“We must remember the marble-mason also, and send him an order for the mantelpieces. It is not too soon to think about it. Have you given the joiner the dimensions of the fireplaces?”
“Yes; they were marked on the plans.”
“Well, make a copy of these plans, and we will send it to the marble-mason. For this article also we shall have to deal with a Paris house; it will be cheaper to do so, and we shall have a greater choice. It is a very troublesome thing to be obliged, as we are now-a-days, to have recourse to Paris for a hundred matters of detail with which building is concerned.
“But except in certain great cities, such as Lyons, Tours, Bordeaux, Rouen, Nantes, and Marseilles, where you may find warehouses tolerably well furnished, the provinces supply nothing. It was not so formerly; this is one of the results of our excessive centralization.
“I do my best to oppose this fatal tendency; but when time presses we must have recourse to those great centres of manufactures connected with building. If we ordered our chimney-pieces at Chateauroux, or even at Tours, we should have to wait half-a-year and pay more for them. The dealer of whom we ordered them would be sure to send to Paris for them, and we may quite as well go to the fountain-head ourselves. As regard the conservatory vestibule opening on the garden, and the shelter over the entrance, our blacksmith aided by a full detail of particulars will be able to execute them; he is an intelligent workman. Country carpenters and blacksmiths are generally competent men.”
“Why are they so?”
“Because the carpenters have kept up their organization or corporations, or at least something equivalent, and workmen have to give proof of their efficiency before they can enter the guild.
“The blacksmiths, on the other hand, have kept up their habit of working at the forge; and the forge is the soul of blacksmiths’ work. In the large towns, on the contrary, casting is all the fashion; and artisans connected with the building trades have lost their skill in the finer labour of the forge. They have become mere fitters. However there has been a reaction during the past few years, and at the Exhibition of 1867 you might have seen excellent specimens of wrought-iron. Architects also have become unaccustomed to work of this kind, and very few know how iron is wrought by the hammer, or how welding is done; so they give instructions to contractors which are incapable of being executed, or which occasion them much useless labour. Architects ought therefore to be acquainted with the methods of workmanship in every department of labour they call into requisition, and it is not at the École des Beaux-Arts they will learn that. It is now more convenient to persuade them that matter was made to obey all the fancies of the artist; that serves as an excuse for explanations, and makes teaching less complicated. The tax-payer and the owner of property who has occasion to employ an architect pay for this admirable doctrine rather dearly; while, without superior guidance, the manufactures connected with building suffer perversion in endeavouring to realize the fancies of these gentlemen.”
CHAPTER XXVII.
ORDER IN FINISHING THE WORK.
The nearer the building was to completion, the more complicated did the office work become. When Paul saw that nearly all the particulars had been furnished to the contractors, he thought that he would only have to see that every part was duly constructed and put in place, according to his cousin’s instructions; but the office work, which during the first few months had taken only two or three hours a day, was becoming onerous. He had to arrange the memoranda, in order to ascertain the quantities; and that time might not be lost, he was obliged to write or give orders to the workmen, that they might come at the very moment they were wanted, and, in certain cases, work together. The joiner had sent part of the doors and window-frames, and nearly all the flooring, at the end of August. They had then to order from the blacksmith the angle-plates, door-bands and cramps; and send to Tours for ironmongery, door-handles, crémones, locks, bolts, hinges, &c.; and to secure the due execution of these orders, they had to specify the size of each article as required by the strength of the wood and the nature of the articles themselves. Eugène had gone to Tours to look out samples of the ironmongery in question. The joiner and the blacksmith had to work simultaneously, and as they were not accustomed to be hurried, it was often necessary to regulate the labour of each, so that time should not be lost. The slaters had come, and were perpetually calling for the mason’s or the carpenter’s assistance. And as their daily pay was considerable, it was important not to allow them any pretext for idling.