44 



the fact that the most serious drawback to the prosperity of town com- 

 munities has always been dependent on conditions (quite unnecessary 

 to exist in the present day) which have led to stagnation of air and ex- 

 cessive deprivation of sun-light. 



Again, the fact that with every respiration of every living being a 

 quantity is formed of a certain gas, which, if not dissipated, renders the 

 air of any locality at first debilitating, after a time sickening, and at 

 last deadly ; and the fact that this gas is rapidly absorbed, and the at- 

 mosphere relieved of it by the action of leaves of trees, grass and 

 herbs, was quite unknown to those who established the models which 

 have been more or less distinctly followed in the present street arrange- 

 ments of our great towns. It is most of all important, however, that 

 we should remember that they were not as yet awake to the fact that 

 large towns are a necessary result of an extensive intercourse between 

 people possessing one class of the resources of wealth and prosperity 

 and those possessing other classes, and that with each increase of the 

 field of commerce certain large towns must grow larger, and conse- 

 quently, that it is the duty of each generation living in these towns to 

 give some consideration, in its plans, to the requirements of a larger 

 body of people than it has itself to deal with directly. 



CHANGE IN THE HABITS OF CITIZENS AFFECTING THE STRUCTURAL 

 REQUIREMENTS OF TOWNS. 



If, again, we consider the changes in the structure of towns which 

 have occurred through the private action of individual citizens we shall 

 find that they indicate the rise of a strong tide of requirements, the 

 drift of which will either have to be fairly recognized in the public- 

 work of the present generation or it will, at no distant day, surely 

 'compel a revision of what is now done that will involve a large sacrifice 

 of property. 



SEPARATION OF BUSINESS AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 



In the last century comparatively few towns-people occupied dwell- 

 ings distinctly separate from their place of business. A large majority 

 of the citizens of Paris, London and of ISTew York do so to-day, and 

 the tendency to divisions of the town corresponding to this change of 

 habits must rapidly increase with their further enlargement, because of 

 the greater distance which will exist between their different parts. The 

 reason is obvious : a business man, during his working-hours, has no oc- 

 casion for domestic luxuries, but needs to have access to certain of his 

 co-workers in the shortest practicable time, and with the smallest prac- 

 ticable expenditure of effort. He wants to be near a bank, for instance, 



