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September 16, 1854. THE LEADER. 885
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SYDENIIAM PAPERS. No. III. Having compar...
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And John Smith ' s life was easily found out . He had a small tliough rising salary , and lived in a small house—No . 3 , Roncesvalles Cottages . With him lived two sisters , one tin-married , one tf & -married by the death of her husband , and so brought back to John , " by Providence , " sneered Dutton . That was not all . John , who was growing slightly grey , ought to have married , for he had a taste for literature , and art , and could sing an under part in any simple piece of music ; could read French , was up in a quaint style of romantic literature ; had dabbled in gymnastics , could pull an oar in a gentlemanly way ; and , in short , was just the kind of man to commit a boyish imprudence . Nay , he had done so—he had made a proposal ; but it was addressed to Prudence , personified in a gentle young lady , who had been courted before by a very old gentleman , and had been
left with a small income by her devoted lover , to continue so long as she should continue un-married . Now the gentle Amy had a mother dependent cm her , and Amy resolved to marry when her mother died . Everybody admired her self-sacrifice , eveii John did 5 she grew older , and so did he ; the mother grew less locomotive , but could still come to dinner every Sunday ; and John -was permitted to pay those chaste attentions which Amy expected , and on which the grateful mother periodically pronounced a benediction . A placid quiet life—for the word life is very loosely used in England ; adorned by the gentle Amy , placid as a favourite lamb of fourteen years standing : and if ever the shepherd groaned in his heart , or turned his weary eyes put of bounds , no one ever knew it . But was that life , asked Dutton , satirical by force of envy , a success , or the way to one ? Yet Jarrett had said it
: , and so did Smith—for lately his voice had been brisk and clearer , his eye bright , his step as ready and firm as that of a Hew made Serjeant of marines . Dutton could not solve it . One day Smith laid before him a bundle of papers , and he noticed what he knew was a recent addition to John ' s plain cbstume—a ring . It was peculiar too—a plain gold ring , knotted like a piece of caiie , with a plain black shield upon it , and on the shield a plain gold cross , ^ Was the man turned Catholic ? " inwardly asked the startled and interested Dutton . "Oh , no ; thatis not ' a success . '" But the Jesuitical character of the symbol—Diitton . could see nothing in the cross but Jesuitism—enhanced his suspicions , gave them force , interest , piquancy . He began to relish his quest . He already - ruminated on the delierkt of " exposing" Smith . . The cross haunted him . It was his secret as well as Button ' s . It inflamed
^ Mr . Jarrett , always affable to his dependents , esteemed Smith ; and occasionally invited him , and his sisters , and Miss Turner whom the sisters had mentioned—not Mrs . Turner . Mr . Jarrett disliked infirm people , and thought them best at home . Dutton always went , pleased to procure a change and a flattery for " the girls , " as he called them ; for he was _ a gentlemen to the back bone , and declined any cognizance of time in reference to Amy or Amy ' s companions . They were all sitting round Jarrett ' s pleasant dinner-table , with dear Mrs . Jarrett ; after the upper cloth had gone , and before the ladies had followed . Jarrett had asked Dutton "to meet Smith . "—it helped to make the Co . know his place ; and there were some other men of standing . Dutton saw the supplanting process at work . Smith was virtually put on the level of a partner—He was already a brevet partner . The wine made his spiteful temples throb . He forgot what kind Mrs . Jarrett was saying so cheerfully . He could see only the ring—the cross .
There was a pause in the conversation—the ladies looked about to gowhen Dutton , his thin voice pretematurally distinct , cried— " What a strange ring that is , Mr . Smith ! How did you come by it ?" Dutton turned as pale as wood ashes . Amy looked at his finger : her placid eye had never noticed it before : she turned white ' , red ; looked at him , at Dutton , at " Eliza !" " Must you not tell ? " persisted Dutton , with a sneering tone of
insinuation . After a moment ' s consideration , Smith replied , in a calm voice , " With pleasure . " " Conticuore omnes . "
September 16, 1854. The Leader. 885
September 16 , 1854 . THE LEADER . 885
Sydeniiam Papers. No. Iii. Having Compar...
SYDENIIAM PAPERS . No . III . Having compared the intentions of the old and new Exhibitions , let us now see how the two buildings differ . It was no easy matter , oven for Englishmen , to build a place bice the old Crystal Palace , covering 19 acres of ground , and completed in less than nine months ; in fact it may be said fairly that the whole world of architects was challenged to undertake it and failed . A month ' s consideration was given to the architects of all nations : 233 sent in designs , of which number 38 were from foreigners , 128 from London , and 51 from the provinces . As may bo supposed , every kind of form , and all kinds of materials were concerned in the construction of these proposed buildings : stone , blocks , wood , and iron , arranged in solid side walls , columns , arches , and domes of enormous magnitude . Those various plans were submitted to the digestion of Mr . Digby Wyatt , the energetic working secretary of the commission , and himself an able architect . They were universally condemned ; some were not pvaotieablo and safe , and of those that wore so it was , after mature counsel , decided thoy could not possibly bo built in tlio time , even if the necessary materials could bo got together . Ihia decision of the building committee created no small sensation ; whether xt was honest or whether the committee hud a mental reservation to keep the honour for themselves , wo cannot stop now to inquiro ; but the upauot of it all was , that they had a scheme of their own ;—the mountain waa parturient , but when the offspring saw tho light it was condemned as an abolition of extraordinary ugliness , in spite of tho united praises and elaborate defence of its many fathers . Matters wore thus brought to a dead lock ;—all the bigwigB of architecture in tho world at loggerheads , when up stops Joseph Paxton , the Duko of Devonshire ' s gardener , of all persons in 110 world , and says , » I'll toll you how to make tho building ; tore ' sketch 1 ju 9 t madponmy blotting-paper- —wo ' re doing something of tho
kind down at Chatsworth , to make a house for the great water-lily , and Messrs . Fox and Henderson will tell you they can make a house from London to John-O'Groat ' s upon this plan . " The gardener ' s plan was seen at once to be the only one adapted to the general purpose in view , and it was carried out with some trifling modifications in the details of construction suggested by Mr . Fox , and some elegancies by Mr . Barry . The chief excellence of the plan lay in the employment of the same simple means of support and stability—viz . a column and a girder throughout the immense structure ; as these were made of cast-iron , and after precisely the same mould , they could be used as fast as they were made , and supplied with
equal rapidity . Every column fitted every girder , so that though the building looked like a puzzle when it was put together , it was in reality an extremely simple affair . Where the arched work was employed , as at the great transept , and across the nave , wrought iron had to be used on account of the length of strain upon the girders ; in the nave these were 72 feet long , made of longitudinal and diagonal pieces rivetted together . The grand thing in this kind of building is evidently to keep every part upright so as to maintain the ^ proper vertical bearing ; for the moment a column gets out of the perpendicular , as has more than once been proved at Sydenham , the surrounding parts are seriously damaged . To ensure this there is an extensive system of wrought-iron tie-bars employed in the new building , between the columns , as well as between the ribs of the arched roof . In case of a
column cracking across , which is not a very uncommon occurrence , it is easily removed by shoring up the girders and supplying a new one . This is an accident , however , which is liable to all buildings of cast-iron , and demands the most stringent and vigilant inspection of every part . The roofing of tlie Crystal Palace is as ingenious and simple a contrivance as any connected with the structure : it is known as the Paxton ridge and furrow principle , which will be better understood if we liken it to the roof a a child puts upon his house of cards . Thousands of strips of glass , about four feet long and one broad , are placed on wooden sash bars and tilted on end one against the other in long- ranges . This plan , gives the greatest
strength , and at the same time the requisite slope for drainage . Some notion of the multiplication of this simple apparatus may be got from the dry fact that 202 miles of sash bars supported 900 , 000 superficial feet of glass in the old building ; they were made by machinery on the spot , and during the work you saw immense stacks of them standing about . The glass of the new building measures 23 acres , and all the old sash bars are used with it ; but the glass of the roof is new , being thicker ( one-thirteenth Of an inch ) than in the old building . There have been various alterations made in the New Crystal Palace which will be noticed , but the construction of "both ia the same .
Having rescued the building , the next question was , what to do with it , and where to put it . As one of the most astute of the men of business said so naively to his brother directors , " Gentlemen , we have bought an elephant !"•— assuredly the little wants of a proprietary of 100 , 000 shares are no trifle , and they must be attended to—interest of money is one of the necessaries of commercial life . Hyde-park was an extremely convenient situation for a temporary exhibition , and it would have been very delightful to have had a permanent winter-garden , with a portion , of the park enclosed for statues , terraces , and fountains ;* but the great requisite * ' fresh air" would ever have been sighed for by the jaded towns-folk . Sydenham is a glorious place when you ' there—so is Mont Blanc—but the difficulties of access have been terribly overlooked in . the delighb at the splendid view from the terraces , which is beyond compare the finest prospect within six miles of town on any side . Yet one would have thought some better place than the top of a clay hill ,
with roads that > n winter drive coachmen mad , might have been found ; but stay , we forget ; there was " The Elephant " to be fed ; the Brighton lino was made a contingency , and so probably were Penge-park ana the 300 acres . Well then , we yield to contingencies and leave off grumbling at the distance , and the struggle through the City , and over London-bridge , and the crowds at the station , and the " no change " grievance , with a hope that things will ho made pleasant , and all petty annoyances , which are always the most teasing , softened down and done away with as much as possible . The site fixed upon , the next thing was to make the new building sufficiently strong to be lasting , and to improve the general form , for the shape of the old one was not remarkable for beauty . Indeed , if it was wanted now to design another Crystal Palace , probal > ly past experience would load our engineers and architects to something far more suitable and ornamental ; not , by tho way , that the building at Munich is any improvement , neither , from all we can see at present , doca the Paris structure seem likely to surpass our own in elegance or grandeur .
The most obvious improvement upon tho old form , was to get rid of the flat roof . This it was at once decided to Uo in the now palace . The entire nave , which was flat , is now . arched over at the sumo height as the great centre transept wus in the old building , which makes it 44 feet higher ; besides this , thure are the two end transepts of the same height . At the points of junction with tho nave , low square towers of wood have been introduced , which give variety to tho form . It was proposed by Sir C . Bnrry to build a centre dome of unprecedented magnitude , but this was fn-ven up on account of tho groat diOlculticH of construction , although it w « a
allowed by all that such u foatuvo would boa most desirable one . Tho grout centre transept was eventually chosen , tho building of which proved sufficiently arduous . The erection of tho iron ribs which span across tho nave and transepts , was innnaged by a travelling scaffold in « Uo _ of wood mid iron , its two ends or abutments being furnished with whcolu which run on u kind of railway along the tops of the columns ; thus after ouch rib was fixed , the sonflbld was pushed on for the next . It was thought that a sinular plan might bo used for tho great transept which is nearly twice as wide an tho otliors ; and a scaffold was constructed , or nil hoi- nl teni |» tod to bo , of a bohob of wooden truss-girdors joined togotliur in tri « in « len , and bniccd longitudinally , the diflbront sets of " which too supported by two wrought-iron tie-bars , stretched like « bow-string noroas the oponiiigjrom ^ coluiiut to column . i-Uo "T Why aomothing of tltla oorTuliouM not bol ^ Td ™« r , wo do noUeo it would bo fur more AQCoptnblo iMn tho uorofl of frlaslwl pro * . «« d dirty debtlitjitoA ciittlo * rom which tho SimOny crowds now tulco tliolr l . lona of tho ruml . lVirlinpa niter tlw vmr , whon our ahipM oonio ovor with tho " jn « tori « l guumuUV ' TVo slmll Hue .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 16, 1854, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16091854/page/21/
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