126 



HOME AND FLOWERS 



The Good Example of St. Louis 



One of the really remarkable facts in 

 the way of municipal betterment during 

 the' past year has been the formation and 

 development of the Civic Improvement 

 League of St. Louis, and this, too, while 

 the city has been going through the throes 

 of one of the most monstrous experiences 

 in municipal corruption of the past half 

 century. With a present membership of 

 more than 1,200, and a full treasury, it is 

 a model for similar societies in the thor- 

 oughness of its organization and the effi- 

 ciency of its work. The league has just 

 leased quarters in one of the largest office 

 buildings in the city, where, in addition to 

 its business, it will exhibit a complete his- 

 tory of all the current literature on the 

 subject of civic improvement, and where the 

 best books and periodicals on that subject 

 will be for sale. The league has recently 

 adopted a handsome button badge, and it is 

 becoming a fad throughout the city to wear 

 these badges. Under the editorship of Mr. 

 Earle Layman, the secretary of the league, 

 a newsy little "Bulletin" appears every 

 month. The success of the league has been 

 due to. individual effort, and replying to the 

 question, "What Can One Man Do?" the 

 "Bulletin" says: 



"If a manufacturer he can see that his 

 own chimney does not contribute its volume 

 to the smoke nuisance. 



"He can talk up his cause with his neigh- 

 bors and unite them in an influence his 

 member of the house of delegates cannot 

 afford to ignore, in favor of better paving 

 and street cleaning. 



"He can cut the weeds on his vacant lot 

 without waiting for a summons to the police 

 court, and he can repair his sidewalk with- 

 out waiting for it to become impassable or 

 the cause of damage suits. 



"He can favor suggested improvements 

 instead of fighting them, and he can recog- 

 nize that he must bear his share of the ex- 

 pense of securing a clean and pretty neigh- 

 borhood. 



"He can do something for the cause at 

 his church meetings, in his clubs, in the 

 meetings of the societies to which he be- 

 longs. 



"He can post the police or health officers 

 upon violations of ordinances, upon the ex- 

 istence of nuisances in his neighborhood. 



"He can refuse to let his own vacant prop- 

 erty be defaced with hoardings for adver- 

 tisement that offend taste and make for 

 dirt." 



If the plans of the league materialize, 

 St. Louis will soon be free from disfiguring 

 bill-boards. It is a significant fact that one 

 of the most active workers in the league, 

 Mrs. Louis Marion McCall, is the second 



vice-president of The American League for 

 Civic Improvement. 



A Typical City Betterment Campaign 



For several decades the north end of 

 Boston — the home of Paul Revere and site 

 of the famous old North Church — has been 

 one of the slums of the Hub. Recently a 

 committee of citizens has begun a systematic 

 campaign of purification which promises 

 unusual results. In response to fifty letters 

 of invitation to property holders in the dis- 

 trict to form such a committee, fifty affirm- 

 ative answers were received. The North 

 End Improvement Association was organ- 

 ized, with business and professional men as 

 enthusiastic members. The children were 

 pressed into service, and in a few months 

 the streets have entirely changed their ap- 

 pearance. "Every member of the associa- 

 tion considers himself a committee of one 

 pledged to the purification and beautifying 

 of the section." 



"We give our best affections to the beauti- 

 ful, only our second best to the useful." — 

 Bovee. 



A Sunshine Maker 



One of the best exemplers of sunshine 

 passed away with Rev. Theodore P. Seward. 

 Mr. Seward was by profession a musician, 

 but his great glory was in the fact that he 

 was, by nature and life, a peacemaker in an 

 age of strikes and Krupp cannon. His books 

 and the societies he founded to inculcate the 

 "Don't Worry" and "Golden Rule" principles 

 made more for harmony among men than 

 half the laws on the statute books. These 

 are the fragrance of his memory. 



Mr. Clinton Rogers Woodruff, president 

 of the American Park and Outdoor Art As- 

 sociation, thinks it is hardly fair for his or- 

 ganization to be credited with more than 

 one member of the Committee on Federa- 

 tion, with the American League for Civic 

 Improvement, as was done in the report of 

 the Boston convention of the Association 

 published in Home and Flowees for Octo- 

 ber. According to Mr. Woodruff, Charles 

 Muiford Robinson is the only formal repre- 

 sentative 01 the American Park and Outdoor 

 Art Association on the committee. Mr. 

 Parker has declined to serve, and Mr. 

 Lathrop was chosen to represent the Na- 

 tional Cemetery Association. Mr. Woodruff 

 also desires to repudiate any spirit, on his 

 part, at least, of discrimination against the 

 representative of the American League for 

 Civic Improvement in the annual meeting 

 of the American Park and Outdoor Art As- 

 sociation. 



