, 1889-07-23
THE WALLS COMING DOWN..
A Growing Disposition to Share the P1eas-
ures of Beautiful Grounds

A Growing Disposition to Share the Pleas-
ures of Beautiful Grounds
A man of wealth, residing in a beauti-
full suburban town, pointed out to me
with delight that there was not a wall or
ever a fence remaining to divide the six
successive estates, some dating pack to
colonial days, some quite recent, of
which his was one. He had recently
purchased II, and | had noticed that his
first act after purchasing was to lower
the wall separating it from the street.
Ever since l have known that particular
street the walls and fences nave been
growing lower. All the present ten
dency in our northern states is in that
direction; in some attractive suburbs
there are absolutely 10 fences whatever,
and one sees roses and ever Strawberries
growing unmolested up to the edge of
the sidewalk. An American visiting
Europe is extremely struck with the
contrast; in many suburbs of London
the walls are so high that you feel as If
living in n kind of fortress; and on the
continent you often walk through miles
of lanes which are shut in on both sides,
so that only an occasional elevation gives
you a glance ut the surrounding country.
A villa in the United States usually i'm
plies something open, attractive, ~accessi-
bic to the eye. A villa on the European
continent, and often in England, implies
an inaccessible wall with iron gates.
It Is impossible to deny that there is
something very attractive in the privacy
created by the wall. The world is left
outside, and the family is as free within
its own domain as If it lived on q planet
of its own. A suburban villa Mt Ken
sington or Hammersmith, for instance,
safe within its encircling wall, possess
ing its own fountain, its own nightin-
gale, and almost its own moonlight
what can be more delightful? Or the
patio, or inclosed court, of n Spanish
house, where the house itself makes the
garden, and the world is absolutely ex-
Guided? On the other hand, these very
charms increase the regret felt by every
generous nature for the exclusion thus
implied. They press home the question,
was the earth really meant for the few,
or for the human race? Many an Amer
lean traveller has felt this drawback on
tho delicious rural life of England.
Charles Sumner, who was more petted
in English society than any American
since his day, and was suspected of An
glomania on his return by wen his
ever kindly friend Longfellow, yet wrote
soon after, 81 nave always enjoyed the
refinement of the best society, but have
never sat in the palaces of England with
out being panied by the inequality of
which the inordinate luxury was a
token"
OF course it may be justly said that
property is property, and hat the most
imp%erceptible limo drawn around real es-
tate-or no line at all-leaves it just as
clearly within private ownership as If
the wall were there. This is true, but it
is also true hat the ownership becomes
less exclusive from the moment when it
ceases 10 be visible and, as it were, ag-
gressive. II the foot of a stranger is ex-
cluded, it is something that the eye is
not. l once heard n poor Portuguese
woman say that she and her husband
were so destitute they had nothing but
the day and the night" but the day and
the night are less valuable-say, rather,
that there is too little day and too much
night-for those who are shut out from
ever the sight of the landscape by high
walls. The mere denial of all possibility
u ownership II pdu enough L reIneLl-
Der how depressing twas, on n first visit
to Europe, when it suddenly dawned
upon mo that the whole beautiful region
of Killarney, with lakes, hills, villages,
factories and square miles of verdure,
was all the literal property of two men
the Earl of Kenmare and Herbert of
Muckross," so that not a square foot of
the territory could be bought by any one,
and a whole village might at any time
BIO evicted at the will of n single proprie-
tor. 1t certainly set one thinking as to
whether the human race. MS such, had
any rightsin the planet. -Harper's Bazaar.