26 PLANNING AND PLANTING 



one town alone, but small home towns that, in 

 America, are almost legion. 



Pride in the Home is a very beautiful, and 

 withal a very common virtue in American life, but 

 civic pride is this and much more. Civic pride is 

 one that sets the high -standards both for the indi- 

 vidual and for the community. And when civic 

 pride has succeeded in beautifying the community 

 a very forward step has been taken toward beau- 

 tifying the lives of those who dwell in that com- 

 munity. 



One quickly finds that the desire to beautify is 

 innate in all human beings and is contagious, like 

 smallpox or the measles. 



Let the occupant of a single home, even in an 

 otherwise unkempt and rough community, begin 

 to clean up the lawn and the garden, to make 

 a little plot of lawn and to plant a few shrubs and 

 some pretty flowers, and it will be quickly noted 

 that the neighbors are beginning to become 

 ashamed of the ugliness and unkempt condition of 

 their own habitations. 



In such a situation as this it has been noted 

 that after a little while the neighbors to the right 

 and to the left will first begin to clean out the 

 rubbish from their yards and to clean up the street 

 in front, and finally to become infected with a 

 desire to plant some flowers or shrubs or possibly 

 a tree, and so the good work goes on, and through 



