Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/58

 as Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [July, four hundred feet above tide-water, and the absolute pinnacle some twenty feet higher. None will question the propriety of making the Tribute to William Penn, at the Treaty-ground, in Kensington, equally imposing. If the former typifies the rise of the nation, the latter symbolizes the earlier rise of the State. Here, then, all Pennsylvania should be proud to pour her wealth to do honor to her wise and good Founder. A shaft of the same altitude, rising almost from the water's edge, would ap- pear considerably higher, though really lower, and on a much lower base than the former. With proper organization, a trifling sum given by each inhabitant of the State, would provide the funds for both the above great enterprises ; and this organization is one of the desirable things we hope shortly to see. CHAIRS, SETTLES, PEWS, FORMS, STOOLS, AND SEATS GENERALLY. IT may appear presumptuous to say of so simple and ancient a human convenience, movable or fixed, as a plain wooden chair, that its true principles never have been understood by modern manufacturers,or constructors ; although they were approximately ascertained and put in practice by the ancient dwellers in the land of the Nile, yet, such is the case, and the proof will be ""found below. Mankind must have learned to sit in the present civilized mode at the cre- ation, the first low, projecting rock, or river bank, suggesting this happy method of ease. Man is naturally a sitting animal ; but his modes of sitting are divei'se, and dif- ferent ones obtain among different in- dividuals of the same nation. George R. Gliddon used to describe, with great gusto, the impecunious Parisian dandy, as sauntering into a public garden, sitting upon one chair, outstretching both arms upon the backs of two chairs, one placed upon either side, resting his feet upon a chair immediately before him, having on one side of it a separate chair for his hat, and upon the other another chair for his cane, calling for a cigar and a cup of eau sucree, for neither of which were the proprietors allowed to charge by law, and, being hurriedly served, abusing the waiter like a pick-pocket for not attending more politely to his munificent patron ship. The Moslem Turk, and the Christian tailor alike sit cross-legged ; savages in various parts of the world practise vari- ous methods of squatting ; the European, in society, will sit squarety upon a chair which the untrammelled Yankee will tilt upon its hind legs, to the imminent det- riment of the article, unless made in the United States. The same Euro- pean would cross one ankle over another, or one knee over another, or he might, as a great venture, place ankle on knee. The same Yankee, while perfectly free and apt at all these, would boldly rest his heels upon the seat of another chair, or, to snatch an ease beyond the reach of France, would throw his feet up on the table, the desk, or the mantel-piece. Matrons and maidens, throughout en- lightened communities, generally sit with the feet crossed ; though there is a vicious practice among girls and the younger women of sitting with one leg drawn up beneath the body. The wandering Arabs, and the modern Copts, the latter the lin- eal descendants of the ancient Egypt- ians, sit upon their haunches with their knees drawn up to their chins, a style im-