taste or the courage to refuse to expend it. The result is that this
granite horse-basin--one of the best of its sort--has been removed to an
obscure position; and there has been erected in its place a wretched
cast-iron combination of bad architecture and bad statuary, such as form
a conspicuous defacement of the public squares in Philadelphia, where
they serve the double purpose of furnishing water to the people, and
advertising a cheap clothing establishment. The one compensation for the
violation of good taste inseparable from these constructions is to be
found in the fact that they must, sooner or later, lead the public to
realize the absolute unfitness of cast iron for monumental and
decorative uses. With the artistic influences which are now so active in
the instruction of the American people, it is not perhaps unreasonable
to look forward to the day when all of these piles of pot-metal shall be
relegated to the scrap-heap, and when less offensive fountains shall
take their place. We may even hope to see the iron statue and its
stove-like support which supplies water to the horses of Newport
condemned to the foundry, and its solid old predecessor restored to the
position which it ornamented for so many years.

A wide margin may be allowed for the exercise of taste in the
arrangement of village fountains; and where private munificence enables
the expenditure of a considerable sum, a good amount of exterior
decoration may be admissible: but it should always be borne in mind that
so much of the outlay as is needed for the purpose should go to secure
a good artistic design. Especially should the use of cast iron be
avoided, as being from every point of view, and under all circumstances,
whether in the shape of cast-iron dogs or deer, or attempts at the
divine human form, absolutely and entirely inadmissible for artistic
uses. Better a dug-out log horse-trough, overflowing through a notch in
its side, as an ornament to the best-kept village green, than the most
elaborate pitcher-spilling nymph that was ever cast in an iron-foundry.
So far as the mere construction work of public drinking-fountains and
horse-troughs is concerned, not much need be said except in connection
with the overflow. In cold climates, there is apt to be from all such
structures a spilling of water which covers the ground for some distance
with ice. This may be avoided by carrying the overflow by a vertical
pipe descending through the body of the