POSITION AND PLAN 13 
guidance, and it is right that there should be. 
But all of this, be it noted, is quite apart from 
these restrictions and regulations. Beyond the 
“ building line ” and the character and min- 
imum cost of the buildings to be erected, there 
is usually little that is arbitrarily fixed in either 
the opulent or humble colony. And these offer 
no insurmountable obstacle to doing what is 
really best in disposing both house and grounds 
— although the former comes very near doing 
so, without doubt. The elimination of the 
fixed building line, however, is not of course 
possible or even desirable perhaps under our 
present system of suburban building; but the 
system itself is wasteful, vulgarly frank and 
ostentatious, and utterly destructive of garden 
opportunities as well as of the fine instinct of 
home reserve and privacy that is such a price- 
less human asset. 
We have not grown old enough as a nation, 
however, to shrink from personal publicity; we 
still cherish the infantile instinct to cry 
“ hello ! ” to the passerby, to lift up our posses- 
sions to his gaze — which will be flatteringly 
covetous if these are striking enough — and 
shake them triumphantly before him with an ex- 
ultant “ see ! ” So we have the veranda-stage 
whereon our little dramas are to be played be- 
