admirably adapted as that style might be to our summer temperature.
In preparing for that oscillation of the thermometer the English are
called on for another change, whereas the Orientals may meet it by
simply reverting to first principles.

[Illustration: NEW YORK BUILDING.]

The delicacy of the Asiatic touch is exemplified in the wood-carving
upon the doorways and pediments of the Japanese dwelling. Arabesques
and reproductions of subjects from Nature are executed with a
clearness and precision such as we are accustomed to admire on the
lacquered-ware cabinets and bronzes of Japan. With us, wood has almost
completely disappeared as a glyptic material. The introduction of
mindless automatic machinery has starved out the chisel. Mouldings are
run out for us by the mile, like iron from the rolling-mill or tunes
from a musical-box, as cheap and as soulless. Forms innately beautiful
thus become almost hateful, because hackneyed. If all the women we
see were at once faultlessly beautiful and absolute duplicates of
each other in the minutest details of feature, complexion, dress and
figure, we should be in danger of conceiving an aversion to the sex.
So there is a certain pleasure in tracing in a carven object, even
though it be hideous, the patient, faithful, watchful work of the
human hand guided at every instant by the human eye. And this Japanese
tracery is by no means hideous. The plants and animals are well
studied from reality, and truer than the average of popular designs in
Europe a century ago, if not now. It is simple justice to add that for
workmanlike thoroughness this structure does not suffer in comparison
with those around it.

Besides this dwelling for its employés, the Japanese government has