You
have marble quarries where the stone is more beautiful in colour
than any the Greeks ever had for their beautiful work, and yet day
after day I am confronted with the great building of some stupid
man who has used the beautiful material as if it were not precious
almost beyond speech. Marble should not be used save by noble
workmen. There is nothing which gave me a greater sense of
barrenness in travelling through the country than the entire
absence of wood carving on your houses. Wood carving is the
simplest of the decorative arts. In Switzerland the little
barefooted boy beautifies the porch of his father's house with
examples of skill in this direction. Why should not American boys
do a great deal more and better than Swiss boys?
There is nothing to my mind more coarse in conception and more
vulgar in execution than modern jewellery. This is something that
can easily be corrected. Something better should be made out of
the beautiful gold which is stored up in your mountain hollows and
strewn along your river beds. When I was at Leadville and
reflected that all the shining silver that I saw coming from the
mines would be made into ugly dollars, it made me sad.
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