38 City Homes on Country Lanes 



or the good-sized town, from the standpoint of mere 

 joy of life? Apart from all other considerations, do 

 the millions who have left the countryside to make their 

 homes in towns, especially in the big modern cities to 

 which the larger portion have gone, get more satisfac- 

 tion for their social instincts, more downright enjoy- 

 ment out of the every-day experience of life, in conse- 

 quence of that change? 



The mere fact of the steady and ever-growing trend 

 in that direction goes far in the way of an affirmative 

 answer, because, after all, happiness is the great desid- 

 eratum of human existence. All the other factors in 

 our problem — health, earning power, mental and spir- 

 itual development, and so on — are valuable as they 

 contribute to the one great end, which is the joy of 

 living. 



From the standpoint of interest and variety, the 

 thrill of the great town is by no means imaginary. 

 More and more with every passing year civilization 

 masses its choicest things, along with its worst, in the 

 big centers of population. Its energies and capital are 

 bent upon making the life of the city an even more 

 irresistible magnet than now. There are no bounds to 

 the municipal ambition. Science and art and endless 

 millions of dollars minister to that aspiration, which 

 yearly becomes more real. 



Consider the people's playgrounds, and, to make it 

 concrete, one of the most adorable creations of munici- 

 pal genius achieved from what once seemed the most 

 unpromising raw material — Golden Gate Park in San 

 Francisco. 



Nature made it a desert of shifting sands; man con- 



