Frankfurt a. M., Hannover, Mainz, München, Nürnberg, Schöneberg, Stuttgart, and Worms which has baths in every one of her school buildings. The Turnhalle is an important building in the school group, and gymnastics forms an integral part of the school curriculum. The playgrounds and the school gardens, the free river baths in Breslau, the free swimming lessons in Dresden, the free tickets to the skating-ponds in both Dresden and Breslau, all have their effect in promoting the health of the children. Besides, there are the school excursions to the woods and fields, and the summer outings and camps for the poorer children, though these are usually planned by associations rather than by the municipalities, sometimes, however, with very material assistance from the latter.

School buildings. In the larger cities the buildings are either for boys, or for girls, or else double buildings. The gymnasium and the playground, and very often the school garden, form a regular part of the school plan. The double building, with the gymnasium between the two parts, as found in Mainz, Elberfeld, Berlin, Cassel, and Königsberg, seems to be the best arrangement. Cheap, temporary school buildings to relieve overcrowding were exhibited by Elberfeld and Nürnberg. Bamberg attempts such artistic decoration of the school buildings as the child's mind will readily grasp and appreciate, finding models in the plant and animal kingdoms. She also makes use of allegorical subjects, as does Elberfeld. Berlin has made use of scenes from the school life of the children themselves for decorating one of her new school buildings. Halle exhibited drawings showing the color scheme for interior decorations, including walls, doors and windows, and furniture, in her new school buildings.

Libraries and reading-rooms.-The exhibits in this section were not at all representative, but, from what could be gathered, the public library does not play nearly so important a part as it does in most American cities. Plans, photographs, or statistical tables were presented by Breslau, Danzig, Darmstadt, Dresden, Elberfeld, Hildesheim, Stuttgart, and Worms. The comparative statistics show an improvement in the supply, due to a growing sentiment in favor of them as a supplement to school education.

The cxposition as an educational institution.- For a student of German municipal institutions the exposition presented a compact, concrete exhibit of inestimable worth. It was a lens which focused all municipal activities. It was a rich mine, but one which yielded its treasures only after hard labor. A worthy catalogue would have cost much more time and trouble than were represented by the name-and-number book which was issued as the official catalogue. Many difficulties had to be overcome in the preparation and presentation of such abstractions as city government and municipal activities, and it should probably not cause surprise that so many problems were left unsolved. Plans, statistical tables, and graphic charts formed perforce the bulk of the exhibits. Instead of making use of revolving stands and other such appliances, the directors hung everything on the walls as in a picture gallery. The demand for space was thus so great that many possibly very important charts and tables were quite out of reach. Very few indeed were the exhibits accompanied by explanations even approaching adequacy. An exception was afforded by Breslau, whose exhibits in the various sections were of uniform excellence, and usually accompanied by explanatory literature. The department of public works (Tiefbauamt) of Frankfurt a. M. also had a carefully prepared exhibit. Relations and proportions should have received more attention. As a matter of fact, there was a lack of common understanding among the municipalities, so that some were exhibiting the whole field of their activities, as nearly as might be, while others were exhibiting only their newest, or their best, attainments. Seeing the various exhibits in their relations to each other doubtless afforded much instruction to the exhibiting communities themselves. After all, the undertaking was quite novel, and had no precedent which it could follow. A beginning has been made, and that by no means a discreditable beginning. Any second municipal exposition to be successful would have to adopt the many excellences of this first one. The material collected and presented was, when studied out, full of suggestions and rich in content.

To atone for the shortcomings of the cataloguing and to make the exposition of more educational value, the directors arranged

free peripatetic lectures on various phases of the exposition by experts in the several departments, many of which were very good indeed. They also permitted a Mr. Häfker to give a series of lectures, presenting a more general view of the exposition, showing the interrelation of the several departments and the organic character of the municipality as a whole. This, after all, was one of the chief lessons of the exposition. Furthermore the Dresdner Anzeiger published a series of articles on the exposition by specialists. A book is expected to appear in May, 1904, which would have been invaluable for students of the exposition. It is to be a collection of studies of the municipal departments presented at the exposition, largely by Dresden municipal officials who made a study of their special sections during the exposition.

G. PUBLIC ART.

Street decoration.-The municipality, through the building department, has jurisdiction over the decoration of the street, which is the aesthetic unit of the city, just as it is the building unit, the sanitary unit, etc. Ordinances and regulations affect the position of building lines, the presence or absence of front gardens, the minimal and maximal height of buildings, the style of the façade (in a general way); and in formulating these governing rules, the building department takes into account the æsthetic effect of the street picture. Nothing that would detract from the harmony of this picture is to be permitted. Lamp posts, for gas or electricity, advertising pillars, street clocks, waitingrooms, lavatories, refreshment booths, newspaper stands-all have a definite æsthetic value as well as utility. The best are designed to conform to their surroundings in street or square, and thus form a harmonious addition to the picture. Telephone and telegraph wires are usually laid in conduits; and in those cases where they must be above ground they are strung across the house-tops. Even trolley poles are made artistic; though they have to disappear sometimes in business districts and in boulevards, where the wires are underground. The departmental regulations with regard to plan and style of the buildings to be erected are, of course, intended to be merely general; but it is

easy and cheap to follow the bare outlines given with no attempt at originality or individuality, making the building the maximal size permitted for the sake of the rents. This produces long rows of houses all of a pattern. The harmony sought is lost because variety is lacking. The result is monotony instead. The prescriptions are too minute, and slavish application of them has destroyed the spirit. The buildings which have been erected within the past three or four years show a breaking away from the Renaissance style which has ruled so persistently. The Jugend-Stil which has replaced it is sometimes rather riotous and fanciful; but there is much good in this New Art, based upon frankness in following the lines of construction rather than upon deceit in covering them over; and when it sobers down somewhat, it will be very acceptable indeed. One of the noticeable points of street decoration-shown in certain drawings and photographs exhibited—is the presence of great numbers of balconies and bow windows. For people whose dwelling consists of a few rooms occupying part of one story of a large building, surrounded and faced by other large buildings, the balcony affords untold advantage and delight; and when, in summer, it is lined with flower-boxes filled with plants, the whole street becomes a mass of bloom. Hildesheim is a city rich in inherited wealth of wonderful and beautiful architecture, and she wishes to preserve her treasure. An ordinance which went into effect July 1, 1899, provides that all building or alteration which is visible from certain specified streets and squares where the majority of the old timbered houses stand, shall be made to harmonize in color scheme and style of architecture with these seventeenth-century buildings. This means, from an art point of view, a very delicate piece of work; and a question as to the possibility of its success is quite pardonable. The Hildesheimers may succeed, however, in creating a new style based upon the old and harmonizing with it, at the same time, satisfying modern demands for sufficient light and air, and all the other sanitary advantages coincident with modern architecture.

City decoration.-Laying out a city is a scientific work, but must have its artistic side. Peculiar engineering difficulties are

presented where there are hills or rising ground. Aachen, Elberfeld, Gera, Stuttgart, and Wiesbaden exhibited plans and models of the solutions of special problems, which are artistic as well as technical successes. When the streets are curved, especial care must be taken that the shape and size of the building lots are not sacrificed to the street lines. More than one municipality exhibited plans that show lots which will prove to be absolutely unavailable for building purposes. In the plans of many a city the principal thoroughfares twist and turn like serpents. This means extravagance, for the curving of pavements, of sewers, of street-car rails, of façades is very expensive. Moreover, there is an æsthetic fitness in having streets devoted to trade and traffic broad and straight; and, none of the advantages claimed for the tortuous street have any bearing here. The bends and curves of a country road are, indeed, beautiful; and a city street may be patterned after a country road, with a view to presenting a new picture at every turn, when variety of architecture is further enhanced by such natural accessories as trees, vines, and gardens. Where, however, as in a business district, there is a sameness of architecture, with none of these natural embellishments, a bending of the streets produces a labyrinthine effect which utterly lacks the æsthetic advantages sought. The co-ordination of the street units, the arrangement of the city into districts differentiated according to use for trade, manufacture, or residence, the preservation and beautification of the water front and of the parks, the placing of monuments, the location of public buildings—in Strassburg, for example, arranged along an axis between the royal palace and the university-all aid in the beautification of the city.

Public architecture.- A public building should have character; that is, the use to which it is to be put should suggest and define its exterior. If the architecture be good the building serves its purpose rather than dominates it. To demand, however, in the case of a museum that the wings of the building be as numerous as the main departments embraced, and that the architecture of the several wings shall express the purpose of their respective sections, is to carry the theory too far. Such a building loses