170 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



September, 1906 



if it has wide, projecting wings — 

 remember that there must be plenty 

 of room for the clumsiest whip to 

 approach and drive away from the 

 front door or porch or platform 

 without feeling cramped. The oval 

 or circle in front of a good-sized 

 house should never have a radius of 

 less than thirty feet. Leave room 

 for the driver to back his vehicle up 

 as well as to approach. 



When a house is some distance 

 from the entrance trade-wagons as 

 well as house-traps will probably all 

 enter through one gate. Let there 

 be no doubt at the point where the 

 service entrance branches off, which 

 road leads to the front door and 

 which to the kitchen, but make the 

 turning-off of the inferior as un- 

 noticeable as practical, screening its 

 course with proper planting, thus 

 making it part of the grounds 

 rather than a continuance of the 

 drive, and lessen its width, notice- 

 ably from that of the main artery 

 leading to the front door. 



Above all, the true purpose of 

 the entrance to a country place 



should not be forgotten. It should provide a means of 

 ingress worthy of the residence to which it leads, designed in 

 proper keeping with the atmosphere of that residence and 



A " Dreamwold " Gateway 



with the character of the surrounding country, 

 tectural fitness of its decorations should be gove 

 by these considerations. 



The archi- 

 rned largely 



The Citizen's Part in Civic Betterment 



hw^p|||^3^3 VERY citizen has a clear duty to perform in 

 w— 1 m\ civic betterment: he must do what he can. 

 It is never wise to try to do too much; it is 

 not always an advantage to seek leadership ; 

 it is certainly most undesirable to undertake 

 too much. In public work, even more than 

 in private work, it is the wise man who will limit his activities 

 to what he can actually perform; for failure in such work is 

 often more conspicuous than in personal matters, and there 

 are always many men waiting to do, as they think, better 

 than you what you may have tried your best at, and failed in. 



Work for civic betterment is work for the whole com- 

 munity. It is work that helps your neighbor just as much as 

 it does you. You in your turn derive valuable returns from 

 his efforts, and so on throughout the whole community. It is 

 not personal work, nor private, but it is public work for 

 the public, work of value to the public of the present and of 

 the future. It is a work, therefore, that combines the per- 

 sonal and the philanthropic. It is work well worth doing, 

 and it is work every one should take part in. 



The citizen owes it to himself and to his community to do 

 what he can in this work. If he plants a row of trees along 

 unoccupied property, he will be able to dispose of it, after a 

 term of years, at a greater advantage than if he had not 

 planted the trees. His neighbor across the way gajns by 

 this planting. The purchaser of the land gains by it. The 

 whole community is a gainer. 



And there is always something one can do. The range 

 of civic betterment is almost without limit. It is concerned 



with many activities and with many forms of activities. Its 

 scope is so varied that one can always find opportunity 

 for cultivating one's own special taste or interest while 

 helping one's community, be one's tastes what they may. 

 One's interest can always be maintained in one's personal 

 specialty. 



The bettering of conditions is noble work. It is uplift all 

 along the line, for everything and for everybody. The end 

 and aim of all this effort is betterment. It is not one definite 

 object looked forward to, one result sought, then no more 

 labor. It means continuous effort. The successful realiza- 

 tion of one plan means the laying of another. The work 

 progresses as a chain, each new link being forged onto an 

 older one, and so on indefinitely. 



Hence the work calls for many laborers. Civic better- 

 ment is a very diffused subject. It is concerned with plans 

 for the city and with plans for the country. It is concerned 

 with things material and things immaterial. It looks for- 

 ward and outward in every direction. It needs men and 

 women all the time, everywhere, doing everything, labor- 

 ing unceasingly, bringing what gifts of service they may to 

 the altar of public improvement. Some will escape this 

 service, some will not know what to do or that there is any- 

 thing to do. Others will profit by the ideas and the exertions 

 of others. It can not be helped. There always have been 

 such people and probably always will be. The earnest 

 citizen, intent on his own good work, will not be turned aside 

 by such worthless fellows. There is work to do and it be- 

 hooves all good citizens to do what they can of it. 



