Building to the Line.
I have heard of a lawsuit that interests me. A telephone company bought land from a certain judge and then put up a building which extended clear to the boundary of the land, neglecting to provide any space for light and air. The judge also owns the land next to the back of the building, which is vacant and which furnishes all the light and air for the rooms in which about fifty operators and clerks are at work. Now the judge wants the telephone company to pay him an annual rental for the use of this light and air, and the company refuses, but offers instead a lump sum. To compel payment according to his terms the judge has built upon his land close to the windows of the telephone company a barricade of galvanized iron sheets held in place by long beams. This barricade shuts out the light and air, and the telephone company is using electric light and breathing its old air over again.
I am interested in this matter from the legal viewpoint, but also from its application to our everyday living.
For all of us, whether we own any real estate or not, are occupants of lands in the great estate of life. It is possible for us to build up to the limit, and to crowd our allotment of time quite full with the brick and mortar of worldly tasks. We may be so intent upon "making a -living" that we may quite forget to live. We may quite leave out of our reckoning the light and air which are necessary if we are to do any worth-while work in the world very long.
This light and air are the higher things of life, the religion and music and art and social companionship which brighten life and sweeten it and fill it with vitality. We can get along without them after a fashion, but it is a half-hearted sort of living while we are in this world, and it makes no provision whatever for the life beyond this life.
And so when you plan your life building leave abundant room for air and light. Do not crowd it to the line. For if you do, the stern laws of nature will be sure to raise an iron barricade, and the beautiful sky and the fresh breeze will be shut entirely out of your days.