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Page 2
* * * * *
It may be as well to disarm criticism and complaint by stating that
there will be throughout the year more or less of irregularity in the
appearance of the additional illustrations in the International Edition,
owing partly to steamer delays, and partly, perhaps, to misunderstanding
of our instructions on the part of our correspondents. It will not be
proper, therefore, to compare one issue with another, and assert that we
are falling short of our promises. When the end of the year is reached,
the subscribers to that edition will find, on review, that our promises
have been fully kept, and that the edition has been what it professed to
be. Naturally, defects and deficiencies will be more apparent at the
outset, when the complicated details of supply have not been definitely
adjusted.
* * * * *
The profession in Brooklyn, N.Y., has to mourn the loss of Mr. Charles
Keely, son of Mr. Peter C. Keely, the architect of so many Catholic
churches all over the country, and associated with his father in
business. The practice of the office is enormous, fifty churches, it is
said, being sometimes in process of execution from the designs of the
father and son, and of the excellent work done there, no doubt much was
due to the younger man's talent. Mr. Keely was about thirty-five years
of age, active and popular. He died of pneumonia in Hartford, at the
house of the bishop, whom he was visiting on business.
* * * * *
A deputation was presented to the Ways and Means Committee of Congress
the other day from the Free Art League, which urged the abolition of the
present duty on foreign works of art. The deputation consisted of Mr.
Carroll Beckwith and Mr. Kenyon Cox, with Mr. William A. Coffin, who,
after mentioning some of the obvious reasons for abolishing the tax,
stated that, in response to a circular sent out by the League, fourteen
hundred and thirty-five communications were received from artists,
teachers of art and others whose opinion would be of value. Of these,
thirteen hundred and forty-five desired the immediate abolition of the
duty, eighty-three favored a moderate duty, ten per cent being mentioned
by twenty-eight out of the number and seven wished the present impost
retained. The Ways and Means Committee, according to the newspapers,
listened politely to the artists for a time, and then turned their
attention to the duty on carbonate of soda. Whether, in the presence of
practical matters like carbonate of soda, they will ever, think again of
the tax on mere works of art, remains to be seen.
* * * * *
_Fire and Water_ says, referring to some remarks of ours about the
policy of transferring the fire-extinguishing apparatus of small towns
to any neighboring large one in which a serious conflagration happens to
break out, that we were mistaken in "supposing" that the insurance
companies might refuse to pay losses in suburban towns occurring during
the temporary absence of the regular protective apparatus, and that as
the contract of insurance does not mention anything of the kind, the
companies would be compelled to pay losses, whatever happened to the
engines, so long as their policies remained uncancelled. Now, in the
first place, we did not "suppose" or "assert," as another paper says we
did, anything about the matter. We simply said we had been told that the
companies would not pay in such cases, which was true. We were told
that, and by an insurance agent, who ought to know something about it.
Moreover, this was not the first time we have heard the same thing. Not
long ago, in a discussion in the city government of a town near Boston,
one of the members protested against allowing the town engines to leave
the limits of the municipality, for the same reason, that the insurance
companies would not pay losses occurring while the engines were absent.
As to the contract in the policy, we have often seen clauses requiring
the insured to notify the company of any circumstances affecting the
risk, of which the absence of the town engines might be considered one,
so, in our ignorance, we, and, we imagine, a good many others, would be
glad to have an authoritative statement from the companies themselves on
the subject.
* * * * *
According to the _Wiener Bauindustrie Zeitung_, the splendid Brunswick
monument at Geneva is on the point of falling down. Every one remembers
the history of this structure, which was erected in 1879, at a cost of
six hundred thousand dollars, to the memory of Charles the Second of
Brunswick, the "Diamond Duke," as he was called by the Germans, who,
after his expulsion from his principality by his subjects, on account of
his extravagance and general worthlessness, took up his residence in
Geneva, and, on his death, in 1873, bequeathed all his property, about
four million dollars, to the city. The municipality was grateful enough
to carry out in a very sumptuous manner the last wishes of its
benefactor, who desired to be commemorated by a monument in the style of
the later Scaliger tomb at Verona, and from the designs of Frauel was
erected the hexagonal Gothic pavilion, surmounted by an equestrian
statue of the Duke, which is so well known to architects. The Veronese
prototype of the monument is a tolerably insecure affair, but the modern
imitation is still larger and heavier, and two years after its
completion the substructure began to come to pieces. It was then clamped
with metal, but water got into the joints, and further repairs were soon
necessary. In 1883, the Carrara marble of which it was built had so far
decayed that the rebuilding of the whole with more durable stone was
seriously proposed; and now, examination, having shown that the whole
affair is likely to collapse at any moment, the city authorities have
asked for authority to raise eight thousand dollars, by loan, to put it
in secure condition. To tell the truth, it would not be an irreparable
loss to the world to have the structure go to ruin. An imitation of an
existing monument is not likely to be a very inspiring work of art, and
this was not extremely successful, even as an imitation; while the
historical fact which it immortalized, that the last representative of
one of the six great German princely families, whose ancestors had been
reigning sovereigns for a thousand years, had been obliged to set up the
images of his haughty forefathers in a community of Republicans, because
his own people despised and hated him so much that they could endure him
no longer, was not of a character to arouse noble thoughts in the mind
of the beholder.
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