370

LIFE OX THE MISSISSIPPI.

all ungenuine within and without, pretending to be what they are

not__should ever have been built in this otherwise honourable place;

bat it is much more pathetic to see this architectural falsehood under-
going restoration and perpetuation in our day, when it would have
been so easy to let dynamite finish what a charitable fire began, and
then devote this restoration-money to the building of something
genuine.

Baton Rouge has no patent on imitation castles, however, and no
monopoly of them. Here is a picture from the advertisement of the
* Female Institute' of Columbia, Tennessee. The following remark
is from the same advertisement—

* The Institute building lias long been famed as a model of striking and

"beautiful architecture. Visi-
tors are charmed with its
resemblance to the old castles
of song and story, with, its
towers, turreted walls, and
ivy-mantled porches.'

COLUMBIA FEMALE INSTITUTE.

Keeping school in a
castle is a romantic thing;
as romantic as keeping hotel
in a castle.
By itself the imitation
castle is doubtless harmless,
and well enough; but as a
symbol and breeder and sustainer of maudlin Middle-Age romanticism
here in the midst of the plainest and sturdiest and infinitely greatest
and worthiest of all the centuries the world has seen, it is necessarily
ft hurtful thing and a mistake.
Here is an extract from the prospectus of a Kentucky * Female
College/ Female college sounds well enough; but since the phrasing
ifc in that unjustifiable way was done purely in the interest*of brevity,
it seems to me that she-college would have been still better—because
shorter, and means the same thing: that is, if either phrase means
anything at all—
* The president is southern by "birth, by rearing, by education, and by