and banked with Rhododendrons, leading to an open spot where 
an old fountain rose high above one's head in a series of basins 
and carving, over which water flowed. Flagged spaces held 
seats, making this a perfect retreat, and fonr large beds held 
tangled planting of Primroses, Ivy, Lily of the Valley, Funkia, 
winter Ferns, Ranunculus and other shade-loving things that 
crept off into the wild. 
Bill Boards 
' ' Scenery of supreme majesty is a national asset, ' ' said Scenery as 
President Harding in his message on the fiftieth anniversary of an Asset 
the creation of the Yellowstone Park Reserve, the first great 
national park in the United States. He was right. Such 
scenery as that of- the Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, the 
Yosemite, Niagara and other of nature's masterpieces is indeed 
a national asset. 
It is equally true that majestic or beautiful scenery, even of 
a lesser order, is an asset of the state or of the community. Thus 
the Palisades of the Hudson, the falls of the Genesee, the Craw- 
ford Notch, the Old Man of the Mountains and other such won- 
ders of nature are valuable possessions of the states in which 
they are — possessions which have a real and large value in 
dollars and cents, though it might be difficult to compute it in 
its full amount. 
But "scenery" which is an asset does not necessarily consist 
in such things as these. The vista of city avenues and the 
suburban and rural landscapes of field and garden and forest 
which are visible from the touring car or from the windows of 
the railroad coach are also scenery and are also assets of actual 
value. The same argument of the President's which would most 
properly preserve the majestic scenery of our great national 
parks from being marred should also protect the scenery of the 
everyday wayside from being made hideous with sordid outrages 
in polychrome posters and painted signboards. 
To have its driveways and fields unmarred by advertising 
hoardings is worth more to a town than all the business which it 
may expect these things to bring to it and it would be more 
profitable to a railroad to have fine or at least pleasant natural 
scenery along its line than to have its passengers compelled to 
travel between two rows of signboards varying only in degrees 
of ugliness. 
Virginia E. Holden. 
(Clipped from New York Tribune.) 
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