20 THE SOUTHERN CHAPTER, A.I.A.
tastes, are equal with men at the brush, pencil and pen. They shine
in the study, the parlor and drawing-room, and why not at the drawing-
table?
To proceed, the architect should be a man of good education; have a
natural taste for art and design, and ought to be well grounded in the
practical details of the profession, besides having a complete theoretical
training. He must know all about style and styles, be fully posted on
the history of architecture of every land and clime; thoroughly versed in
use and abuse of all known and unknown building materials, he must
be an expert mathematician; a first-class engineer, a good deal of a
merchant; a smart lawyer, of unquestioned and unquenchable integrity;
a modest, affable and agreeable gentleman, always ready and willing to
work, with or without pay (money is a very minor consideration, so it
would be as well if he were a millionaire), and ought to possess the patience
of at least one Job.
If we add to all these qualifications two others, which I was taught in
my youth were indispensable, viz., that he should be able to perform on
some musical instrument and to speak at least two languages, then you
would have a model man architect.
I don't know how it is with my brethren about the musical portion of
their education, but I take it for granted each one can blow his own
horn. And I will guarantee none of you were very long in business be-
fore you were able to speak two languages, good bad, very effect-
ively.
Now, whether the public expects to find such a rara avis, such a mul-
tum in parvo in one man, or whether it would appreciate him if it did,
is another question. My private opinion is, that the public cares very
little about him anyway, and thinks a great deal more of the "practical
man," the carpenter, who is ever ready to furnish plans for nothing
and to put up his building for less. If the public employs an architect
at all it is grudgingly, and only because it cannot help itself. He is a
necessary evil, a very costly luxury, and the thrifty public has very
little use for such. Why an architect should be paid five per cent for
merely a few sheets of drawings and specifications, and how he dare
pretend to be superintendent of a building which he visits only once a
day, or perchance once a week, is more than the public can understand.
If the public built a house every day, or even every year, it would be-
come better posted, and the architect as a consequence, be in greater
demand. But it doesn't. Not one thousandth part of the public ever
builds at all, and the portion that does build seldom does so more than
once in a life-time. So, you see it has taken the public and the archi-
tect a long time to get acquainted.
Why this state of things should exist is, perhaps, after all, not entirely
the fault of the public. There never was a time in the world's history
when professions of every kind as so full of pretenders. We have
not only "quack doctors," (why "quack" I don't know), but quack
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