POSITION AND PLAN 13 



gaze — which will be flatteringly covetous if these 

 are striking enough — and shake them trium- 

 phantly before him with an exultant "see!" So 

 we have the veranda-stage whereon our little 

 dramas are to be played before this audience; 

 and we plan all the settings around about to 

 capture the admiration of the street. 



Consequently the suburbs of American cities 

 are said to be the most beautiful in the world — 

 to drive through. Could there be a more elo- 

 quent qualification of praise than that final 

 clause? I think not, when it is remembered 

 that these are colonies of homes, not public 

 parks. They are not for the man who drives 

 through. They are for the man who stays 

 there, and for his wife and his sons and his 

 daughters. Yet the streets are the most attrac- 

 tive part of them! 



There are few at the present time, I grant, 

 who would have the courage to break away 

 from what has come to be a traditional style 

 or plan here, even if convinced of its advan- 

 tages, both ethical and material; yet I am 

 going to suggest what a colony which adopted 

 the other older and better ways might gain, 

 and the very real beauties which would remain 

 in its streets even though they were deprived 

 of their domestic panoramas. 



