CHICAGO, 137 Lake St. FITCH SASH LOCKS LOCK THE WINDOW SIMPLE, DURABLE, SAFE. SOLD BY HARDWARE DEALERS EVERYWHERE TRIAL SAMPLE FREE THE W.&E.T.FITCH CO. NEW HAVEN, CONN. FACTORY, CLINTON, MASS. "La Construction Moderne"," A journal of whose merits our readers have had opportunity to judge because of our frequent reference to it and our occasional republica tion of designs that are published in it, is the most complete and most interesting of the French architectural journals. The fifteenth annual volume is now in course of publication. Subscription, including postage, 35 francs. Each weekly issue contains, besides the illus trations included in the text, two full-page plates, which by themselves are worth double the amount of the annual subscription. PRICE OF BACK ANNUAL VOLUMES, :: 40 Francs. :: ......‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒Address for subscriptions and catalogues, LIBRAIRIE DE LA CONSTRUCTION MODERNE, 18 Rue Bonaparte, Paris, France. VOL. LXX. Copyright, 1900, by the AMERICAN ARCHITECT AND BUILDING NEWS COMPANY, Boston, Mass. ALUMINIUM. BOOKS AND PAPERS. ILLUSTRATIONS: The River Front: House of Hon. G. T. Fulford, Brockville, St. Augustine Chapel Alterations.- Metalwork, -XIII: No. 9 11 12 14 15 16 FIRM of architects in New York, of high reputation in the profession, and exhibitors in the Fine-Art Section of the Paris Exposition, has received the following letter, which it forwards to us for the edification of our readers: "WASHINGTON, D. C., September 26, 1900. MESSRS. A, B & C, ARCHITECTS, NEW YORK CITY: Gentlemen: - A member of our firm has just returned from Paris, and noticed with much interest your display there. In our next issue we will devote some space to NOTABLE EX HIBITS AT THE PARIS EXPOSITION, and we have taken the liberty of preparing a reading article regarding your exhibit, which we respectfully submit for your approval. Same will be inserted under heading mentioned above, and copy sent you, for total cost of $6. Awaiting your prompt and favorable reply, we remain, Very truly yours, THE ARMY AND NAVY MAGAZINE, You are at liberty to make such alterations in the article as you wish, and kindly return same to us promptly." We give the name of the magazine concerned, as its editor seems to have no wish to conceal it, and it will be useful to architects to know how even a "Journal of Quality," as the Army and Navy Magazine calls itself, is induced to take part in the manufacture of professional reputations. Whether the reputation so made is of any value is a question about which architects are likely to have their own opinion, but it is certain that many, if not most of the non-professional periodicals consider their assistance in such matters of such importance as to justify them in demanding liberal compensation for it. Some years ago, a reporter from the Boston Herald came to us for information in regard to a certain public building just completed. After getting such details as he wanted, he inquired, "Now, how much will you pay to have your name mentioned in the article?" He went on to explain that the Herald never mentioned the architect's name without being paid; and, as the architect in question declined to pay anything for this favor, the description of the building was published without it. HERE has been a time, perhaps, when the favorable notice of the daily papers, and of non-professional journals generally, would be of advantage to an architect's business, but what the editors of these periodicals call business energy, and other people call corruption, is so widespread and so well known, that almost all persons of intelligence, seeing an artist or professional man extolled in the lay press, ask themselves cynically how much he probably paid, directly or indirectly, With the professional press the case is very different, and we think that it will be advantageous, both for the profession and the technical journals, to have the distinction made more clear. In the first place, for a professional journal, which depends for its support upon experts on the subjects of which it treats, to attempt to advance the reputation of any one in return for money, or through any other consideration | for the favor. No. 1294. than that of its conviction of the merit of his work, would be suicidal. While architects do not always agree in taste, they all know good work from bad, and would be quick to resent any attempt to give fictitious lustre to the latter, so that the editor of a professional journal is too prudent to use anything but the best material that he can obtain, even if he had any desire to do so. Not only do professional men understand this, but the public understands it also. Taking as a parallel case, the profession of medicine, the supposition that any intelligent person, in search of a skilful physician, would look through the "special despatches," or the descriptions of "miraculous cures in the Boston Blower, or the New York Hustler, is ridiculous. It is not among small newspaper reporters, whose pens have been lubricated by five-dollar bills, that physicians find reputation, but among their fellows, who can neither be deceived nor dazzled, but who are ready to give proper honor to one who has succeeded in doing what they have tried in vain to do; and the place where such reputations are won is in the medical journals, which disseminate through the whole world the real triumphs of medical science and skill. It is true that all laymen do not read medical journals, but many of them do, and physicians themselves are always ready to testify to the professional reputation of specialists, so that, in the end, it is the true man of learning who wins the confidence of the public. So in architecture; the intelligent public knows very well what men have the highest reputation among other architects, and does not need to study the columns of enterprising daily papers to find out where to place its confidence! OW, if this is so, and we think that all experienced archi tects will acknowledge that we have presented the case fairly, how are architects who would like to make a reputation of real value for themselves to set about doing so? The answer is so plain that it is surprising that it should need to be insisted upon. In every other profession, the men who have accomplished something in their calling are willing that their friends should know of it. The physicians have their society meetings, in which they discuss and criticise each others new ideas in the treatment of various ailments; the meetings are reported, and the reports published, and work of true merit is soon known throughout the profession. In the same way, an engineer who has successfully carried out a difficult undertaking is pleased to have the fact known; he willingly prepares a paper upon it for his Society, and the paper, properly illustrated, is soon known throughout the world. With architects, at present, the case is strangely different. All the older members of the profession can testify that the reputations now most firmly established were gained in coincidence with, if not in consequence of, the publication in the professional journals of the designs of the persons now holding such reputations, and a reference to the files of the American Architect, the oldest of these, will show that the persons whose work most frequently found admission to its pages of illustrations are precisely those whose names now stand, by universal consent, at the head of the profession. Twenty-five years have passed since the designs of H. H. Richardson, McKim, Mead & White, Peabody & Stearns, and others, all then young men, and all since arrived at eminence, began to appear in our pages, and it is time to think about those who are to succeed them; but here we are met with an extraordinary difficulty. In the years when these great and deserved reputations were being made, architects were glad to see their designs in print; drawings came in from all quarters, and the only difficulty was to make a proper selection. Now, instead of being embarrassed by the number of designs offered for publication, we find ourselves obliged to solicit work of which the interest is already known; and architects, instead of welcoming with curiosity and pleasure the new designs in each issue, and hastening to offer such of their own work as they would like to see beside that of others, have taken it into their heads to assume an attitude of coyness, as if they considered it an act of extraordinary clemency on their part to permit an architectural journal to show to the world what they have done. There are several architects who, as we know, can do as good work as was ever illustrated in these pages, who are content with such publicity for their designs as can be gained by means of a half-tone print, three inches square, from a pencil perspective, in an exhibition catalogue, with a varnish-maker's advertisement on the back of it, |