166 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 



luxurious tropical growth would be unable to veil 

 its protruding personality. You would know it 

 was a gas-pipe fence if it was boarded up and vines 

 trained over the boards, and you would shudder 

 when you passed it and instinctively anathematize 

 the plumber that invented it. If men arc known 

 by their works you would recognize a man who 

 built such a fence around his yard or garden as 

 one who, although he might be rich, yet was penu- 

 rious; perhaps kind to his wife and children, but 

 possessing no real affection; and you would pity 

 his family. You would place him as a tradesman 

 who had risen from the ranks, but who certainly 

 deserved to be degraded again, and sum up by 

 adding that whatever he was he possessed no soul; 

 for souls and gas-pipe fencing are farther apart 

 than earth and Heaven. 



A wire fence is not so bad because it is incon- 

 spicuous; it is often necessary to erect one to keep 

 the grounds and garden inviolate from marauding 

 dogs and fowls, and a hedge can be grown around 

 it, quickly obliterating its outlines from the land- 

 scape. When a hedge is used, however, a gas-pipe 

 fence is unnecessary, because it cannot keep out 



