POSITION AND PLAN 21 



and narrow type of house. One of them is 

 the very much greater degree of privacy exist- 

 ing when an actual wall of wood or masonry, 

 instead of a transparent wall of fluidic ether, 

 separates two households, albeit the one is 

 only a foot in width while the other may be 

 five or six. The rooms whose windows open 

 upon such a space as this are neither light 

 nor well ventilated, while they labor under the 

 additional disadvantage of acoustic properties 

 that make conversation in them in tones above 

 a whisper decidedly indiscreet, except the top- 

 ics discussed be of the most general character. 



The other reason is the doing away with 

 one of the most unpleasant and hopeless spots 

 around the suburban house — the gloomy, re- 

 stricted, chilly, and more or less damp space 

 at the sides, where under the most favorable 

 conditions only a little sunlight ever reaches 

 the ground, where nothing will grow, where 

 ice lingers when the grass is green everywhere 

 else, and where no one ever goes for anything 

 — except perhaps the children to play, when 

 raw winds sweep through and it is too cold 

 for them there. 



So much for practical considerations within 

 the limits of the lot and concerning the imme- 

 diate family whose home it is to be. And then 



