Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/20

 8 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [July, these will produce equable burnt brick of shades varying insensibly from dark cream to full yellow and buff. Utica and Syracuse, New York, have man}'- buildings composed of these warm-tinted bricks. The brickyards near Milwaukee afford them of a fine and even buff color, and they are much used in that city The conductor of this journal has sev- eral times attempted to introduce special patterns of them into Philadelphia, to vary the effect of fronts, in arches and other conspicuous parts ; but on each occasion the exigency of hurry prevented waiting, they being in great demand at home, and only obtainable through orders sent long before they are really needed in the proposed build- ing. Something of this sort was for- merly known among us in the glazed black-headers, to which perhaps, as used, nobody would care to recur ; yet these and those again need not be used in the mere peppering ' style, but rather be worked in mass to avoid spottiness. A common mode in Paris and its environs is to employ different colors in the bricks of the front ; though, notwithstanding, the almost unerring French taste, in a spotty manner. Imagination must al- ways be well reined in, or else she will play us many a scurvy trick. The ex- treme of this spotted fashion, in the early boyhood of the writer, prevailed in the rural settlements of Pennsylvania, made by the peasantry of the various Germanic nations ; and he is told that it lingers yet in the more secluded town- ships, within from forty to two hundred miles of Philadelphia, mostly in farm- houses, but occasionally in churches. This consists in white- washing the walls and ceiling with the most scrupulous care, then lighting caudle or lamp and adjusting the wick expressly for smoking, in order to smoke dots, clouds, and other choicely artistic figures, in quincunx, or other geometrical fashion, in plenteous diffusion all over the original immacu- late whiteness. Among the vicious styles, in our ken, fast disappearing, we hope forever, is the ambitious ; very prone to degenerate into the simulative. We have now men- tally before us a domicile, in one of the few very largest cities of the Union, whose elaborately-planned and built Gre- cian portico, covering the entire eleva- tion of a three-story messuage, is in the side elevation equivalent to four propor- tional parts out of seven, leaving only three parts for the depth of the house itself. In cost the portico was probably three dollars for every dollar expended on the house itself. This elaborate sham occupies a corner, so that the decidedly overwhelming, though somewhat incon- gruous effect upon the spectator in front is immediately and most ludicrously upset by a single glance at the flank. In Montreal there appears a passion for substantiality and chaste beauty. Few cities can surpass, or even equal the store fronts, whose entire two or three stories are, in effect, one glass display-window, while the public build- ings, the churches, the theatres, and the grand pier on the St. Lawrence are evi- dence of uncommon architectural skill and truth. In Quebec we pass to quite another world. The feudal days appear to have revived in the city walls, and the inhabitants apparently are in a con- stant state of siege from winter The lofty trans-gothic gables, the steep roofs, covered with bright tin, gleaming in the sun like polished silver ; the two long ladders lashed over the ridge of eveiy roof, hinting of possible danger from fire, which must be met on the instant ; the vessels careened, when the greatly varying tide is out, on the beach far below the castellated walls ; the horses and carts moving around among the vessels on dry shingle, where in a few hours every thing will be again afloat, and the challenge of the sentinels at the various city gates, put the traveller at once in Europe, his impression being confirmed by the solid, secure, but rather heavy or even clumsy, style of domestic architecture.