House £5? Garden 
Every alderman in Boston should know that 
civic beauty means civic health, and tewer 
insane, fewer criminals and fewer taxes. 
During an eight years’ sojourn in Paris 1 
learned that it is possible tor a man to be 
quite poor and yet entirely happy so long as 
his surroundings are beautiful. And no¬ 
where in the world is the workman who 
struggles for his daily bread and daily wage 
quite so gay and 
happy as in 
Paris. For, as 
soon as he steps 
into the street, 
he sees beauty 
nearly every¬ 
where. But to 
go to any of our 
large cities and 
towns and, with 
the exception of 
a few spots 
where the rich 
congregate, you 
find the most 
picturesque ugli¬ 
ness imaginable. 
In fact, I do 
not know ot a 
single large city 
in the United 
States, outside 
of Washington, 
which for its own 
self as a city is 
fit to arouse the 
enduring love 
of a cultured 
man. 
Nature has been prodigal of beauty— 
picturesque and sublime—in this land; but 
man has defaced it with an indifference that 
is simply disheartening. This may seem 
unpatriotic. But I have no patience with a 
costly chauvinistic patriotism which regards 
even the vices of our country as virtues. 
How comes it that in the cities and towns ot 
this land ot wealth there is so much for¬ 
bidding ugliness? So many reasons come to 
my mind that I will not attempt to answer 
the question. 
France is not nearly so rich as America; 
but since the establishment of the present 
Republic, thirty-two years ago, France has 
spent, in its cities and away from battle¬ 
fields, ten times more money than this 
country for all kinds of civic art. And we 
ought to go there and learn from that great 
nation the value of the beautiful in civic life 
and how to get it, and the great lesson that 
even real poverty is endurable with a serene 
soul if one is surrounded by beautiful gardens, 
fine statuary, 
splendid ave¬ 
nues, fountains, 
grand buildings, 
and noble monu¬ 
ments raised to 
the nation’s 
great dead. 
Why do the 
French me n 
refuse to emi¬ 
grate? It is 
because they 
have the most 
beautiful vil¬ 
lages, the most 
beautiful towns 
and cities and 
the most beauti¬ 
ful land in the 
world. They 
love their 
country because 
their country is 
lovely. 
You Bosto¬ 
nians, no doubt, 
think you have a 
beautifulcity. So 
you have in some 
respects. Your suburbs are beautiful, your 
city is finely situated on one of the finest bays 
in the world, but still—in your city proper—I 
find an astonishing amount of ugliness, in tact 
enough to belie your reputation for culture 
and refinement; and if I am here at all to-night, 
it is because I thought I might do something 
to help the suffering men of taste among you 
to get your citizens properly aroused to the 
ugliness still existing in your city and to 
realize your vast possibilities of beauty. 
T his brings me down to the question ot 
the evening: What are the proper functions 
of open-air statuary ? 
THE ST. MICHEL FOUNTAIN FAR I S 
483 
