A thing must be true, or it is not beautiful, any more than a painted wanton is beautiful, any more than a sky-scraper is beautiful that is intrinsically and structurally light and that has a false massiveness of pillars plastered on outside.  The true sky-scraper is beautiful—­ and this is the reluctant admission of a man who dislikes humanity-festering cities.  The true sky-scraper is beautiful, and it is beautiful in so far as it is true.  In its construction it is light and airy, therefore in its appearance it must be light and airy.  It dare not, if it wishes to be beautiful, lay claim to what it is not.  And it should not bulk on the city-scape like Leviathan; it should rise and soar, light and airy and fairylike.

Man is an ethical animal—­or, at least, he is more ethical than any other animal.  Wherefore he has certain yearnings for honesty.  And in no way can these yearnings be more thoroughly satisfied than by the honesty of the house in which he lives and passes the greater part of his life.

They that dwelt in San Francisco were dishonest.  They lied and cheated in their business life (like the dwellers in all cities), and because they lied and cheated in their business life, they lied and cheated in the buildings they erected.  Upon the tops of the simple, severe walls of their buildings they plastered huge projecting cornices.  These cornices were not part of the construction.  They made believe to be part of the construction, and they were lies.  The earth wrinkled its back for twenty-eight seconds, and the lying cornices crashed down as all lies are doomed to crash down.  In this particular instance, the lies crashed down upon the heads of the people fleeing from their reeling habitations, and many were killed.  They paid the penalty of dishonesty.

Not alone should the construction of a house be truthful and honest, but the material must be honest.  They that lived in San Francisco were dishonest in the material they used.  They sold one quality of material and delivered another quality of material.  They always delivered an inferior quality.  There is not one case recorded in the business history of San Francisco where a contractor or builder delivered a quality superior to the one sold.  A seven-million-dollar city hall became thirty cents in twenty-eight seconds.  Because the mortar was not honest, a thousand walls crashed down and scores of lives were snuffed out.  There is something, after all, in the contention of a few religionists that the San Francisco earthquake was a punishment for sin.  It was a punishment for sin; but it was not for sin against God.  The people of San Francisco sinned against themselves.