Alexander's armies were great makers of conquests; and Napoleon's
armies were great makers of conquests; but the modern Guerilla
regiments of the hod, the trowel, and the brick-kiln, are the greatest
conquerors of all; for they hold the longest the soil that they have
once possessed. How mighty the devastation which follows in the wake of
these tremendous aggressors, as they march through the kingdom of
nature, triumphantly bricklaying beauty wherever they go! What
dismantled castle, with the enemy's flag flying over its crumbling
walls, ever looked so utterly forlorn as a poor field-fortress of
nature, imprisoned on all sides by the walled camp of the enemy, and
degraded by a hostile banner of pole and board, with the conqueror's
device inscribed on it--"THIS GROUND TO BE LET ON BUILDING LEASES?"
What is the historical spectacle of Marius sitting among the ruins of
Carthage, but a trumpery theatrical set-scene, compared with the
mournful modern sight of the last tree left standing, on the last few
feet of grass left growing, amid the greenly-festering stucco of a
finished Paradise Row, or the naked scaffolding poles of a
half-completed Prospect Place? Oh, gritty-natured Guerilla regiments of
the hod, the trowel, and the brick-kiln! the town-pilgrim of nature,
when he wanders out at fall of day into the domains which you have
spared for a little while, hears strange things said of you in secret,
as he duteously interprets the old, primeval language of the leaves; as
he listens to the death-doomed trees, still whispering mournfully
around him the last notes of their ancient even-song!
But what avails the voice of lamentation? What new neighborhood ever
stopped on its way into the country, to hearken to the passive
remonstrance of the fields, or to bow to the indignation of outraged
admirers of the picturesque? Never was suburb more impervious to any
faint influences of this sort, than that especial suburb which grew up
between Baregrove Square and the country; removing a walk among the
hedge-rows a mile off from the resident families, with a ruthless
rapidity at which sufferers on all sides stared aghast.
Pages:
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42