MIDWINTER GARDENS 



draperies on round the domicile's back and 

 farther side and forward to its front again. 

 Thus may he wonderfully extenuate, even above 

 its reach and where it does not conceal, the 

 house's architectural faults, thus winsomely en- 

 hance all its architectural charm; like a sweet 

 human mistress of the place, putting into 

 generous shadow all the ill, and into open sun- 

 shine all the best, of a husband's strong char- 

 acter. (See both right and left foreground of 

 illustration on page 178, and right foreground on 

 page 180.) 



And now if this New Orleans idea — that 

 enough private enclosure to secure good home 

 gardening is not incompatible with public free- 

 dom, green lawns, good neighborship, sense of 

 room and fulness of hospitality, and that a 

 house-lot which is a picture is worth more to 

 everybody (and therefore is even more demo- 

 cratic) than one which is little else than a map 

 — if this idea, we say, finds any credence among 

 sister cities and towns that may be able to 

 teach the Creole city much in other realms of 

 art and criticism, let us cast away chalk and 



179 



