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Show MODERN AND ANCIENT EDIFICES 6 The modern skyseraper has been assailed on numerous grounds. The conservative architect has found fault with It because It disturbs precedents to which he Is accustomed; accus-tomed; tho esthetic charge that it violates tho canons of good taste; the canitarians declare thnt it is injurious to health because it shuts out the sun and light from lower buildings, and civic authorities view its multiplication with concern; as it has a decided tendency to congest con-gest population, thus making the policing and fire protection Of certain cer-tain districts in cities exceedingly difficult. Notwithstanding these and other objections the tendency to build skyscrapers increases and spreads. Thiir erection is no longer confined to the large cities; towns of no considerable Importance are building build-ing skyward; ;i fact which conclusively con-clusively disposes of the assumption assump-tion that the Impelling cause of tho tall building Is landlord greed and the high cost of land. The phenomenon phe-nomenon Is peculiarly American at present, but Europe Is gradually. If reluctantly, Imitating the architectural architec-tural achievements of the United States which her critics have leng denounced as "monstrosities." The opposition of Europeans naturally na-turally suggests that the tall building build-ing is a modern conception, but history does not sustain such an assumption. How much of the freely free-ly expressed admiration of ancient writers of the beauty of the Roman Ro-man capital was due to its lofty buildings It would be hard to measure, meas-ure, but a people as unreservedly fond of big things as the Romans must have been vastly impressed by their tall structures. Just how tall the highest buildings build-ings of Romo were It Is Impossible to state with precision Orltcs lean to the belief that seven stones, or about seventy feet, was the maximum maxi-mum height of houses. Hut ther are passages In the classic writers whleh dispute this assumption. There is one In Martial In which he speaks of a man carrying his purchases pur-chases "home with him, and up soma 200 sttpo, " .Very low treads WOUld make 2 r. n ?u rra- h ll(ai. lofty top floor Juvenal and H I k a? If the room",'Bsai the lippei Itorjes of the Insula a I p Rome ) . I -i hard . Umi. to est U their ap irtmenta. the The ancient mode of contw-tlon contw-tlon in order to carry up a bsIM ing even to th.- h-lght of" r It, feel required very thick WMJJ which precluded the possibility'' k, Utlll. . .- a -rr..w I , ruj b,, . high In the air. But this dlfflsaj JJMrsj, m. by constructlnl i Insulao or tenement house. ' a ...... there were at times a" " ment, i.-twcn individual "DtV$ B . nd by which party -.1H "JJ JJai dispensed with, thus p. rrnittinf erection of lofty building Ai I the great lire in Rome an sdle. u K-u-d bv N.to which putaMSPJ B , this practice and compile -1 J M to separate their propertl l HM spaces or walls. j a i:..me was not the only cttfj annuity to erect TJM S?U ,t t),e earliest. The MsM epi. s .ontaln numerous ailuSJo with wide streets siw J IJbsjj buildings . reeled In Gre' J Jt tkjeh A t Minor nearly :i l"lllcnn'"ta; fall, the Romans nr. imp .lofty" clti.s. and the oth'r cr v.rlt(rH refer to them 'V'r2iH he h , reato h. imPja , hn.w were admire though hMt.g i. ih',,,,f:nrcea to tho j nsg stairs, which. I , cf JsJg ,liVo.n thc.wt-,1. "f h,"'Vaud 31 As th, propensity t0 JEaJ .., ,, lS so "n'r'1,n, f0CS J Utj long. Amen" ' ed f f UTth ta-t" for the abnormal. lLZ7r JJ tho attemi , a ,n 'h' fremlPmS'HM pyramids and tho trkln Ifcsjj?5 . sn furnished t.v Hadrian sfl rna gg n..w the castle of St- ' rjy Bor us straight, we my P' 0un sume thit If the ' or . L.lfr ttd. e rn elevator had suw- WSf B the ancients they u, rC 0U, left us th ?, flW,tl? the tallest structure Put u' riTla? M n first |
