log. A Bird-Garden in the Heart of Chicago, Which Is an Outdoor Living-Room the Year Round 



It consists of a dancing spring, with rockwork modeled after the Rock River, a food-house to shelter the birds in winter, and shrubs with edible berries to feed the 

 round. The bird-garden is probably the best type of ornamental garden ever invented in America. It is more permanent than the Colonial garden, costs less to main 

 lite, and is attractive more months in the year. It can be adapted to every climate, environment, and purse. (Mrs. Albert H. Loeb's garden, designed by Jens Jensen.) 



THE RELIGION OF THE PRAIRIE 



The most creative people who ever lived were the Greeks, 

 but the greatest race the world shall ever know will be cradled 

 in the Middle West. The climate and the landscape make that 

 certain. For the Middle West is the world's greatest runway 

 for the winds and for ideas. We have no complicated moun- 

 tain systems, as Europe does, to breed endless artificial differ- 

 ences of dress, language, and thought. There is not one range 

 between the Alleghanies and the Rockies to stop the sweep of 

 the winds or the triumphal march of man's progress. A better 

 \\ay of doing things, or a nobler ideal, spreads like a prairie 

 fire. An extreme climate breeds a lusty body, and a broad 

 landscape instils breadth of mind. These two forces, acting 

 siiently throughout the centuries, will beget a corresponding 

 breadth of soul. Environment must, in time, make its mark. 



No longer do men fear, hate, or 

 despise the prairie. They once thought 

 that flat land must ever be monoto- 

 nous, dull, stupefying. But a new, virile, 

 prairie school of art has opened our 

 eyes to the meaning of those vast 

 horizontal lines of land, crops, woods, 

 and sky, which are the peculiar glory of 

 the prairie. 



The heavenward-pointing mountain 

 i$ not the only symbol of aspiration; 

 the ever-stretching ocean and the prairie 

 a|te also symbols of the Infinite. The 

 biarren mountains and unharvested sea 

 njtay smite the soul with awe, but the 

 joyous prairie is the world's loveliest 

 reminder of God's endless bounty. The 

 siecret charm of every prairie view is the 

 1 ision which it inspires of a united 

 and prosperous humanity. The sublime 

 breadth of the earth's surface stirs every 

 >ne to consecrate his life toward realizing 

 1 ;hat vision. This is the "religion of the 

 oraine" that is getting into men's bones. 

 Everyone who works for the good of 

 , lis community knows what this means. 



Western art, therefore, is essentially religious. Its chief 

 motive is to glorify the horizontal lines that symbolize infinite 

 breadth and bounty. Religion makes the western architect 

 and landscape designer repeat in house and garden the lovely line 

 of the land. Religion thrills the western painters to portray the 

 widespread arms of crab apple and hawthorn. Religion stirs 

 western musicians, sculptors, and poets to express the vast 

 scale and subtle sweetness of the prairie. The religion of the 

 prairie is the gospel of beauty. The waving banners of the corn 

 beget the insurgent soul. The Middle West is a "far-flung 

 battle-line" that fights corruption and ugliness in every form. 

 Can't you see it marching irresistibly toward the inevitable 

 goal of universal brotherhood ? Isn't this your religion ? Have 

 you enlisted for the fight ? If not, join some chamber of com- 

 merce, commercial club, or farmers' organization and work! 

 Let us all sacrifice something for the common good ! 



no. What You Can Get for Nothing 



The best plants in the world, free, Illinois trees, 

 shrubs, and flowers. Beginning at the upper left corner, 

 they are: Flowering dogwood, to frame the view of 

 your house; American bluebells, to restore charm to 

 pur woods; white pines to make a dignified approach; 

 _iigh bush cranberry, for red berries against the snow 

 aliwinter; Virginia creeper for the porch; sumach, to 

 screen an outbuilding; the old tree in the field to leave 

 for the children; elders for your bird-garden; a tulip 

 tree, to make a background For the house; red cedars 

 for windbreaks; Illinois rose and high bush cranberry 

 for your Illinois border. Dig only where there are too 

 many for their own good, ana do not be greedy. Better 

 still, buy them from Illinois nurserymen. 







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J. Horace McFartand Company, Mount Pleasant Press, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 



