which seemed to deserve the name. It
has realized that the city should not be timid or parsimonious in
making changes which the increased traffic of the city required.
Hence we can admit a certain degree of ti-uth in Mr. Van Zant's
contentions. A half-way policy is sometimes worse than no policy
at all; for such a policy often not only does not meet adequately
the immediate requirements, but it prevents the carrying out of a
wiser scheme in the future. Business conditionsin American cities
change with surprising rapidity. What is a problem to-day has
ceased to be one to-morrow. How can we tell that when we
have underground connection with the Jersey shore, when more
bridges span the East River, when the Harlem River is further
improved, and when the annexed and further outlying districts
have in'^reased in population and business importance, fche
ceuti-es of trade and traffic may not have shifted. It is unwise to
improve too much, because we cannot tell wifcb sufficient surety
exactly what to expect. The Capitol in Wasliington was built with
fche face towards the East, under the impression tliat tJie population
would settle in that du-ection ; as a matter of fact the cifcy has
grown towards the West, so thafc the Capitol stands with its back
to the city and faces a district that is scarcely built up at all. It is
useless to meet what may be temporary necessities with permanent
impro vem ent s.





The editorial columns of a daily newspaper are hardly the places
to look for consistency—a fact that is remarkably well exemplified
by their treatment of the subject of trusts. We flnd them on the
one liand rejoicing at the prospective failure of the copper syndicate
and on the other hand approving tbe formation of the Interstate
Railway Association. Yet tbe position of the copper mines previous
to the formation of the syndicate was in many ways analagous to
the position of the railways previous to the formation of the asso¬
ciation. There were some differences, it ia true, but in the main
both the railways and the mines were being ruined by over-compe¬
tition. According to the papers the restoration of rates in one case
was merely the restoration to the stockholders of their rights ; the
restoration of a reasonable price in the other case was robbery and
conspiracy. Or, again, certainly one of the worst uionopohes in
the country is that of the coal producers. Six or seven big corpo¬
rations virtually control the price of antluacite—a monopoly that
is rendered almost impregnable by the fact that these corporations
are the carriers as well as the producers. Yet in the case of the
coal the bm-den of high prices falls very heavily on the poor, to
whom it is a necessity. Only a lifcfcle over 2 per cent, of the annual
product of Pennsylvania is exported.     Copper, on the contrary.