side excite
admiration.

The building of Norway and Sweden is a charming cottage of handsome
and ample proportions. It has three sections: one of two stories with
low-pitched roof, and gable to the street, a middle structure with
colonnade, and one of three stories with high-pitched roof. The
windows are round-topped, made in an ingenious way, the upper member
being an arched piece with sloping ends, to match the springing on
the tops of the posts which divide the openings. The horizontal and
vertical bands are enriched by carving.

The facade of Italy may be pronounced pretentious and disappointing.
It is constructed of various kinds of unpolished marble and
terra-cotta panels. A tall archway is flanked by two wings having each
two smaller arches, the entablatures of which are enriched, if we
must so term it, with gaudy mosaic figures, portraits and heraldic
bearings, while the spans of the arches surmount pyramidal groups of
emblems, scientific, medical, lyrical and so forth. Red curtains with
heavy gilt cords and tassels behind the arches throw the columns with
composition (not Composite) capitals and the emblems into high relief.
Beneath the centre arch is the armorial bearing of the country. The
vestibules display statuary.

Japan has a quaint little house with a very massive gateway of solid
timber, flanked by two characteristic fountains of terra-cotta.
These represent stumps of trees, with gigantic lily-cups, leaves of
water-lilies, and frogs in grotesque attitudes in and around the
water.

China has a grotesque house, painted in imitation of octagonal
slate-colored bricks, covered with a pagoda-roof full of curves and
points. The red door has rows of large knobs and is surmounted by
colored and gilded carvings, representing genii probably. The pointed
flag has in a yellow field a blue dragon in the later stages of
consumption.

Spain has a Moorish building rich in gold and color--a central
portion with Italian roof, and two colonnade side-sections flanked by
castellated towers. Five forms of arches span the doors and windows,
and the artist has contrived to associate all forms of ornament,
running from an approach to the Greek fret down through the Arabesque
to the Brussels carpet.

Austro-Hungary has a long colonnade of white stone ornamented with
black filigree-work and supported by columns in pairs. The entablature
is surmounted by a row of statues, and the end-towers have parapets
with balustrade.