The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1889-08-10
The WALLS cc"lNa DOWN.
a Growing Disposition 10 Share the Pleas
ures OF Beautiful Grounds.

a Growing Disposition 10 Share the Pleas
ures OF Beautiful Grounds.
A man of wealth, residing in o beauti-
full suburban town, pointed out to me
with delight that there was not a wall or
even fence remaining to divide the six
successive estates, some dating back to
colonial days, some quite recent, Of
which his was one. He had recently
purchased It, and had noticed chat his
first act after purchasing was TO lower
the wall separating il from the street.
Ever since have known that particular
street the walls and fences have been
growing lower. All the present ten
dency in our northern states is in that
direction, in some attractive suburbs
there are absolutely no fences whatever,
and one sees roses and even 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 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 glance at the surrounding country.
A villa in the United States usually i'm
plies something open, attractive, accessi-
BILE to the eye. A villa ON the European
continent and often in England, implies
an inaccessible wall with iron gates.
Ii 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 a planet
of its own. A suburban villa at Ken
sington or Hammersmith, for instance,
safe within its encircling wall, possess
ing its own fountain, it's own nightin-
gale, and almost its own moonlight
what can be more delightful? Or the
patio, or inclosed court. of a Spanish
house, where the house itself makes the
garden, and the world is absolutely ex-
cluded? 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
| the 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 even hii
ever kindly friend Longfellow, yet wrote
soon after, Z" l have 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 {
| token"
OF course it may be Justly said thai
property Is property, and that the mos
imperceptible line drawn around real es
| tate-or no line at all-leaves it just ~
clearly within private ownership as i
the wall were there. This is true, but i
| is also true that tho ownership becomes
less exclusive from the moment when i
| ceases to be visible and, as it were, ag
gressive II the foot of a stranger Is ex
cluded, it is something that the eye i
not once heard poor Portuguese
woman say that she and her HUSBAND
| were SO destitute they had nothing bu
the day and the night" but the day anC
the night are less valuable-say, rather
that there is too little day and too mucl
night-for those who are shut out from
even the sight of the landscape by higl
walls. The mere denial Of all possibilit.
of ownership is bad enough. remem
ber how depressing twas, on first visi
to Europe, when it suddenly dawnet
| upon me that the whole beautiful regiol
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 o
Muckross," so that not a square foot 0
the territory could be bought by any one
and whole village might at any inn
be evicted at the will of a single proprie
tor. 1t certainly set one thinking a. Il
| whether the human race, as such, hat
any rights in the planet. -Harper's Bazar