266 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY 



rugated iron roof, for housing themselves and children dur- 

 ing the summer months. The dwellings are of the most 

 primitive kind and rather flimsy; no permanent structure 

 can be allowed, for at any time the owner of the land may 

 give notice to vacate for the purpose of erecting a row of 

 houses, railroad buildings, or other permanent structures. 

 The tenants themselves build fences of wire or plant hedges 

 to keep the different plots apart. On these patches the 

 children, under the guidance of teachers, parents, and ap- 

 pointed guardians, began to sow flower seeds, plant shrubs, 

 vines, and trees, or raise kitchen vegetables, each group 

 or family according to its own desires and needs. Since 

 the "arbors" are small they do not decrease the arable land 

 of the allotments much, and there is still room left for swings, 

 gymnastic apparatus, and similar contrivances, as well as 

 bare sandy spots for little tots to play in. The various al- 

 lotments are mostly uniform in size and are reached by nar- 

 row three- or four-foot lanes, on which occasionally are seen 

 probationary officers or guardians who keep the peace and 

 settle cases of disturbance. 



The "arbor gardens" are established on every square rod 

 of unused land round about the city, on vacant lots, far out 

 to the borders' of the well-trained woods and royal forests. 

 Small tradesmen, laboring men, civil officials of low degrees, 

 etc., have found it profitable to forsake their tenements in 

 the city and move kith and kin into those "arbor colonies." 

 The tenements in Berlin are as bad as in our own big cities, 

 only better policed. 



Not all of these arbor gardens are occupied by families 

 during the night. Thousands return to their city homes 

 evenings. Some parents, unable to free themselves from toil 

 in town, send their children under guidance of servants, 



