"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 republication 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 illustrations 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, 13 Rue Bonaparte, Paris, France. VOL. LXX. Copyright, 1900, by the AMERICAN ARCHITECT and BUILDING NEWS COMPANY, Boston, Mass. Recommendations to the New York Tenement-house Commission. Bath-tubs and Elevators in Tenement-houses. - The Law of Light and Air in the United States. An Insurance Scheme for withholding Payment of Fire-losses.- Difference between this Scheme and that of Neighborhood Liability. The Fall in the Price of Iron.-The Hall of Fame. - The School of Drawing and Painting of the Boston Museum of Fine-Arts. One Way of producing Trouble between Architects and Labor Unions.. ITALIAN CITIES. - XII: BOLOGNA. ·I. SAMARKAND. CORNELL'S FOREST-RESERVE. OBITUARY. BOOKS AND PAPERS. ILLUSTRATIONS: House at Far Hills, N. J.-The Strangenwald Building, Hono- Villa at Cambo, Basses-Pyrénées, France. -Salle des Rubens, COMMUNICATION: Newspapers and Architects. NOTES AND CLIPPINGS. No. 1295. every day in cheap portable tubs, and, when the dwellers in New York tenement-houses are educated to the bathing-point, they can do the same, at far less expense than would be involved in keeping a bath-room warm, and furnishing it with hot water. With regard to water-closets the case is entirely different, and the privacy of families, and the modesty of children, should be as scrupulously guarded in the poorest tenement as in a palace. Here it is that the law can perhaps best and most effectively intervene to improve the habits of the lower classes of the city population, and secure for the coming generation the decent surroundings by which young people are so greatly influenced. In regard to elevators, also, many of the Commission's correspondents are of the opinion that they should be required in all tenement-houses more than four or five stories high, in the interest of women and young children, whose strength is often cruelly taxed by climbing stairs. In a 21 building not of fireproof construction an elevator-shaft is so dangerous that it might be advisable to require elevators and fireproof construction together in all buildings over four stories in height, and with compulsory elevators should come some cheap way of operating them. There is now in Paris a provision of cheap water-service under pressure, very suitable for operating the simple hydraulic elevators so common there; and in the newer houses advantage has been taken of this to introduce such elevators in great numbers. They run slowly, but can be managed by the tenants, and are so useful, for conveying freight as well as passengers, that they are profitable investments. 17 -19 23 23 24 HE circular of questions sent out by the New York Tenement-house Commission, in the hope of obtaining some useful suggestions for the regulation of tenement-houses, has brought answers from about one hundred persons familiar with the subject, including architects, Board of Health inspectors, physicians and officials of the Settlements which do so much for the very poor. The views of such persons are, naturally, of great value, and, even where they differ, they are interesting. The experts were, however, unanimous in the opinion that the staircases in all tenement-houses should be fireproof. Otherwise than in this respect, most of them did not advise making fireproof construction compulsory for such buildings, on the ground that the increased cost of fireproof construction must necessarily increase rents in buildings of the kind; and that the ordinary construction, with fireproof stairs, could be made substantially secure; while, in the opinion of one physician, buildings of the ordinary construction are dryer and more wholesome to live in than fireproof buildings. In regard to the provision of bath-rooms, which are so ardently advocated by amateurs, the experts show less enthusiasm. Dr. Tracy, of the Board of Health, speaks of the idea as impracticable, saying that bath-rooms or bath-tubs would almost invariably be used for storage; while Mr. Samuel Howe, an owner of tenement-houses, says that he has seen a bath-tub used as a coal-bin; and Mr. George Palliser, a well-known architect, says practically the same thing, and thinks that if the provision of bath-tubs is made compulsory, the law should go farther, and require the tenants to use them. hardly that architects generally, who have M R. ALFRED STONE, of Providence, R. I., writes to us to ask whether the English doctrine in regard to ancient lights is good law in this country, referring to the case of a building on Cornhill, in Boston, where, as he thinks, an owner was enjoined, at some time in the early fifties, from obstructing an ancient light. We have looked up the records, and find that the case of the Cornhill building referred to dates back to 1816. Here the deed of the land on which the building was to be erected contained a clause expressly reserving a certain passageway for light and air; and the injunction was sought by other parties, having an interest in the same passageway, to prevent it from being obstructed by the defendant, contrary to the provisions of his deed. In 1852, another case came before the Massachusetts Supreme Court, in which the owner of a house on Washington Street, in Boston, an ancient window in which overlooked the defendant's land, sought damages from the defendant, who had "entirely darkened" the window by building a wall against it. In this case the Court held that the plaintiff had no rights over the defendant's estate; and the doctrine that prescription gives no easement, as to light and air, over adjoining property is still held in Massachusetts. The same theory is held in New York, and throughout the United States generally, the only States in which the Courts have decided that a right to light and air may be acquired by long undisturbed use being, according to the "Encyclopædia of Law," Illinois, Louisiana and New Jersey. M R. AFFELD, the Delegate of the National Board of Fire Underwriters to the recent Convention of Chiefs of Fire Departments, at Charleston, made a proposition which ought to be carefully watched. Saying, what is obvious enough, that some self-enforcing law is needed to prevent conflagrations, he suggests that statutes should be enacted, prohibiting the payment of full indemnity by the insurance companies to " any one responsible for a fire-loss, and to any one on whose a fire originates, unless such occupant can WE meortunities for seeing a great deal of tenement-house show affirmatively that it originated through the carelessness life, will agree with Mr. Palliser. We have ourselves seen several bath-tubs used for storage, in tenement-houses of a tolerably good class; and, considering that a tin bath-tub, costing two or three dollars, will afford people who really want to wash themselves ample facilities for the purpose, there would be something cruel, as well as absurd, in compelling poor people by law to pay rent for bath-rooms which they will not use, and which, being so convenient for storage, would rarely be available if any of the family should be converted to new ideas on the subject of cleanliness. That poor people would be happier if they bathed themselves is true enough, but myriads of English people, and millions of Japanese, bathe or design of another party." Further than this, Mr. Affeld proposes that "where the exact location of the origin of the fire remains in doubt, none of the immediately adjoining parties should receive full indemnity." To one accustomed to the practices of fire-insurance companies, the prospect disclosed by these suggestions is appalling. Who is to decide what person is "responsible for a fire-loss?" If the underwriters are to decide, what policy-holder could ever hope to get the indemnity that he has contracted for? There would be a certain reason, apart from the difficulty of fixing the responsibility, in providing that the person "responsible" for a fire should not receive full indemnity; but, in this case, a proportionate part of his premiums should be returned to him; and the idea of confiscating by wholesale the premiums of sufferers by a conflagration unless they can prove who set the fire smacks decidedly of the cheap life-insurance methods. HERE is no reason whatever why an honest man, who has THE HE School of Drawing and Painting of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts begins its twenty-fourth year under the charge of Miss Emily D. Norcross, Miss Lombard, for many years its manager, having retired. Under her direction the School has steadily prospered, seventy-six new pupils having entered last year, while the year before there were but sixty. The number of scholarships has been increased through THERE no reason an honest male and for Paige bequest, and ment has been made with full indemnity, should not receive what he has contracted for, and we do not believe that any Legislature will ever lose sight of this principle, whatever the underwriters may say or do. If any State should be so foolish as to enact such a law as Mr. Affeld proposes, the effect would simply be to destroy the business of established insurance companies in that State. No man in his senses would pay premiums for indemnity, with the proviso that, in case of fire, the other party to the contract should have the privilege of saying how much indemnity it would pay, if any; and the insurance business would, in such a State, be transferred to unincorporated mutual associations, or something of the kind, which would fulfil their agreements. With a statute establishing neighborhood liability, such as we have often advocated in these columns, and the efficacy of which has been established by centuries of experience in Europe, there is no question of arbitrary swindling of honest policy-holders. Every man who insures his property at a fair valuation receives the indemnity that he has contracted for, and if he keeps his conflagration from spreading to his neighbors' property, he suffers nothing more than the disturbance incidental to all fires. The consideration of liability to his neighbors is, however, enough to lead him to take precautions which, as is well known, have made general conflagrations practically impossible on the Continent, and it is these precautions which the public is interested in having adopted. It should be observed that, in practice, the foreign policies of insurance cover the neighborhood liability, so that if a fire spreads, the insurance company pays for the whole damage, under the policy issued to the owner of the house in which the fire originates; but there is, in every extensive fire, a certain loss not covered by insurance, and the idea of being liable for some indefinite damage of this kind is sufficient to put every householder or tenant on his guard. THE HE tendency of the iron market seems to be still downward, notwithstanding the efforts made to maintain prices. It was reported not long ago that certain railroads had made extensive contracts for rails at twenty-six dollars a ton, as if their managers were satisfied that no lower prices were probable for a long time. Now, it is openly asserted that the contracts with the railways contain clauses providing for rebates of various amounts from the nominal price, so that, instead of paying twenty-six dollars a ton, the net cost of the rails is materially less. No one can say, perhaps, except the parties immediately concerned, what the real price is, but the public, having discovered that the nominal price and the real price are two different things, will make its own estimate of the latter. Another illustration of the change is to be found in the bids for the new East River bridge, in New York. Four months ago, the lowest bid received was nearly three and one-quarter million dollars, for the bridge complete, including construction, false-works and engineering. The matter was held over, and new bids invited, and one has just been received, for the same work, at twenty-four hundred and eleven thousand dollars, a difference of more than eight hundred thousand dollars in four months. As the cutting, punching and riveting of the iron, the foundations and false-works, engineering and supervision, would cost about the same now as in June, the difference must be almost entirely due to the fall in the price of the iron required. HE Hall of Fame, attached to the New York University, in which are to be immortalized the names of great Americans, is likely to be extended, so as to provide space for names of those who, although not born in this country, have become distinguished citizens of it. The original Hall is now nearly completed, and thirty names have been selected to be inscribed on its walls. Naturally enough, the selection has given occasion for much criticism, and it is certainly singular to see Henry Ward Beecher's name in a list which does not contain that of Alexander Hamilton or James Russell Lowell; but such surprises are perhaps inevitable. Mr. Walter Gay, of Paris, to represent in Europe the trustees in their relations with the holder of this and perhaps of other scholarships. OMETHING ought to be said about the mild form of blackmailing which has for some months been practised upon architects in the name of the labor unious. Formerly, the architects were presumed, and with reason, to be the friends of good workmen of every kind, and many a faithful and skilful journeyman owes employment to some architect who had watched and approved his labors. Now, it seems that the journeymen propose to utilize this friendly feeling of the architects, and, we may observe, probably alienate it for the future, by turning it into cash. The operation is carried on in this way. Two unattractive-looking personages make their appearance in an architect's office, and thrust before him a book, somewhat fallen from its pristine cleanness, in which he sees, stamped or written, the names of various persons, including other architects, with indications appended of various sums of money, ranging, generally, from two to five dollars. The architect is informed that the names of these beneficent persons are to be printed in a book, of which, if he makes a suitable contribution, he will receive a copy, and he is significantly told that the addition of his name to the list will tend to "promote harmonious relations" between him and the union workmen employed on his buildings. It does not take long to perceive that this is intended for a hint that, while the payment of two dollars will "promote harmonious relations" between the architect and the journeymen, the failure, on the part of the architect, to contribute that, or a larger sum, will not promote harmonious relations, but may even conduce to inharmonious relations of a deplorable kind. To young architects, this covert threat of labor troubles in their buildings, although it would be very unlikely to be carried out, is full of terror. They picture themselves, in imagination, shunned by clients, ment; and, probably with some reluctance, for two-dollar bills on account of the strikes and delays following their employare no more plentiful in the pockets of young architects than in those of journeymen, they put down their names as contributors to the resources of organized labor. goes, as their own accounts show, to the support of strikes, they are not likely to pride themselves on the transaction; but, in practice, a few weeks after the first deputation has made its successful appeal, a second appears in the office of the same architect, with another book of cards, which is handed to him with similar arguments. He explains that he has already made an addition to the finances of organized labor, but is informed that this is another kind of labor organization, entirely different from the first, but equally in need of funds, and equally concerned with the buildings which he is likely to be called upon to design. The architect, although unable to appreciate the distinction between the Federation of Labor and the Central Labor Union, realizes that having "placated" one, it is so much the more necessary to placate the other, and draws from his lean pocket-book another two-dollar bill, for the purpose of "promoting harmonious relations" between him and people who are, as a rule, as well off as he is, and who have no sort of claim upon him, and, very likely, do not know that their representatives are going about extorting money from persons whose friendship it is of great importance for the journeymen to retain. So far as the architects are concerned, the sooner they rebel against this sort of forced contribution the better. The older and stronger architects, who know that they are sure of their clients, whatever labor organizations may do, pay no attention to either the threats or the blandishments of the latter; and the younger men will do well, either singly or by united action, to range themselves by the side of the leaders of the profession, before the abuse becomes so strongly rooted that it cannot be corrected without a struggle. |