REPORT OF MR. NELSON L. DERBY.
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has given to the comparatively few handsome buildings there to be found. A writer in one of the Boston papers, after the great fire, advised that decoration should be very scantily applied to the new buildings to be erected, since it would be immediately concealed by signs of stores, banks, etc. Where ornamentation is, as with us, produced by the use of elaborately chiselled granite, this is, without doubt, true. In Vienna, where only the lower stories of buildings are used for business purposes and the upper invariably for dwellings, the matter is different. Here signs are fewer in number, and the growing taste of the people leads them to place them symmetrically upon the fronts, and blend them with the architecture of the building. I have seen many cases where a sign has been made of the same width as a frieze, which, having been left smooth and without decoration, serves admirably as a position for it, and where its protruding nature is rendered less prominent by the shadow thrown by the overhanging cornice.
While in Paris the use of stone has had a direct effect upon the appearance of the streets, through the ensuing absence of ornamentation, which, for ordinary buildings, would, in this material, require too great an outlay of money; in Vienna, on the other hand, the use of mastic in connection with terracotta, has played the greatest part in beautifying that city. There are, however, certain indirect effects which arise from the same causes. Where stone is used for the main walls of a building, these need not be as thick as when constructed of brick. For instance : in Paris, at the basement, the front Wall of an ordinary clwelling-honse may be two feet in thickness, and, at the roof, one foot and a half. In Vienna, such a wall of brick is often two feet and a half to three feet at the roof. Now much, in the way of architectural ornamentation, m order to produce its due effect, must project to a certain extent from this wall, thus giving to the front the light and shade sought for. This is especially true of the upper or main cornice of a building,—that portion which crowns the whole. This is constructed in general by the assistance of stones resting upon the upper surface of the wall, and projecting to the required extent. It is evident that, ff these stones project too far, they will topple over into