JVOIiJLI) BEAUTIFUL ^f^^ 



r CURRENT BETTERMENT EFFORT 



Conducted by the Editor 



Only the Sunny Hours 



A DAILY journal of very large circulation, 

 published in the second largest city in 

 the country, lies before me. Picking 

 it up (at random from a pile of periodicals), 

 I count the items. Out of one hundred (ex- 

 clusive of editorials, financial notes, "sports" 

 and advertisements), fifteen may be fairly 

 said to show that the world is growing more 

 beautiful, pure, altruistic and beauty-loving, 

 while twenty-nine tell of murders, scandals, 

 suffering, impurity, oppression and ugliness 

 — fifteen signs that the world is growing 

 kinder, nobler, more beautiful to live in, 

 twice as many that the clod and the lust of 

 the flesh are still strong within us. The 

 editorial page shows about an even selection 

 of good and bad "signs," and the rest of the 

 issue is made up of general items of what 

 may be called an indifferent character — 

 finances, sports, society notes, advertise- 

 ments. And I have a suspicion that this is 

 an unusually good showing. 



Newspaper publishers always insist that 

 they merely reflect the character of this old 

 world's daily life and activity, and that, 

 moreover, the reading public wants just 

 what is given it in the daily chronicle of 

 wrong and fllth. 



We refuse to believe either statement. It 

 does not take very much of a student or an 

 optimist to see that there is really more 

 signs of uplift than ever before, that 

 mankind understands beautiful living and 

 beautiful surroundings better than ever be- 

 fore. And as to the people preferring the 

 wrong and the filth, it is a well known fact 

 that one of the most (financially) successful 

 of the daily journals of the country has for 

 its motto, "All the news that is fit to print." 

 Because there is much depravity in the 

 world is no reason for going over gruesome 

 details about depraved people. Because the 

 world is ugly, and most people show no 

 great desire to beautify their corners of it, 

 is no excuse for depicting, with photographic 

 accuracy, every moral and physical blemish. 

 Everybody knows these things exist. Every- 

 one knows there are dirty stables, but it 

 does not therefore follow that he cares to 

 read vivid description:: of them over his 

 morning coffee. 



Home axd Flowers will endeavor to in- 



augurate a kind of a monthly newspaper on 

 a new plan. It will record the principal facts 

 of general current interest in the way of 

 betterment and uplift, principally the signs 

 of improved surroundings, for the very best 

 in humanity can be developed, we believe, 

 through uplifting, attractive environment. 

 When a millionaire liKe Mr. Carnegie de- 

 vises a scheme by which his millions can 

 benefit the great mass of people esthetically, 

 when a great railroad lays out large sums 

 of money to beautify its stations and tracks, 

 when there is a successful agitation for the 

 improvement of rural schools — when any 

 such evidence of esthetic progress takes 

 place — Home axd Flowers will tell its read- 

 ers, and point out the significance of the 

 happening, and its relation to the attain- 

 ment of a more beautiful American life. The 

 occurrences which show that wrong, im- 

 purity and ugliness still exist in the world 

 will be left to the daily newspaper. This 

 department, like the old sun-dial, will mark 

 only "the sunny hours." ■ There will . be 

 plenty to mark the storms. 



"Making a life is a larger thing than mak- 

 ing a living. Many a man has made a good 

 living who has made a poor life. Some men 

 have made splendid lives who have made 

 very moderate or even scanty livings. It 

 behooves us therefore to consider how we 

 may add to our making of a living the mak- 

 ing of a life." — Sunday School Times. 



The Beauty of the Campanile 



Why, asks a reader of Home axd Flowers, 

 was so much earnest and wide-spread regret 

 manifested over the fall of the Campanile 

 in Venice? What was the Campanile, and 

 why did it become famous? The Campanile 

 of Venice was one of the most famous struc- 

 tures of Europe, and one of the stones of 

 Venice, as Ruskin called it. For more than 

 a thousand years this lofty bell-tower stood 

 guard over the city of canals. In the early 

 days of the republic watchers peered from 

 its tower looking for home coming vessels, 

 and the news of many a victory was signaled 

 to the citizens from its lofty summit. From 

 it also four different bells were rung. One 

 sounded at dawn to call the laborers, a sec- 

 ond assembled the city oflicials, a third 



