SUBURBAN NEIGHBORHOODS. 
29 
and comfort to the owner ? That there are men and families that 
truly fill, enjoy, and honor such life, it is good to know; but they 
are cluster-jewels of great rarity. 
Our panacea for the town-sick business man who longs for a 
rural home, whether from ennui of the monotonousness of business 
life, or from the higher nature-loving soul that is in him, is to take 
country life as a famishing man should take food—in very small 
quantities. From a half acre to four or five acres will afford ground 
enough to give all the filter pleasures of rural life. The suburbs of 
most cities, of from five to fifty thousand people, will have sites at 
reasonable prices, within easy walking distance of business, where 
men of congenial tastes and friendly families may make purchases, 
and cluster their improvements so as to obtain all the benefits of 
rural pleasures, and many of the beauties of park scenery, without 
relinquishing the luxuries of town life. 
In the neighborhood of large cities, horse and steam railways, 
and steamers, transport in a few minutes their thousands of tired 
workers to cheerful villages, or neighborly suburban homes, envi¬ 
roned with green fields and loveable trees. To be thus transported 
from barren city streets to the verdant country is a privilege for 
which we cannot be too grateful. But, if we are to choose a sub¬ 
urban residence for the whole year (not migrating to a city home 
or hotel with the first chills of November), it is a serious matter to 
know whether there is a good hard road and sidewalk to the home. 
City life, with its flagging, and gas lights, and pavements, comes 
back to the imagination couleur de rose when your horses or your 
boots are toiling through deep mud on country roads. This is bad 
enough by daylight; at night you might feel like stopping to be¬ 
stow a benediction on a post that would sparkle gas-light across 
your path. Now the moral which we would suggest by thus pre¬ 
senting the most disagreeable feature of suburban life, is this: to go 
no farther into the country than where good roads have already 
been made, and where good sidewalks have either been made, or, 
from the character or growth of the neighborhood, are pretty sure 
to be made within a short time. Some persons must, of course, be 
pioneers. Those who locate in a new suburban neighborhood 
expect to buy their lots enough cheaper than the later comers to 
