Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/412

 334 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [Nov., the cellar, have the advantage of a more equal distribution of water, than if the supply ran directly from one to the other ; and the small increased expense of so running the pipe is well incurred, as insurance against a much larger out- lay, caused by damage from accident. Let the supply from the street run directly to the boiler, either under the cellar floor, or suitably supported upon the cellar or basement ceiling; and let the supply from the hot-water boiler be run as nearly in the same way as pos- sible. From these run perpendicular pipes, to supply all the water conve- niences in the house. Let all waste-pipes descend in the same way, and connect with the main drain, under the cellar, or on the outside of the house. Place all pipes where they can be easily reached ; keep the horizontal pipes in the basement ; and avoid posi- tions where pipes will be exposed to cold draughts of air. To architects, we would say, in draw- ing the details of buildings, keep in view the importance of showing, upon the plans, suitable places in which to put the pipes and other water fixtures. You will thus gain business and repute. AN AMERICAN STYLE. THE climate of our country, if noth- ing else, must prompt the produc- tion of an indigenous style in archi- tecture, the precedaneous signs of which are already discernible by the European observer. It is, as yet, in the external design of our domestic construction, that- the dawn of the coming style is to be^ detected ; and the necessities of cli- mate have prompted its appearance in that department, as being the more in- timate dominion of our human family. In other climes, the type of stjde is to be found in the elevations of their public buildings. The church, the palace, the town-hall, the exchange and the theatre, are the monumental monitors to consult for a knowledge of the style, which obtains in their locality. In our coun- try, it is far otherwise. Our architects are, at best, but mere copyists of Euro- pean models, mere reproducers of other men's ideas, formed for other purposes than these we have to deal with, here, in America. Yet the public buildings are the true representative monuments of a people's taste ; and it is to them chiefly, that the American architect must, sooner or later, bend his ability to give a truthful expression to our nationality in this, the greatest of the Fine Arts. In the late competition for the new Post-Office, that servility of design was painfully observable ; and, indeed, any one might find the original source, whence most of the transparent ideas were drawn, in the illustrations of Euro- pean journals of architecture. One, and perhaps the most truthful, reason for this state of transfer, in which the mental capacity of our archi- tects seems to be immersed, is, that man3' of them have received their professional education in Europe ; and are naturally inclined to retain the ideas with which their minds were imbued, rather than study out anew those problems, to make them applicable to this New -World of ours. But, if foreign architects, settling in our midst, must needs retain their native teachings, is it not the more incumbent on our American architects to break the spell, which hangs over them, and commence at once a patriotic effort to nationalize their designs ? Is there any good reason, why this effort should not be made? Are our countrymen disinclined to a change ?