I did not know the exact height of that tower, nor how many tons of steel support it, nor the size of the clock dial which tells the time of day up there "among the dizzy flocks of sky-scrapers"; but I did know that the tower represented some big, daring thing, an expression of the spirit which could not be defined nor easily interpreted to another. After his first outburst the Herr Director continued to say nothing--he was stunned; so was the Frau Directorin. We walked on, looking up, higher and higher still, until our eyes met another tower, the Woolworth Building--a shrewd Yankee five-and-ten-cent enterprise, flowering into purest Gothic. The cathedrals of Europe are wonderful, undoubtedly. Master minds drew the plans and master hands built them, slowly, by an age-long process. They turned religious ideals into stone lace and lilies, hideous gargoyles and brave flying buttresses, aisles and naves and rose windows. Yes, they are quite wonderful. But to turn spools of thread, granite-ware, and dust-cloths into this glory of steel and stone is, to me, more marvellous still. The spirit of the pioneer cleaving the sky has become beautiful as it has ascended. We are worrying a great deal about our lack of sensitiveness to beauty and form; we chide ourselves as being crude and unresponsive to art; we rush madly into the study of æsthetics and buy Old Masters at the price of a king's ransom; yet we are not truly fostering America's art sense. It ought not to come in the Old World's way--by glorifying dogmas and creeds, by petrifying religion into buttresses and incasing our dead in tombs of beryl and onyx. It ought not to come with its mixture of paganism and religion, its armless Venus and its headless Victory. It should come first as it is coming--with the making of homes good to live in, factories planned to work in, stores fit to do business in, and schools built to teach in. It is coming--yes, it is coming. But when our strong boys shall make filagree silver ornaments, carve pretty things on bits of ivory, or exhaust their energy in painting a lock of hair--when that time comes, we shall be an old people ready for our ornamented tombs.