wmmm^ 
 
I 
 
HORRORS 
 
 IN ARCHITECTURE AND 
 SO-CALLED WORKS OF ART 
 IN BRONZE IN THE CITY OF 
 NEW YORK 
 
 BY AN ADMIRER 
 OF ART WHOSE 
 NAME IS OF 
 NO CONSEQUENCE TO THE READER 
 
 THE WEALTHY CITIZENS OF ROME WHO VISITED ATHENS IN THE 
 HEIGHT OF ITS REFINEMENT AND ARTISTIC SPLENDOR, CARRIED BACK 
 WITH THEM TO THE IMPERIAL CITY OF THE C.«SARS WONDROUS ACCOUNTS 
 OF THE GREAT WORKS OF ART WHICH ADORNED THE CITY OF PERICLES. TO 
 THE INFLUENCE OF THESE VISITS MAY BE TRACED THE ADVENT AMONG THE 
 ROMANS AT A LATER PERIOD OF THOSE ATHENIAN MASTERS WHICH GAVE 
 CHARACTER TO THE MOST RENOWNED ERA OF GREEK CIVILIZATION, AND 
 WHOSE WORKS AND TEACHINGS LED TO A REVOLUTION IN THE ROMAN ART 
 OF THAT DAY, CULMINATING IN A BRIEF PERIOD IN THE STUDENTS OF ROME 
 RIVALLING THEIR MASTERS OF GREECE. 
 
 WHAT A GLORIOUS OPPORTUNITY IS AFFORDED OUR OWN PEOPLE TO 
 REPRODUCE UPON THIS CONTINENT A HISTORICAL PAR.\LLEL. 
 
 THE WEALTHY CITIZEN OF NEW YORK IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 WENT TO GREECE, ROME, VENICE AND PARIS. WH.\T DID HE BRING BACK? 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 M DCCC LXXX VI 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/horrorsinarchiteOOhawk 
 
Architectural Hof^f^o^^s 
 
 He proneness of New Yorkers when traveling abroad to indulge 
 
 1 in somewhat exaggerated descriptions of their metropolis is 
 proverbial. In London, Paris, Rome, Nice, and other resorts in 
 Europe, an attentive listener may often hear our prosperous and 
 self-satisfied men of business tell wondering Englishmen, French- 
 men and others, that New York is the finest city in the world, and 
 that Americans generally, and New Yorkers in particular, are the 
 most intelligent, cultured, luxurious and progressive people on the 
 face of the earth. Some go so far as to intimate that there is very 
 little worth seeing or possessing outside the boundaries of their 
 favored Manhattan Isle. Possibly a few may admit that Paris is 
 all very well, but," they are careful to add, ^' wait until you see 
 New York." 
 
 When we characterize a city as fine or beautiful, we must take 
 into consideration all of its leading and general features, such as 
 streets, parks, docks, public and private buildings, museums, picture 
 galleries and out-door statuary. All of these, artistically conceived, 
 executed and harmoniously combined, go very far toward making 
 a beautiful city. Geographical boundaries or a large population do 
 not always constitute a fine city. But in an American sense they 
 
 -4 
 
1 
 
 usually do. And with most Americans all that is beautiful in art 
 and architecture fade before the utilitarian triumphs of trade and 
 the all-absorbing mania for moneymaking. 
 
 New York is, and probably will be for a century to come, 
 supremely crude and ostentatious in its art adornments and archi- 
 tecture, thanks to the commercial instincts of its trading popula- 
 tion. Its architecture, which ought to be its best and grandest 
 feature, is simply barbarous. Hardly a dozen buildings in the whole 
 city are free from the defects and deformities born of that most 
 predominant of American peculiarities — the instinct of procuring 
 as much as possible of loud and vulgar show for the money 
 expended. It is this instinct of the trader that has introduced the 
 hideous iron fronts into his house of business, which architecturally 
 disfigure many of our most prominent thoroughfares. It follows 
 him in the erection of his home ; transforms wood into the sem- 
 blance of stone and paints a lie upon his sanded wood and zinc 
 cornice. This instinct is the parent of nearly all of our violations 
 of the rules of good art. There is scarcely an existing offence 
 against good taste in architecture in this city which cannot be traced 
 to this source. Show the average business man of New York how 
 he can save, in the erection of his home or his warehouse, a few 
 hundred dollars and he will not hesitate to disfigure his own building 
 and destroy the harmony of a whole block. If New York had had 
 no good examples to follow, these crudities and horrors would still 
 reflect upon the native taste and inventive faculties of our country- 
 men. 
 
 Let us glance for a moment at some of the principal cities of 
 Europe to see if we cannot establish some sort of a standard in fine 
 and beautiful cities. London may be truthfully regarded as a great 
 and fine city. It is well and honestly governed ; its streets are well 
 paved ; it abounds in fine parks; its sanitary condition is excellent ; 
 it has many public and private buildings rich in architectural 
 adornments, ancf its statues and art monuments generally are 
 worthy of respectful consideration. While Paris is as beautiful and 
 fanciful as a dream, London is a staid and solid reality. 
 
3 
 
 Paris is not only a great city, but it is at first sight bewilderingly 
 beautiful. No part of our earth is more adorned. It may be 
 denominated the fairest jewel among the cities of the world, and in 
 the number and beauty of its public buildings and monuments it is 
 without a rival. The view that fascinates the eye in every direction 
 from the Place de la Concorde is matchless among the works of 
 man. This spectacle in itself would amply recompense one for the 
 discomforts of an ocean voyage. Good taste and art culture 
 are everywhere manifested, and a happy combination of the 
 useful and beautiful pervades the whole. Several of the later 
 examples of Parisian architecture are splendid illustrations of artistic 
 instinct and study, and are conclusive proofs of the refinement of 
 French taste. Where can a nobler or more stately group of build- 
 ings be found than that which includes the Louvre, Pavilion de 
 Flore, and many of the public offices? Where can a grander or 
 more artistic monument be found than the Arc de Triomphe ? at 
 once a triumph of symmetry and sculptural adornment and the 
 epitome of all that is heroic in the history of France ; a work 
 worthy of the mind that conceived it, and of the reverent regard of 
 a great nation ! The existence of one such monument ought to be 
 satisfactory evidence of the art culture of the nation which produced 
 it. What other city has such a temple dedicated to the lyric 
 drama? It is without doubt the most original, complete and charm- 
 ing architectural production of later times. The best principles of 
 ancient and modern art would seem to have been exhausted in its 
 outline and detail. The auditorium is indeed disappointing. The 
 setting is worthy of a better jewel. While admiring its noble out- 
 lines and artistic adornments, we may be forgiven by critics if we 
 forget some faults of interior construction. St. Peter's, at Rome, 
 strikes the beholder with astonishment upon first sight, but seems 
 to decrease in size upon nearer approach ; while the Opera House, 
 at Paris, unfolds new beauties at every step of approach, without 
 losing in magnitude. It is a feast of which the eye never wearies 
 and is emphatically one of those views to which distance does not 
 lend enchantment. The Hotel des Invalides, the Palais du Corps 
 
4 
 
 Legislatif, the Pantheon, the Madeleine, Trocadero, and many 
 other buildings are fine examples of the noble and the refined in 
 art. 
 
 Berlin and Vienna are also beautiful cities. Though not to be 
 compared with Paris, they are much finer in their general features 
 than any American city. They contain many public and private 
 buildings which bear evidence of the good taste and culture of 
 their citizens, and are very attractive to strangers. The Ring 
 strasse of the latter contains several as fine edifices as are to be 
 found in any city of the world. 
 
 In comparison what are the attractions of New York ? An in- 
 telligent stranger possessed of a reasonable amount of art culture, 
 landing at the Battery from a foreign country, would shudder to 
 behold that wonderful creation of New York's inventive genius and 
 benevolence known as the elevated railroad structure. 
 
 The next object to attract his attention would be that pandora 
 box of electricity born of the Western Union Telegraph monopoly. 
 This would be his first introduction to an ultra example of the new 
 order of American architecture. Beholding its superabudance of un- 
 meaning, unsightly, unnecessary and inartistic iron ornamentation 
 and its apparent top-heaviness, the instinct of self-preservation 
 would hasten his footsteps to the opposite side of the street. From 
 the fifth story upward this structure presents a most remarkable 
 illustration of the new order, which might be appropriately des- 
 ignated the Hotch Potch, in contradistinction to the composite. 
 
 The next architectural curiosity to claim his attention would be 
 the new Post Office building, with its multiform and multitudinous 
 roofs, and its banded sections of ugly, useless columns, which Henry 
 Ward Beecher remarked looked as though they were troubled 
 with a continuous attack of influenza." 
 
 Following along the natural course he would next encounter that 
 barbaric pile erected to commemorate the founding of the New 
 York Tribune by Horace Greeley in 1841, a malignant and gro- 
 tesque caricature of several of the better features of the Palazzo 
 
5 
 
 Vecchia at Florence, and another startling example of the new 
 American order. 
 
 The new Court House would next confront him ; he would 
 wonder from what book of drawings its parts were stolen, and mar- 
 vel at the ingenuity of the builder that jumbled them together in 
 such a hideous whole. 
 
 Continuing up Broadway — the finest street in the world " — 
 he would have abundant opportunity for observing the endless va- 
 riety of our commercial structures. While he would lament over 
 the existence of the many Cheap-John iron fronts, he would doubt- 
 less rejoice that a profusion of paint partly conceals them, and he 
 would thank the painter for covering the work of the puddler. 
 
 After being dazed with an altogether unique display of acres of 
 sign-boards of every conceivable form, color and finish (most of 
 which would disgrace the shop of a quack doctor or a chiropodist), 
 and after picking his way through a forest of picturesque and inter- 
 esting telegraph poles over the worst pavement in the world, he 
 would reach Fifth Avenue — another member of that numerous 
 American family of " the finest in the world." Of course he would 
 pause on his way to contemplate that singular pile of vermi- 
 culated and otherwise ornamented marble, cast iron and glass, 
 erected to perpetuate the memory of a great success in dry goods. 
 
 A few blocks more and he will reach a new club house. This is the 
 latest, as well as the most nerve-exciting achievement in the way of 
 metropolitan house-building. Its existence is a blessing, and its 
 destruction would be a calamity to the architects of New York. It 
 has been asserted that of the numerous plans submitted by city 
 architects to the club authorities, none were found sufficiently mere- 
 tricious or outr^ to meet their approval, and a neighboring city at 
 great expense" furnished the brain that conceived this pre- 
 tentious monstrosity. This is, beyond all question, the most ex- 
 treme illustration of the new order. There is no line, angle, or 
 curve known to geometry that cannot be found jumbled together 
 without aim or object in many parts of the exterior of this 
 building. Its success in the way of out-of-place, clumsy, un- 
 
6 
 
 couth and queer projections, great columns supporting nothing and 
 unsightly forms which mean nothing, and a general want of har- 
 mony and intelligent design is, in itself, a remarkable triumph of 
 architectural ingenuity. A writer who has evidently gained the 
 upper sunflower level in the realm of aesthetic literature says : 
 This building is the opposite of repose, and has the merit of its 
 defects." This very intelligible and lucid description clearly and 
 satisfactorily defines the subject. There is, however, one objection 
 to this building which outweighs all of those relating to violations 
 of art and good taste ; it is the absence from it of that home 
 air which is essential in such a structure. The average club man 
 considers his club a part of his domicile, consequently in all of its 
 prominent features it should suggest as much as possible of home. 
 And if it fails to accomplish this result, it falls far short of what it 
 ought to be. It follows, therefore, that the exterior and interior 
 should be homelike and quiet. In this instance there is not the 
 slightest exterior indication of interior use. It might as well have 
 been built for a court house or a produce exchange. The whole is 
 simply an incongruous, inharmonius, ostentatious pile thrown to- 
 gether without any design predicated upon appreciative professional 
 intelligence. 
 
 If our stranger were to continue his walk northward, we might 
 next find him looking at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, that 
 cross between a cotton press and a pork-packing establishment, 
 with an interior of a railway station. Here he would pause, wonder 
 and reflect, and would naturally suggest, since this building was 
 erected to contain works of art, that it ought to present an artistic 
 appearance to the beholder. If questioned on this point, the self- 
 satisfied citizen would probably answer, " that Americans were a 
 practical sort of people, who neither want nor care for hifalutin art 
 flummery." In this temple dedicated to art our stranger would 
 look in vain for any external forms of beauty or ornamentation in- 
 dicative of its character or purposes, and he would involuntarily 
 exclaim, " if this building is an example of American sense of 
 propriety, the art culture of this people must indeed be crude." 
 
7 
 
 The Natural Science Depository west of the park, in its near 
 resemblance to a reasonably fair specimen of a Manchester cotton 
 factory, would again suggest to the mind of our stranger the practi- 
 cal character of our people, and he could easily imagine that an 
 academy had set up business in a second-hand manufactory. 
 
 Standing out as a bright oasis in this dreary desert of the incon- 
 gruous and commonplace is the Lenox Library, which is one of the 
 two or three public buildings in the city of New York which does 
 not offend good taste. It is solid, plain, appropriate, and is not 
 overburdened with inartistic, tawdry ornamentation. The natural 
 good sense and ripe culture of its generous founder is evidenced in 
 its construction, and it is a monument worthy to perpetuate the 
 memory of a noble and intelligent citizen. The ob9ervations made 
 during this walk would lead the astonished stranger to the adoption 
 of two conclusions : 
 
 Firsts — That he had landed upon the shores of a country inhab- 
 ited by half-civilized barbarians, many of whom had apparently 
 been caught out in an indefinite number of showers of greenbacks 
 with their aprons spread in front of them. 
 
 Second, — That the world's best efforts of art and architecture 
 were unknown to this people. 
 
 Of the New York stores," shops, warehouses and dwellings 
 nothing better can be said than of its public edifices. As a rule, 
 the fronts are overloaded with useless, rude, inartistic and unmeaning 
 projections for which there is no appropriate space or place, and the 
 whole crowned by an ostentatious and often fantastic cornice of 
 wood or zinc, painted and sanded to imitate the stone-work, usually 
 out of proportion with the structure it is intended to ornament. Of 
 course there are exceptions to this commonplace rule ; they are, 
 however, so insignificant in numbers that they do but little toward 
 elevating the general character of our city architecture. 
 
 It is possible that many of these architectural deformities may 
 be attributed to characteristic vanity and conceit. Instead of prof- 
 iting by what has been done in the past, our architects and men of 
 wealth have started out upon new paths of their own. Of course it 
 
8 
 
 goes without saying that their achievements are designed to surpass 
 anything heretofore attempted in architecture. 
 
 A resident of New York, of supposed culture and of the highest 
 social position (he has the reputation of being worth several mil- 
 lions), who has several times traveled over the greater part of 
 Europe, has said that he considered the buildings above referred to 
 as fine as anything he had ever seen abroad. If American educa- 
 tion and foreign travel lead to such results, we surely have urgent 
 need to reform our methods of education, and that we should 
 promptly erect a Chinese wall high enough to insure the keeping 
 of our peculiar intelligence to ourselves. 
 
QUR gRONZE PJORRORS 
 
 WHen the writer undertook con amore to write a few pages of 
 what he considered to be well-merited criticism on some 
 American peculiarities made painfully conspicuous in the out-door 
 statuary of New York, it was not his intention to invade the realm 
 of architecture, or to speak of general city features. His real 
 objectives were the examples of so-called statuesque art which 
 infest the public places of the metropolis, and which he has grouped 
 under the head of Our Bronze Horrors." 
 
 Within the boundaries of New York City there are now exposed 
 to public view and intended to be commemorative and ornamental 
 the following alleged works of art, viz.: 
 
 I. Statue of Franklin, Printing House Square. 
 
 2. * 
 
 ' " Staats Zeitung Building. 
 
 3. ' 
 
 ' Guttenberg, " " 
 
 4. 
 
 Washington, Treasury Building, Wall street. 
 
 5. 
 
 " (equestrian), Union Square. 
 
 6. 
 
 " (copy Houdon), Riverside Park. 
 
 7. 
 
 Lafayette, Union Square. 
 
 8. 
 
 Lincoln, 
 
 9- 
 
 Seward, Madison Square. 
 
 10. 
 
 Farragut, 
 
 II. 
 
 Shakespeare, Central Park. 
 
 12. 
 
 Bums, 
 
 13- 
 
 Scott, 
 
 14. 
 
 Halleck, 
 
 15. 
 
 Morse, " 
 
 16. 
 
 Webster, " 
 
 17. 
 
 Hamilton, " 
 
 18. 
 
 Seventh Regiment, " 
 
lO 
 
 19. Statue of Commerce, Central Park. 
 
 20. " Indian Hunter, " 
 
 21. " The Pilgrim, 
 
 22. " Falconer, " 
 
 23. " Bolivar (equestrian), Central Park. 
 
 24. " William E. Dodge, Broadway and Sixth avenue. 
 
 25. Bust of Humboldt, Central Park. 
 
 26. " Moore, 
 
 27. " Mazzini, " 
 
 28. " Schiller, 
 
 29. " Beethoven, 
 
 30. Groups of Eagles and Lambs, Central Park. 
 
 31. " Lioness Feeding her Young, Central Park. 
 
 32. " The large Vanderbilt Bronze in relief, Hudson street. 
 
 33. " Charity, Equitable Life Insurance Building, Broadw^ay. 
 
 Of these, two or three are good, the others either commonpbce 
 or indifferent or exceedingly faulty. Prominent among the 
 latter class is the one intended to represent our late President 
 Lincoln, in Union Square. It would seem incredible that the hand 
 that modeled the equestrian statue of Washington erected on the 
 opposite side of the Square was the same that fashioned this 
 uncouth caricature of our beloved Lincoln. The statue of Wash- 
 ington is most creditable, and, if not a great work of art, is, on the 
 other hand, neither commonplace or offensive. The other is inart- 
 istic in design and defective in general treatment. The face is some- 
 thing of a likeness, and is the best part of a statue in no respect credit- 
 able to art. The general outline of the figure is awkward, unnatural, 
 angular and stiff, while the little details of modeling and manipulation 
 are worthy of a maker of figureheads for canal boats, and Comanche 
 warriors for the fronts of snuff shops. President Lincoln was not 
 an Apollo Belvidere in form, nor Byronic in his style of beauty, but 
 he possessed that which was better than either, a most interesting 
 and sympathetic face. No one ever saw him while he was Presi- 
 dent without being impressed with his unaffected simplicity of 
 character and great kindness of heart. His natural expression was 
 of extreme kindliness always tinged with sadness. This statue 
 expresses none of these characteristics, which have contributed so 
 
] I 
 
 much toward the making of his fame — which is the revered common 
 property of every loyal household. If, as a work of art, it could be 
 pronounced good, even then it would be a failure, as it does not in 
 any single essential particular represent the man. Worse than 
 the statue, if possible ; more deplorable in design, is that inde- 
 scribable affair around the base of its pedestal, popularly de- 
 nominated the ''What Is It?" 
 
 There can be no possible excuse for surrounding the base of the 
 statue with the hideous circle of meaningless masonry bearing the 
 inscription. The appropriate place for an inscription is upon the 
 sides of a pedestal, and not upon a section of a stone wall around 
 its base. This effort of genius must have emanated from the art 
 department of the Park Commission. Only a choice lot of politi- 
 cally-appointed commissioners could have achieved such a result. 
 
 As we approach this statue from the front we see only the 
 words ''with malice," which would naturally indicate to a stranger 
 that malice was the prominent trait in Mr. Lincoln's character. 
 The want of knowledge which was the cause of this violation of 
 propriety is wholly unpardonable. 
 
 The bronze affair in Madison Square intended to perpetuate 
 the memory of Mr. Seward is the production of an exceedingly 
 energetic and pushing man of business. If he had taken to Wall 
 street, stocks, railroads or patent medicines, instead of clay, marble 
 and bronze, he would have achieved enduring fame, and the world 
 would have recorded another " Wall Street Magnate," " Railroad 
 King " or " Merchant Prince." An individual of an inquiring turn 
 of mind would naturally ask. How is it that a person who has manu- 
 factured so many statues, groups and heroic monuments should 
 have made them all so far beneath critical contempt ? This supposed 
 sculptor has succeeded in planting his grotesque effigies in many 
 places upon the face of this fair continent, and in vain we search 
 among them all for an example which could stand the test of intel- 
 ligent criticism. In the soldiers' plot in the cemetery at Cincinnati 
 there is a statue, by this manufacturer, of a soldier, which might 
 appropriately be called the P'lying Dutchman, and at Providence, 
 
12 
 
 R. I., there is a monument, also by him, with five figures, erected to 
 perpetuate the fame of Rhode Island's sons killed in battle, and the 
 workmanship is worthy of his business qualifications and of the 
 inspection of those who are curious in the matter of heroic monu- 
 ments. The citizens of Providence may congratulate themselves 
 on possessing an entirely unique production of the ultra-American 
 type. 
 
 While contemplating this statue of Seward we see only the 
 workshop of the founder. One could never realize that the model 
 from which it was cast had ever known the cunning hand of a 
 sculptor. It is as commonplace as possible, and the design might 
 have been taken from a State bank-note of twenty-five years ago. 
 There is not the slightest evidence of its having been modeled from 
 a human form. Poor Seward, saved from the dagger of the assas- 
 sin, little dreamed of the fate his deluded but well-meaning friends 
 had in store for him. Alas ! something worse than death, which is 
 only momentary. Bronze will endure the ravages of time and the 
 elements for centuries. 
 
 Professor Morse was an artist before he became an inventor. 
 His portraits are regarded as meritorious works of art and interest- 
 ing as counterfeit presentments of his sitters. Decent respect for 
 his memory as an artist ought to have insured better treatment at 
 the hands of his friends. If necessary to perpetuate him in bronze, 
 the task ought to have been accomplished with some degree of 
 artistic skill. This statue which his friends have purchased is a 
 worthy member of the Lincoln-Seward family. It cannot be very 
 much worse than either, and certainly is not much better. The 
 sculptor who exercised his invention upon this production was evi- 
 dently aware of his incapacity, and did not attempt anything in the 
 way of fantastic position, elaborate modeling or delicate detail. Ht^ 
 was undoubtedly wise in contenting himself with erecting upon a 
 pedestal a vertical column of bronze metal, void of form or expres- 
 sion. The one thing satisfactory about the affair is this : the park 
 authorities have been considerate in placing it away from either of 
 the principal thoroughfares. 
 
13 
 
 One of our two most extraordinary productions is that com- 
 posite casting erected to perpetuate the memory of the author 
 of *^ Marco Bozzaris." Until the Scotch statue of Burns was 
 erected, this stood alone in the might of its hideousness. It is not' 
 possible that there can be anything like it above, upon or under the 
 earth. And it is quite impossible for a person of fair understanding 
 to conjecture the why and wherefore of its discouraging existence. 
 Were the friends of the dead poet blind, or were they only intent 
 upon carrying out the commercial idea of getting the most for their 
 money? If the intent of the manufacturer was to represent a real 
 human figure, why did he furnish the promoters of the statue 
 scheme with a lay figure in bronze, and a very grotesque one at 
 that ? And wherefore did he appropriate, elaborate, and magnify 
 the chair of the inventor of the Seward? It was also unkind to steal 
 the legs of Seward and give them to Halleck. This figgur " 
 maker has been too generous. A single city ought not to possess 
 more than one such chair. These elaborate examples of the foun- 
 drymen's art ought to be equitably distributed. Every city of 
 over five hundred thousand inhabitants should possess one such 
 bronze chair and its accompanying emblems for the purpose of 
 warning stone cutters, iron moulders, and confectionery modelers 
 what to avoid. This casting is worse than the puzzle of fifteen. 
 The more it is studied the less there is known about it. It is quite 
 impossible to arrive at any sort of a satisfactory conclusion as to 
 what it is about. It is doubtful if any person, however skilled or 
 learned in statuary, could decide if the maker intended it for a me- 
 morial of a man or an advertisement of the latest thing in the way 
 of a cast-iron architectural chair, invented by some enterprising fur- 
 niture dealer. Could the writer of the Stones of Venice decide as 
 to whether the statue was made for the chair or the chair for the 
 statue? A satisfactory solution of this interesting problem must 
 be left to some future disciple of high art. The presence of a part 
 of a regalia in the form of a collar in use for cart horses forces 
 another puzzling suggestion upon the mind of the beholder. Seem- 
 ingly there can be but one explanation of the presence of this em- 
 
14 
 
 l)lem. The poet must have belonged to the Hibernians or the 
 Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, and. when he posed for this ''figgur"' 
 had just come in from a parade in honor of Ireland's Patron Saint. 
 •This conclusion, if not correct, is somewhat satisfactory, since it 
 accounts for the presence of one part of the casting. There are 
 also other evidences which bear out this conclusion. The poet has 
 thrown his blanket (no doubt green) upon one corner of his chair, 
 and hung his wreath of laurel or shamrock upon the other. It ib 
 a well-established historical fact that the seventeenth of March can- 
 not be relied upon, so far as wet and wind are concerned ; hence the 
 presence of a back cover, and the wreath for the protection of the 
 head. The beholder of this work will also perceive that the poet 
 has provided himself with note-book and pencil. In all well-regu- 
 lated attempts at sculpture and portrait painting these symbols are 
 used to denote literary propensities. The average reporter of one 
 of ''The great Metropolitan Dailies " is supposed to have number- 
 less pockets filled with these useful commodities. In the days of 
 the poet in question, that useful being, the omnipresent, unflagging, 
 indefatigable, and never-ending individual known as the reporter 
 did not flourish as now, and great literary lights were not above 
 v>-riting an account of an important event for a newspaper. Now, 
 query: Was not this poet at the time he was set up in clay engaged 
 in writing a spirited report of the " Patrick's Day Procession ?" It 
 is impossible to think or write seriously of this singular caricature, 
 and the reasons for its existence must ever remain a mystery. How 
 a set of men could have been brought together, professing to have 
 been friends and admirers of a notable poet, and could have ac- 
 cepted a model for such an affair as this is a wonder ; and after its 
 -completion in bronze it is incomprehensible that a Park Commis- 
 sion could be found possessing the requisite want of culture and 
 sufficiency of bad taste to accept it for the city and permit its 
 erection. 
 
 Several inconsiderate countrymen of the immortal Robert Burns, 
 residing in the city of New York, are far in advance of the friends 
 of Halleck. They have presented, and the Park Commissioners 
 
15 
 
 have accepted, a very extraordinary bronze casting which is worse 
 than the Halleck, and which it is alleged represents the physical 
 form of one of the world's most loved and charming poets. But 
 they had to go outside the borders of American territory in 
 order to achieve complete success in this unparalleled undertaking. 
 No American citizen, native or naturalized, could be found so 
 entirely lost to all sense of present shame or hope of future salva- 
 tion as to permit of his designing or constructing a thing so 
 supremely hideous. 
 
 These gentlemen no doubt sent out specifications and blank 
 contracts to all the foundrymen and stone cutters in this country 
 with requests to return plans in illustration of specifications, and 
 at the same time to furnish bonds for the faithful performance 
 of contract. When all the bids had been returned, and the 
 bonds examined and approved, the drawings of the various would- 
 be contractors were then, no doubt, submitted to a select com- 
 mittee appointed for their especial fitness as experts in statuary ; 
 and after many solemn conferences rejected, for the reason that 
 none of them were sufficiently grotesque or worse than the Halleck. 
 A decision was then made to cross the ocean in search of novelty, 
 and a few months later the unfortunate residents of New York 
 were permitted to behold the result. And such a result ! ! ! 
 
 What brain could have conceived, and what hand manipulated 
 the clay which brought forth this monster of hideousness, so 
 devoid of the form of man and of intelligent design? This fiendish 
 worker in clay has fashioned Burns into the most inconceivably silly- 
 looking, expressionless, booby-milksop-bumpkin ever cast in any 
 mould. The intention of the designer of this statue can never 
 be even conjectured. No pen can describe it ; it is as far beyond 
 description as it is out of the reach of criticism. It must be seen 
 to be appreciated. 
 
 That ponderous mass of metal intended^to represent Sir Walter 
 Scott and his dog; the statue in stone of Alexander Hamilton; 
 and that pompous, strutty affair erected to represent Daniel 
 Webster, are sufficiently low down in the scale of art to be let 
 
i6 
 
 alone. But the New Yorker of a hundred years hence will fe' 
 thankful that they are not so hopelessly bad as are some of thei 
 companions. 
 
 There is another colossal and startling example of the New 
 York art idea, which the curious may find embedded in the 
 upper portion of a wall of a railway freight station in Hudson 
 street. The reason for its existence and art status may be ex- 
 plained in a few words more conspicuous for strength than elegance. 
 It is a tribute which questionably acquired wealth, and bad taste 
 have paid to successful and unprecedented trickery and avarice. 
 The addition of a watering-pot to the principal figure would add to 
 the harmony and significance of the design. 
 
 One of the later additions to our bronze family is a statue 
 to commemorate the brave, modest and loved Farragut. This 
 work, with a comical side, which has been erected to perpetuate 
 his memory, is interesting and fairly represents the man, but the 
 pedestal, which is presumably an example of the very highest art 
 of the Grosvenor Gallery School, puzzles all beholders. It is 
 doubtful if any reasonable expenditure of intellectual force could 
 decipher its meaning. To the writer it seems an affectation which 
 interprets exactly nothing. 
 
 A considerable number of the world's would-be upper intellectuals 
 are said to be engaged in a search after the beautiful, the true and the 
 good. Some of them, if accounts are to be credited, have discov- 
 ered all of these combined in a teapot, while others have found refuge 
 from the chills of a cold, unfeeling world beneath the shadow of a 
 sunflower. It is also asserted that many of these worshippers, after 
 having ascertained where true happiness is to be found, are devoting 
 themselves to the attainment of the upper teapot level. At least 
 one of these immortals, we fear, has strayed from his loved occupa- 
 tion, and the result — an aesthetic pedestal. 
 
 Among the later additions to our public collection can be found 
 in the Central Park an equestrian statue of Simon Bolivar, one of 
 the South American patriots, a present from his countrymen and a 
 replica of an original erected somewhere in his native land. 
 
17 
 
 We ought to be very thankful for this example of South Amer- 
 ican casting. For in the fact of its existence we find the consoling 
 proof — most conclusive — that there is another people in the world 
 quite as devoid of art knowledge and taste as ourselves. 
 
 The latest addition to our out-of-door statuary is a full-length 
 bronze figure of the late William E. Dodge, by Ward. The world 
 is no doubt puzzled to account for its existence, for in no sense was 
 Mr. Dodge a distinguished citizen of the United States. He was 
 an exact and successful churchman of the strictly orthodox pattern, 
 a merchant whose career had its cloudy as well as sunny days, but 
 he so managed that the (often dense) clouds which beset him had 
 both golden and silver linings. He was at one time a member of 
 Congress, and presumably useful in that capacity and sufficiently 
 attentive to his public duties, but in no way did he distinguish him- 
 self by a conspicuous display of talent. That he gave liberally of 
 his ample means is undeniable, and for this liberality — so unusual 
 among the rich men of New York — he deserves great credit. But 
 do these acts of giving, which render him exceptional among 
 his class, or any of his other prominent characteristics, entitle 
 him to a statue in a public place in a great metropolis ? If so, why 
 not one to the late Oleander Fatlean, the rich pork-packer, and an- 
 other to Cannygrab Doubletwist, the late distinguished dry goods 
 merchant? and the claims of Aristides Bullebare, the aristocratic 
 stock broker^ the Adonis of the Exchange and hero of one winter's 
 society Germans, ought not to pass unrecognized ; while Magnus 
 Fishplate, the " Great Stock-watering Railroad King," should go 
 down to posterity as the central figure of an allegorical historical 
 group of overflowing watering-pots. The Park Commissioners 
 would gladly consent, and the respective families of the several de- 
 functs would eagerly defray the expense. But, seriously, it is both a 
 mistake and misfortune that this statue should have been permitted 
 to occupy a place in a public thoroughfare. It establishes a prece- 
 dent which is likely to be extensively followed, and may ultimately 
 result in an epidemic of bronze and stone effigies springing up in our 
 public squares commemorative of the virtues of ''our most distin- 
 
i8 
 
 guished citizens of high social position." And following the nat. 
 course of this extraordinary epidemic, we may within a few years cc 
 fidently expect to see statues added to a price-current list and quote 
 at so much per pound. The statue may even follow so closely oi 
 the heels of the funeral that the bereaved widow shall dry her tears 
 by the burning rays of light reflected from a costly counterfeit pre- 
 sentment in bronze, gotten up regardless of expense, but commer- 
 cially a bargain. 
 
 In 1874, the then members of the Park Commission, no doubt 
 realizing their incapacity to deal with rapidly accumulating art 
 questions which were being brought before them, appointed a 
 special committee, consisting of the President of the Metropolitan 
 Museum of Art, the President of the National Academy of Design 
 and the President of the College of Architects, to assist in solving 
 these art problems. Unless the writer has been misinformed, this 
 committee was in existence when the application was made to 
 erect the Burns statue in Central Park, and the question of artistic 
 worth was probably submitted to it for its judgment ; and if thii 
 committee decided that is was worthy of a place in one of ou: 
 parks, of what value is the opinion of such experts ? Why not 
 dissolve this committee and appoint another composed of a shoe- 
 maker, a tinker and a 'longshoreman ? If the Park Commissioners 
 and the manufacturers of statues are as active and industrious for 
 the next quarter of a century as they have been in the past, our 
 parks will be mistaken for burial places for at least one of the lost 
 arts, and the statues erected by these assassins of art mistaken for 
 appropriate mortuary memorials. There is seemingly one way out 
 of this unfortunate business. An importation of Nihilists accom- 
 panied by the friendly dynamite might effect for us a most merciful 
 deliverance from the evil. 
 
 One of New York's urgent needs is an intelligent and honest 
 supervision of parks and public places. There has not been in 
 existence for many years a board of commissioners capable of 
 caring for and fostering the important interests which they are 
 called upon to direct and develop. There has probably never 
 
19 
 
 been more than half a dozen persons connected with the official 
 management of the parks, whose taste or knowledge of art matters 
 were of the slightest value. Commissioners are appointed for short 
 periods of time, and are usually selected with special reference to 
 their capacity for corrupt practices in the interest of party bosses, 
 and a faithful distribution of political patronage. It is a matter of 
 the greatest moment that the vicious and incompetent henchmen 
 of these political bosses shall fill the department, and spend their 
 time in committing offences against good taste and depredations 
 upon the city treasury, and in smashing municipal china generally ; 
 \vhile it is not of the least importance that the public service 
 should be properly administered. The results of this political man- 
 agement are the ignoring of important interests, mismanagement, 
 and the department transferred to the predominating Irish party 
 machine, which misgoverns all and absorbs all. The successful 
 man of business empties the contents of his pockets into the coffers 
 of the ruling party, and bowing to the yoke which political rascals 
 have fashioned for him, 
 
 Bears his burden like an ass, 
 
 And bends his willing back for more. 
 
 The writer of this brochure does not flatter himself that what he 
 has written will produce any impression upon those who form com- 
 mittees for the propagation of statues, upon Park Commissioners, or 
 upon any other person or persons who may chance to direct in such 
 matters. In the future, as in the past, no individual will be placed 
 upon a statue committee who has either art knowledge or culture ; 
 but great care will be taken to see that no member of such a com- 
 mittee will make its social standing questionable by being worth less 
 than one million of dollars in approved securities. 
 
 In conclusion, an idea or two, perhaps egotistical, must be set 
 forth, and then this tirade will have come to an end. The writer 
 believes the following propositions are worthy of consideration : 
 
 (i.) A statue or group, whether representing a person, persons, 
 allegory, or mythology, ought beyond all question to be a self- 
 evident, easily recognized work of art. This is a first and indispen- 
 
20 
 
 sable requisite; without it no such work has a right to be displayed 
 in a public place. 
 
 (2.) A statue or group ought in the most simple, dignified and 
 natural manner to represent the person, persons, object, or thing 
 intended. It should be truthful, and follow nature as closely as 
 possible. 
 
 (3.) The object of works of art displayed in public places is at 
 least two-fold — artistic and commemorative. As a work of art it 
 must instruct and please the beholder, and should commemorate 
 only those whose great and good deeds a nation ought to remem- 
 ber. Certainly the career of a private citizen, however commend- 
 able, presents no claim to public recognition in the form of a statue 
 erected in a public place. 
 
 If a monument or statue fail in any of these essential elements 
 (and there are few of them in this city that do not), it ought not to 
 exist except as private property and on private grounds. The 
 saying that bad art is better than none is a grave error. Bad art viti- 
 ates the public taste and lowers the standard of true art. And those 
 persons who, through ignorance or to indulge a vulgar appetite for 
 notoriety, aid in the dissemination of spurious and inartistic monu- 
 ments deserve the reprobation of every intelligent citizen. Statues 
 are not necessities, they are one of the many extraordinary out- 
 growths of a luxurious civilization, and for that reason, if for no 
 other, the public should have the best or none. Vale.