Projects of this nature go far toward modifying the stress of antagonisms between labor and capital, because if they are successful these are harmonized to an appreciable extent, and this gives public interest to them.  The eventual adjustment must come, not from convictions of duty, doctrinaire opinions, or sentiments of sympathy, but on business principles, and it is a sure step in advance to show that self-interest and philanthropy are in accord.  How great the field for experiments of this nature is in the United Spates may be gathered from the census of 1880, which shows 2,718,805 persons employed in the industrial establishments of the country, with an annual production of $5,842,000,000, and a capital of nearly half that amount.  Of these hands and values nearly two-thirds belong to the north Atlantic States,—­Bradstreet’s.

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HOTEL DE VILLE, ST. QUENTIN.

This charming building has an uncommonly well-designed facade, picturesque in the extreme, rich in detail, and thoroughly dignified.  We are indebted to M. Levy, of Paris, for the loan of M. Garen’s spirited etching, from which our illustration is taken.  The arcaded piazza on the ground story, the niche-spaced tier of traceried windows on the first floor, the flamboyant paneled cornice stage, and the three crowning gables over it unite in one harmonious conception, the whole elevation being finished by a central tower, while at either end of the facade two massively treated buttresses furnish a satisfactory inclosing line, and give more than a suggestion of massiveness, so necessary to render an arcaded front like this quite complete within itself; otherwise it must more or less appear to be only part of a larger building.  The style is Late Gothic, designed when the first influence of the Early Renaissance was beginning to be felt through France as well as Belgium, and in several respects the design has a Flemish character about it.

[Illustration:  Hotel de Ville, st. Quentin.]

St. Quentin is situated on the Goy, in the department of Cotes du Nord, and the town is seated in a picturesque valley some ten miles S.S.W. of the capital, St Brieuc, which is a bishop’s see, and has a small harbor near the English Channel, and about thirty miles from St. Malo.—­Building News.

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FIRE DOORS IN MILLS.

[Footnote:  From a lecture before the Franklin Institute by C. John Hexamer.]