clouds of dark vapor twisted into the forms and faces of grotesque demons.
These winged figures appear on all sides of the second floor except in the alcoves, where the panels again represent the energy and power of the city, but differ from the frieze of the first floor, for here we find depicted the high buildings in process of erection, the heavy trains of cars, the boats on the rivers, the blast-furnaces and the hills which are so much a part of Pittsburgh.
At each end of these alcoves high narrow panels, representing men at work against the sky as if at a great elevation, connect the frieze with the larger panels of the second floor.
About the third floor stairway is a series of twelve panels containing nearly four hundred figures which represent the ceaseless, resistless onward movement of the people. In these panels crowds of men, women and children press on toward progress and success. The types selected are the ordinary types of American working people. No effort has been made to idealize them either in dress or feature.
The panels for the third floor are not yet completed, but when finished will represent the result made possible by labor and depict the various arts and sciences represented in the work of the Institute and Library, the study of which uplifts and beautifies life.[1]
- ↑ Mr Alexander died on June 1, 1915, before he had had time to complete the panels for the third floor.
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