22 SUBURBAN GARDENS 
already mentioned in connection with the long 
and narrow type of house. One of them is 
the very much greater degree of privacy exist- 
ing when an actual wall of wood or masonry, 
instead of a transparent wall of fluidic ether, 
separates two households, albeit the one is 
only a foot in width while the other may be 
five or six. The rooms whose windows open 
upon such a space as this are neither light nor 
well ventilated, while they labor under the ad- 
ditional disadvantage of acoustic properties 
that make conversation in them in tones above 
a whisper decidedly indiscreet, except the 
topics discussed be of the most general char- 
acter. 
The other reason is the doing away with 
one of the most unpleasant and hopeless spots 
around the suburban house — the gloomy, re- 
stricted, chilly, and more or less damp space 
at the sides, where under the most favorable 
conditions only a little sunlight ever reaches 
the ground, where nothing will grow, where 
ice lingers when the grass is green everywhere 
else, and where no one ever goes for anything 
— except perhaps the children to play, when 
raw winds sweep through and it is too cold for 
them there. 
So much for practical considerations within 
the limits of the lot and concerning the im- 
