That mansion, like all private houses in America, and the majority of modern dwellings in other parts of the world, is built in that depraved style of architecture which makes this age pre-eminent in the ugliness of brick and stone.

There is no possibility of criticism for such monstrosity, as there also seems to be no immediate prospect of reform.

Time, the iron-fisted Nihilist, will knock them all down some day and bid mankind begin anew.

Meanwhile let us ignore what we cannot improve.

Night, the all-merciful, sometimes hides these excrescences from our sight, and sometimes the moon, Nature's bravest liar, paints and moulds them into a fugitive harmony.