IMPROVEMENT WORK OF CtVIC LEAGUE OF ST. PAUL. 293 



OUTDOOR IMPROVEMENT WORK OF CIVIC LEAGUE 

 OF ST. PAUL. 



MRS. CONDE HAMLIN, PRESIDENT. 



I find myself this afternoon in speaking before the horticultural 

 society in the predicament of the woman who spoke last month before 

 the New York Federation of Women's Clubs. Her paper was on 

 the subject of domestic science, and she said she had done so much 

 talking about domestic science that she had had no opportunity to 

 learn about it, and she hoped after she was out of office to be able 

 to take a course in domestic science in college. I feel very much 

 that way. I have had so much to do in trying to get what little has 

 been accomplished done that I have not had much opportunity to 

 learn, the real things along this interesting line of w^ork for which 

 you meet here today. The secretary gave me permission, and I came 

 here on the condition that I may be allowed to speak to you without 

 notes, as for want of time I could make no preparation, and what I 

 may say to you may be somewhat discursive, but I shall aim to give 

 you somewhat of an idea of what the Civic League in St. Paul has 

 done. By the program of our open meetings this year you will see 

 at once that our outdoor work is a very small section of our activi- 

 ties, and you will realize that the limited amount of work we have 

 done in that line does not imply that we have accomplished nothing 

 else. Our activities cover a wide scope. 



In regard to the outdoor work, I will read briefly from my first 

 and last report. I will just read a little section concerning our work 

 in parks, streets and vacant lots which will show you what we have 

 done along that line : 



"A text for our work in this department was furnished by the 

 president of the park board, when he said, in an address delivered 

 at an early meeting of the league : 'Women are peculiarly fitted for 

 this work, for it is only housekeeping on a large scale— municipal 

 housekeeping— and women are our housekeepers by right and law 

 of sex. It is their province to make and keep our homes neat and 

 clean, and well ordered and beautiful indoors and outdoors, and it 

 is a perfectly natural and logical expansion of that province that the 

 queens of the household should extend their sway into the street 

 which fronts their premises and into the immediate neighborhood. 

 Women could put the inspiration of their love of order and beauty 

 into the administration of these branches of the public service.' The 

 league's first step along this line was taken in the appointment of a 

 committee instructed to endeavor to secure the passage through the 

 state legislature of two bills, known as House Files Nos. 637 and 



