URBAN COMMUNITY PROBLEMS 781 



also required. While we approve of spacious courtyards with bed- 

 rooms in the back part, in order that sleepers may be protected 

 against the noise of the circulation, we disapprove of those suffocating 

 pits the occupants of which are condemned to inhale impure air 

 coming from the kitchens and the lavatories. When compelled by 

 circumstances to tolerate these narrow courtyards, we have done 

 our best to ventilate them. To prevent abuses in the line of insuffi- 

 cient yards, we have made the dimensions of lots such as to permit of 

 a good-sized yard or no yard at all. 



" We have also taken measures to prevent there being narrow side- 

 streets and awkward lanes, windowless servants' rooms, underground 

 porters' lodges, miasmatic and microbic alcoves. 



" We have an eye to doors and passages, to the proper height of 

 ceilings, to honest work in all the details of the buildings. More than 

 once we have put our veto on buildings whose contractors tried to 

 elude our rules. We supervise the laying down of sewers, water- 

 pipes, gas and electricity in houses, all of which, if badly done, may 

 be dangerous to the tenants. Intelligent architects and builders 

 understand and back our regulations, thereby increasing their credit 

 and patronage." 



Initiator begged me to notice a tablet fixed on the walls of a newly 

 built house; it bore the name of the architect, the builder, and of the 

 municipal officer who authorized the building to be constructed. 

 He also pointed out to me another house full of blunders. The men 

 who built it were tabooed by public opinion, and the municipal magis- 

 trate responsible for its existence was deemed unfit to occupy his 

 post and not reflected. 



"Pehaps you take it for granted that we do away with the sky- 

 scraper. By no means; but it is true we allow it only in streets or 

 places too broad to be injuriously overshadowed by its immense 

 size. Besides it is bound to be incombustible, and we command it 

 to be constructed of genuine fireproof materials. It is known that 

 shrewd speculators have more than once helped the erection of the 

 mammoth house with no other purpose than to retain the business 

 centre on land which they own and to which they confer, by so 

 doing, a great additional value. Why should we encourage such 

 schemes? 



" Neither do we neglect a supply of the purest drinking-water. 

 Within a few years we have entirely eliminated typhoid fever, the 

 result, as a rule, of contaminated water. The frequent breaking-up 

 of the streets for underground municipal work is an unhealthy and 

 costly necessity which may be avoided, as will be explained later on. 



" Our parks and public squares are our glory. Rich citizens occa- 

 sionally contribute to their enlargement and to their maintenance 

 and are rewarded by the gratitude of the inhabitants. English- 



