Occasionally a suburb grows up at some sightly point on the Lake shore, or gathers about some educational institution; or a group of people engaged in a common enterprise select a picturesque spot on river banks and there build homes which, by their very relations one to another, indicate neighborliness. In each of these instances a community of feeling pervades the place and finds expression in well-shaded streets, broad lawns, and homelike architecture. Too often, however, the suburb is laid out by the speculative real estate agent who exerts himself to make every dollar invested turn into as many dollars as possible. Human ingenuity contrives to crowd the maximum number of building lots into the minimum space; if native trees exist on the land they are ruthlessly sacrificed. Then the speculative builder takes matters in hand and in a few months the narrow, grassless streets are lined with rows of cheaply constructed dwellings, and with ugly apartment houses occupying the more desirable sites. In ten years or less the dwellings are dropping to pieces; and the apartment houses, having lost their newness, become rookeries. This manner of things is as true of London or of Rome as of Chicago; it is the rule wherever population increases rapidly, because human nature is alike the world over. England, however, is remedying this evil by means of town-planning laws executed by a central board; and is endeavoring to regulate the width and direction of streets, and to provide for sufficient open spaces for the health and convenience of the people. After the English manner, a commission should be appointed to lay out all that territory adjacent to the city of Chicago which is likely to become incorporated in the city at least during the next decade. The plans should be so drawn that as subdivisions are platted the new streets shall bear definite relations to the plan of the city; that these streets shall be of suitable width, either for traffic or for residence purposes as the case may be; that building restrictions shall be made to prevent depreciation of property by the advent of undesirable classes of structures, or the erection of towering apartment houses which keep light and air from adjoining property and from the street. [Illustration: XXXVI. NANCY, FRANCE. VIEW OF THE PLACE STANISLAS. The principal avenues lead into it; a typical arrangement of public squares in small surrounding towns.]