FLORIDA STATE. HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
186 
ing about it, and the second man has 
lamp posts and current to sell. The 
city authorities ought to consider the 
experience of other cities and act with 
Care and propriety toward better light¬ 
ing. In the city of Washington there 
is now model lighting, conducted at great 
economy, because those handling the mat¬ 
ter first studied the situation from the ex¬ 
pert standpoint and produced a unit 
system in consequence, which you will 
agree with me, as you look at pictures 
of it, is admirable. 
Viaducts, or bridges, have much to do 
with making or marring the good looks of 
a town. In these days of good concrete 
work it is easy and economical to avoid 
either wire work bridges or those which 
speak only for the iron-maker. With 
proper attention it is possible to secure 
forms of beauty combined with efficiency, 
in concrete. 
Particularly would I call your attention 
to the public spaces in the town that is to 
be good-looking. The pictures you are 
viewing, showing how the central soldiers’ 
monument has been made subordinate to 
an absurb flag-pole and to ugly electric 
light poles, will indicate that good taste 
has not yet taken possession of all Ameri¬ 
can towns. The billboard surroundings of 
the statue erected to- the memory of George 
Washington, in Chicago, is another in- 
sance of thoughtless impropriety. The 
mawkish sentimentality of the green-paint¬ 
ed cast-iron fountain which disgraces 
the street in a Pennsylvania town indi¬ 
cates to us that it is necessary to look 
a gift horse in the mouth always, and 
shows why in the city of New York, for 
instance, no structures are permitted to 
be placed on the public property until and 
unless they have been approved by an 
Art Commission, so selected as to make 
sure of its good taste and its wisdom. 
“No man lives to himself/’ and most 
assuredly no man builds to himself.” A 
recent visit to Paris impressed me strong¬ 
ly with the canny economy of the French¬ 
man who puts no structure on the public 
streets that does not contribute some¬ 
thing beyond its own utilities to the gen¬ 
eral sum of the city; that is, the value of 
vista and placing is there considered. This 
beautiful church which I show you 
in Buffalo, indicates how much additional 
value the church authorities have received 
and how much value they have contributed 
by the sarnie thoughtful consideration, 
while 'the million dollar -City Hall of 
Trenton, apparently dumped out of an 
airship without regard to where it struck, 
is an intsance of how a vast expenditure 
may be made ineffective where there is 
no thought or consideration for present 
or future surroundings. 
In this scheme of considering the effect 
of buildings, all public and semi-public 
buildings should be included, and all pri¬ 
vate builders ought to- care enough for 
their home towns not to disgrace the 
neighbors and to decrease values by in¬ 
trusions or unpleasantness. It miight 
well be considerd that it is not fair for 
one man to do that which, if all did it, 
would make the community either ridi¬ 
culous or uncomfortable. 
It is hardly necessary to say much in 
Florida concerning the emission of black 
smoke. Your industries are not largely 
in the direction of coal; but where it is 
used I want you to know that it is entire- 
