Civic Improvement.
MRS. ALBERTSON, PRES. CIVIC IMPROVEMENT LEAGUE, AUSTIN.
This is a subject so broad and so closely connected with "The City Beautiful" one can hardly find a starting point, but we might begin with the one word—civic—which has drawn to itself many minds, much sober thought and from some much hard work.
The fear was widespread that woman would work havoc if she attempted to spell the task, but how needless, for the word civic can be spelled with accuracy from whichever end approached.
What was the beginning of the civic league and the city beautiful? It began at home, where most women's work begins. To have a beautiful home one must have the right kind of house. To have the beautiful house to make the beautiful home the setting must be made to correspond—so after the house, the lawn; after the lawn, the boulevard. Then the work spread. Streets needed cleaning, unsightly billboards had to be removed, perhaps an adjoining vacant lot had a careless owner whose pride needed pricking. So the need of a civic league grew, and now it has become a vital spark in many cities all over the Union. Minnesota has over thirty civic clubs doing specific work. Is it entirely the work for women? No. Is it entirely the work for men? No. It is a work for both. It is a work that is very contagious and a contagion that needs no quarantine.
Civic league work envelopes many lines of improvement. Streets and alleys sometimes need to be reported to the proper committee of the city council; the disposal of rubbish and garbage has confronted many civic societies. There is nothing so conducive to unsanitary conditions and so disfiguring to a beautiful street as glimpses and often broad views of alleys and back yards that have become dump piles and garbage receivers.
Besides the effect on one's love for cleanliness and beauty, it breeds disease—and so public sanitation was added to the civic league work.
In some cities the societies are taking up the work of smoke abatement. I might say that we have a few offending chimneys in our own city beautiful. Every member of the city council should be a member of the civic league, for much more could be done by co-operation. There is great need of the civic improvement league and park board working together, for their aim is one—to make the city beautiful.
The work that gives the most beauty to the city after the good foundation of cleanliness, public sanitation and removal of public nuisances is that done in the parks. I am glad cities are making larger appropriations for parks, and I hope our city will have more in the future, for there are great possibilities of making our city not only a city beautiful, but a most beautiful city. Parks should be well lighted, playgrounds for children are almost a necessity, the river banks should be kept clean—but most of all the natural beauties of a place must be preserved and trees should be planted. Shade is needed as a good background. There is nothing that will enhance a beautiful statue, fountain or other park ornament like a setting of good trees.
If possible to have it there is no more attractive spot in a park than a lily pool. The old idea of laying out parks according to some geometrical pattern is giving way to the development of walk lines of practical use, recognizing both traffic requirements and the desirability of location for numerous park benches. What will lend more charm to a park than a beautiful drive bordered with noble trees leading up to some focal point or opening a way to some particular vista that would otherwise be lost!
The park board should not limit its work to parks alone, but wherever there is a spot, triangle corner or any other kind of available place, there should be planted shrubs or flower beds. They soon become a public pride and cheer many passersby. We have a number of bright spots in our city, beginning in the spring with a beautiful bed of tulips. May another year bring us many more! One forgets the mud and the disagreeable days of spring in watching the bulbs thrust their little pointed noses through the cold earth and the development of the buds until they burst open into a blaze of color, flaunting their gorgeous heads in a farewell to old winter and giving a cheery welcome to the coming summer.