Mr. C.H.  Alden, who has lately returned from six months’ travel, mostly in Italy, has made a careful study of the brick and terra-cotta architecture of Northern Italy.  He has just entered the office of Messrs. Wyatt and Noelting, Baltimore.

Each year since the University of Pennsylvania Traveling Scholarship was founded, a prominent member of the T Square Club has been the winner; and that Mr. Percy Ash, ex-president of this club, should carry off the prize this year is particularly gratifying.

Mr. Ash has twice before competed, and each time came out a close second; but his old luck did not entirely forsake him, for in his venture for the Roman Scholarship Prize he was very near to the front, winning honorable mention.

H.L.  Duhring, Jr., was a close second for the U. of P. Scholarship.

At the last regular T Square Club meeting, but two sets of drawings were submitted.  The program called for a “Garden for a Palatial Country House,” and required a plan of the house and terrace at 1/8” scale, and a plan and section of the entire garden at a scale of 1/32 of an inch.

The problem was modeled after the projet given at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and required so vast an amount of graded wash work in color, as to intimidate many of the regular competitors.  A.C.  Munoz, who won first mention, submitted three drawings, two of them nearly three by four feet, while Albert Kelsey was disqualified for not having fulfilled the requirements by omiting the 1/8” scale plan.

Some discussion advocating the postponement of the competition took place, but Kelsey seemed to prefer being disqualified rather than further exert himself; and possibly the knowledge that three draughtsmen in Day’s office and two in Cope & Stewardson’s office had two unfinished designs to complete, may have influenced him.  In spite of the result of this competition the eleven points previously won by Mr. Kelsey give him the highest average for the past year’s work.

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Notes.

Of the many minor or industrial arts which enter into a complete architectural production, that of the smith is one of the most fascinating, and strangely enough, it is one which at the present time has the fewest workers who can be worthily compared with those of the past.  In the estimation of many of the most prominent and exacting architects of the country there is but one maker of ornamental wrought iron in America who can be trusted to intelligently carry out the spirit of a fine design.  Why this should be so it is hard to say, but the fact remains that most of the best iron work done in this country in recent years has come from the shop of John Williams of New York; and architects, it may be said, instinctively turn to him for work of this class.

The characteristics which distinctively belong to the art of the smith, the limitations of material and the purpose for which the finished work is intended are all taken into account and each element given its due importance.  To Mr. H.B.  Stillman, associated with Mr. Williams, who has for a number of years taken personal charge of this branch of the business, is largely due the success which has attended the efforts of his house.