north-east of Bordeaux is Libourne, one of the principal towns founded
by Edward I. This flourishing commercial town was the ruin of its
neighbor, St. Emilion, which affords a fine field for the antiquary,
nearly the whole town consisting of buildings of the Middle Ages. A
considerable part of the town wall of the twelfth century remains,
with the ditch, now turned into vineyards, and at one corner is a fine
house of the same period, which is called the Palace of the Cardinal
de la Mothe, who may perhaps have resided in it; but it is at least a
century older than his time, and can hardly be later than 1200, as
will at once be seen by the details. The French antiquaries say that
it was built by the Cardinal in 1302, and speak of it as a remarkable
synchronism in art; but the fact appears to me simply incredible. The
most remarkable feature of St. Emilion is the monolithic church, which
is probably one of the most curious of its class. It is cut entirely
out of the solid rock, and is of early Romanesque character. The
precise date is uncertain, but it appears most probable that the work
was commenced in the eleventh century, and carried on through the
whole of the twelfth. St. Emilion is said to have lived in the eighth
century. A fragment of an inscription remains, the characters of which
agree with the eleventh century; but some of the French antiquaries
attribute it to the ninth. Others consider it as merely the crypt of
the church above on the top of the rock; but that church is of much
later character, and it is much more probable that the subterranean
church was first made, and the other built long afterwards, when the
country was in a more settled state. This church is 115 feet long by
80 wide. It consists of three parallel aisles, or rather a nave and
two aisles, with plain barrel-shaped vaults, if they can be so called,
with transverse vaults or openings, and round arches on massive square
piers; the imposts are of the plain early Norman character, merely a
square projection chamfered off on the under side, but one of them is
enriched with the billet ornament. There are recesses for tombs down
the sides, and a fourth aisle or passage has been cut out on the south
side, apparently for tombs only, as it has recesses on both sides to
receive the stone coffins. Still farther to the south, but connected
by a passage, is a circular chamber in an unfinished state, with a
domical vault, and an opening in the centre to a shaft which is
carried up to the surface. Whether this was intended for a
chapter-house, or for a sepulchral chapel in imitation of the Holy
Sepulcre, is an undecided point. I incline to the latter opinion. This
subterranean church or crypt is necessarily lighted from one end only,
where it is flush with the face of the rock; and these openings are
filled with Flamboyant windows, which are very evident insertions. On
the surface of the hill over this church, but with a large space of
solid rock intervening, is the tower and spire belonging to it. The
tower is of late Norman and Transitional character surmounted by a
Flamboyant crocketed spire. There is a kind of well or flue cut
through the rock under the tower into the church below, apparently for
the bell-ropes. In the church are remains of early painting, and some
shallow sculpture, the character of which appears to be of the twelfth
century. Adjoining to the church, on the south side, is a detached
chapel of transition Norman work, with an apse vaulted with good ribs
and vaulting shafts. A considerable part of the old painting is
preserved; some of the ribs are painted with zigzags. Under this
chapel is a crypt or cave cut out of the rock called the Grotto of St.
Emilion, with a spring of water in it. The work is of the same early
character as the other vaults.--_J. H. Parker._
* * * * *
ANOTHER TALL CHIMNEY.--A factory chimney, said to be the highest in
the world, is now being erected at the Royal Smelting-Works, near
Freiberg, in Saxony. The horizontal flue from the works to the chimney
is 1,093 yards long; it crosses the river Mulde, and then takes an
upward course of 197 feet to the top of the hill upon which the
chimney is being built. The base of the structure is thirty-nine feet
square by thirty feet in height, on which is placed a short octagonal
transition, from which the round shaft starts. This is 430 feet high,
or altogether, with the base 460 feet high, with an inside diameter of
twenty-three feet at the bottom, and sixteen feet and six inches at
the top. It will take 1,500,000 bricks, and the cost is
£6,000.--_Exchange._
* * * * *
SITE OF A LOCRIAN TOWN.--The site of an ancient city of the Locri in
modern Calabria, Italy, is in progress of excavation, under the
direction of Dr. Orsi. The modern name of the spot is Gerace. A temple
of six columns has been unearthed, and among the prizes is a Greek
group in Parian marble, showing a divinity with a fishtail, a horse
and a nude youth. The group is supposed to have been placed in the
pediment of the west gable. Other finds are awaited.--_New York
Times._
* * * * *
THE WATKIN TOWER.--Four hundred plans have already been received by
the committee who offered prizes for the best and second-best plan for
the proposed Watkin tower--the English Eiffel. It has been said that
it will be so high that all that need be done when fog comes on will
be to enter the lift and in a few minutes be up in the clear
blue.--_Boston Post._
* * * * *
PERSIAN COURT ART.--M. Georges Perrot will maintain in his
forthcoming volume on Persian art, being the fifth volume of "The
History of Art," that the old art of Persia had nothing to do with
the Persian people, being simply official or Court art. The
designers and builders, sculptors and artists, were, he thinks, not
Persians, but Greeks. The architect of the palaces of Darius was a
Greek or a Phoenician.--_New York Times._
[Illustration: TRADE SURVEYS]
There are signs of a subsidence of popular hostility to railroad
combinations, trusts and commercial and manufacturing organizations of
various kinds intended to conserve mutual interests. If the granger
spirit had its own way it would, through its control of the
legislative mills, grind a good many corporations to powder, and do
tenfold more damage by its destructive methods than could possibly be
repaired by mistaken remedies. It is, after all, a question whether
any form of combination is possible which can very long do much damage
to the people at large. These gigantic commercial and railroad
organizations with which we have recently become familiar are
giant-like efforts of enormous interests to rise up out of old
conditions. Progress and development must take place, and the efforts
of trusts, associations and combinations by whatever name known are
simply the preliminary movements of mighty interests to reorganize
themselves upon a broader and higher platform. The people in their
jealousy and anxiety to protect themselves have, in some sections of
the country, run into the adoption of extreme measures. They are
already preparing to retrace their steps, and for several reasons.
They are discovering that they have been fighting a bugbear; also,
that their legislation against the bugbear cannot legislate. Also,
that money stays away from radical communities, that many possible
advantages are lost; that combinations properly controlled have,
within themselves, the capabilities of accomplishing much good.
Despite the threatened damage of these monster combinations prices
have been quietly and steadily declining in nearly every direction;
railroad freights have slipped down, notch after notch. Association
after association has come and gone, and the Interstate Railway Law
itself is in danger of being set aside for something better. The
people are learning to have less fear of these combinations, and more
confidence in themselves and for the underlying laws of trade. The
year ends with gratifying results to business men in every avenue of
activity. The action of the Treasury Department furnishes a hint to
the country that a large supply of currency may soon become a
necessity. The evil that would result from an unexpected and prolonged
financial stringency cannot be measured. Over five thousand new
corporations, firms and business associations have started in the
South last year, as against something like 3,700 for 1888. Never in
our history was there such an incubation of new business ventures. A
stringency in money will destroy these by the thousand. Two or three
scores of railroad enterprises which have reached the stage of
bond-issuing would also be thrown aside, and thousands of enlargements
of manufacturing and mining properties would be postponed; but it is
useless to borrow trouble, or to paint dismal possibilities, as it is
to be presumed that the people and their spokesmen fully understand
the question. There is not a single branch of business in which
reasonable fault can be found with results, excepting the one general
result of very narrow margins. Consuming-capacity, on the whole, has
increased. The wage-earners are earning as much as for years past, and
are receiving more for their expenditures; that is to say, less of the
product of labor in the aggregate is being absorbed by middlemen, or
what might be termed non-productive agencies. The production of labor
is being more evenly and equitably distributed than ever before. The
ideal justice dreamed of by the philosophic socialists is within
reach. In short, the wage-worker is better off, has more advantages,
greater opportunities, and is yearly becoming a more important factor
in the Government.
As long as railway gross and net earnings continue to improve no
reaction is to be feared, according to the dictum of Wall Street.
There are strong probabilities that the favorable showing will
continue. The anthracite coal production for 1889 foots up 35,200,000
tons, as against 38,145,718 tons for 1888. The distribution of soft
coal throughout the New England and Middle States for steam-raising
and general manufacturing purposes is gradually increasing. Last
week's distribution of Connellsville coke reached the unprecedented
figures of 125,000 tons. The production for the year foots up over
4,500,000 tons. The expansion and development of industries throughout
the Middle and Southern States continues, and hundreds of new
enterprises will take shape early in the spring. Iron and steel makers
are projecting new furnaces and mills in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky,
Tennessee and Alabama. Some forty or fifty cotton mills are projected
between Georgia and Texas. Mining companies representing fully forty
million dollars of capital--that is, actual working capital--will
begin operations this winter along the eastern slope of the Rocky
Mountains. Industrial and building activity will take a fresh start
upon the Pacific coast. Among the branches which will be developed
will be saw-mill and foundry building. Machinery, engines, castings of
all kinds, stoves and small iron and wood work are in great demand all
along the coast from the Columbia River to Los Angeles. A great deal
of capital and enterprise has been encouraged thither during 1889,
and, as a result, manufacturing is greatly stimulated. The Dominion
Government is also alive to the importance of developing relations
with Asiatic and other foreign countries, and ship-lines are projected
from its western seaports to foreign countries. Railroad-building is
also being greatly stimulated by private enterprise. A vast amount of
capital is drifting into the Rocky Mountain and Pacific coast regions
from Eastern cities, and a great empire is being built up there which
will be a source of wealth to those who obtain possession of land,
timber, minerals and manufacturing facilities before the general
enhancement of values takes place. The benefits originally
contemplated by the construction of the trans-continental roads are
now only being felt in their intensity. Irrigation companies, heavily
capitalized, are doing excellent work in reclaiming vast tracts which
geographers declared lost to all future utility. Mining engineers who
have made a very careful examination and survey of much Western
territory in the interest of Boston and New York moneyed men furnish
evidences of wealth in those sections, which cannot but bring to them
the money and enterprise necessary to their full development. The
smaller industries throughout the States east of the Mississippi River
are all doing well. Manufacturers are making money, but not as rapidly
as they would like. Competition is exercising a healthy restraining
influence. Like interests are being drawn together through the spirit
of organization. Manufacture and agriculture are evenly balancing
themselves. Commercial failures for 1889 show a moderate increase,
but, considering the rashness with which ill-equipped persons enter
into business and manufacturing, it is surprising that the failures
are so few.
* * * * *
S. J. PARKHILL & CO., Printers, Boston.
Transcriber's Note:
Minor printer errors (omitted or incorrect punctuation, missing or
transposed letters etc.) have been corrected without note. All
remaining variations in spelling, hyphenation, etc. are preserved as
in the original, with the following exceptions:
Page iv--Concontractors amended to Contractors--"Estimates.
Builders' and Sub-Contractors', 161"
Page iv--Judæan amended to Judean--"Judean Tombs, 117"
Page v--Scandinavan amended to Scandinavian--"Scandinavian
Art, 37, 53, 63"
Page v--Maxmilian amended to Maximilian--"Tomb. [of]
Maximilian at Innsbruck, 61"
Page vii--place name and page reference transposal
reversed--"Strozzi Palace, Florence, 70"
Page viii--Ruitz amended to Rintz--"Berlin, Ger. ... House
on the Yorkstrasse. Herr Rintz, ..."
Page viii--Willisch amended to Wellisch--"Buda-Pesth,
Austria. House of Herr Hatner. Alfred Willisch, ..."
Page viii--Felixtowe amended to Felixstowe--"Felixstowe,
Eng. The Gables." etc.
Page viii--repeated 'the' deleted--"Painting by Puvis de
Chavannes in the Grand Hall ..."
Page 5--succedded amended to succeeded--"... far from
honourable, have succeeded in getting control ..."
Page 7--scholorship amended to scholarship--"... to whom
scholarship is dear ..."
Page 9--argillacious amended to argillaceous--"... of a
loose argillaceous irony matter ..."
Page 9--repeated 'is' deleted--"... showing that it is not
its geological position ..."
Page 11--gripe amended to grip--"... carrying a lion whose
dreadful grip his frantic rearing cannot loosen."
The index entry on p vi, Suggestion for the Executive Mansion by
Theodore F. Laist, etc. has no page reference in the original
publication.
The word Phoenician was printed with an oe ligature. This has not been
retained in this version.
Illustrations have been shifted slightly so as not to fall in the
middle of paragraphs.