December, 1907 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



459 



Street Entrances 



By Helen Lukens Gaut 



EATED at a table spread with fine linen, 

 silver and cut glass your anticipations of a 

 good dinner are greater than if seated at a 

 board covered with oilcloth and littered 

 with tinware. In the same fashion your 

 expectations of wonderful things to come 

 are lashed into high speed when your car- 

 riage whirls between two splendid monuments that mark the 

 approach to the dwelling for which you are bound; whereas, 

 on the other hand, if you must get out in the dusty road to 

 let down the bars of an old board fence, ruining the shine 



A Simple Wall Can Effectively Retain Lawns and Flower Beds 



of your boots by doing so, your hopes of hospitality and re- 

 finement beyond the boundary are weighted with suspicion. 

 Yet it is truth that the oilcloth covered table with its tin 

 dishes is invariably loaded with good, wholesome, hearty 

 victuals, the kind that give man the comfortable, pleasant 

 assurance of a "square meal," a pleasurable sensation he is 

 usually stranger to when nibbling this and that delicacy while 

 partaking of a "cut-glass" dinner. Then, too, beyond the 

 bars of the old board fence one usually finds the apple 

 orchard with its blushing fruit, the arbor with restful shade, 

 and a host with the soul of a man, whose hand grasps that 

 of his visitor with honest sincerity. After all, it is simplicity, 

 whether in the serving of a potato or the serving of hospi- 

 tality, that makes the best impression, that paints the most 

 beautiful and lasting pictures in our gallery of memories. 

 There is, in simplicity, the eloquence of God, while the 

 grandeur of man's making seems always shouting and blow- 

 ing self-congratulatory trumpets. 



Sometimes the builder of a simple home on a fifty.-foot city 

 lot, lacking a sense of harmony, and wishing to punctuate 

 his place of residence with aristocratic emphasis, erects huge 



monuments of stone on either side of his street entrance. 

 The combination is as far-fetched as that of a diamond 

 tierra with a calico gown. You feel as if someone is trying 

 to deceive you. There is something hypocritical in the 

 arrangement. 



The cottage home with approach marked by simple quaint 

 affairs of timberwork, an arch perhaps, or a roofed entrance 

 gate overhung with trailing vines, is an honest bit of civiliza- 

 tion. It means just what it Indicates, just coziness and com- 

 fort. These roofed entrance gates are especially attractive, 

 and are of inexpensive and easy construction. They appear 



best when made of rustic or 

 unplaned lumber. A rustic 

 gate under the narrow roof 

 gives picturesqueness, but 

 where there is much going 

 in and out a gate is a nuis- 

 ance to open and shut. The 

 roofed entranceway shown 

 in one of the illustrations is 

 a pleasing style, and appro- 

 priate for marking a drive- 

 way leading to a cottage or 

 bungalow. If the lot is 

 narrow, this driveway, be- 

 cause of the space required 

 for the dwelling. Is neces- 

 sarily relegated to one side 

 of the lot. A wall of lattice, 

 covered with climbing ge- 

 raniums, honeysuckles or 

 roses, to hedge the garden 

 across the front and connect 

 with the roofed entrance 

 gate, gives a happy effect, 

 and if the wall is high 

 enough, affords the owner 

 the privacy of his garden, 

 where he may sit In his 

 shirt sleeves and peace, 

 smoke his pipe and read his 

 newspaper, without being the eye-target for passers-by. 

 Neither can he see the tireless fish wagons, sprinkling carts 

 and ambulances as they hurry by in procession. By closing 

 his ears to the noises of traffic, he can, without over-exertion 

 of the Imagination, believe himself in the glad country, for 

 behind his garden wall flowers bloom riotously, and birds 

 flock down from the sun-scorched church spires to sing their 

 chorals, finding Inspiration for their music in God's hymnals, 

 the blossoms and green leaves. 



A small cottage located on a city lot can be appropriately 

 and comfortably walled from the street by a high, neatly 

 trimmed cypress hedge, the entrance-way being accentuated 

 by square evergreen monuments, or any other shape desired, 

 for that matter, for by frequent use of the pruning shears 

 and a little ingenuity, the cypress may be induced to take on 

 any form from pillars and fruit baskets to royal arches. A 

 high cypress hedge, however, terminating at the entrance- 

 way in square dignified pillars, is best suited to the country 

 place consisting of several acres. The cypress is a brisk 

 grower, and the only objection one could have to it is its 

 almost constant need of trimming. If not properly attended 



