PARK AND CEMETERY. 
205 
less destruction of thousands of valuable trees, be- 
sides causing property owners unnecessary expense. 
Sidewalks are occasionally placed next to the road- 
way, leaving no planting space outside of the walk. 
While this arrangement gives a greater apparent 
depth to the adjacent lots it is open to some objec- 
tions, since pedestrians are more liable to become 
Lot Line 
spattered with dust or mud than when protected by 
an intervening space. The effect of a walk separ- 
ated from the roadway by trees and shrubs, which 
give it a certain amount of seclusion, is also far bet- 
ter than that of a walk which exposes those using it 
to the continued gaze of all passers-by. 
There is no more objection to varying the verti- 
cal distance of the walk above the street grade than 
there is to varying its distance from the lot line, 
provided the grade followed is easy and graceful. 
To be sure, where there is an entrance drive to a 
residence, the sidewalk cannot be much above the 
street, but such entrances are sometimes hundreds 
of feet apart, giving chance for much variation be- 
tween. An abrupt variation between the level of 
the sidewalk and that of the street might be danger- 
ous, but with the planting space of the usual width, 
the sidewalk might be as much as three feet higher 
than the roadway without doing any harm. The 
added interest which may thus be given to a resi- 
dence street may often give it a most pleasing ef- 
fect. There are cases in which a highway runs along 
sloping ground, so that the lots on one side are 
much lower than the established grade, where the 
sidewalk might even be lower than the roadway 
with advantage to all concerned. 
The lines of the curbing are often the most con- 
spicuous ones seen in a residence street, but their 
treatment will be discussed in another place, as will 
also the outlines of trees and 
shrubs. 
Perhaps the most unfortunate 
lines connected with residence 
streets, so far as the appearance 
of the street as a whole is con- 
cerned, are those put by tele- 
graph, telephone, and electric 
companies. These lines often de- 
stroy the artistic effect which 
such a street should have, and 
take away all the graceful out- 
lines of the trees, either by ob- 
structing their view with poles 
and wires, or by the linemen actu- 
ally cutting off all the branches 
on one side of the trunks. Tele- 
phone men seem to have no ap- 
preciation of the beauty of a tree, 
and often commit the most out- 
rageous depredations without the 
slightest compunction. They often 
seem to consider that their poles 
actually add to the beauty of a 
