The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-12-28
What WE"
CAN DO.
"We'' Means Topeka Collective
~, Which is TOpeka's
FavOrite Mode of Action When
She AccOmplishes Things.
HOW TO MAKE TOPEKA
The HandsOmest City in the
United States
And 1t Won't Cost Much Money,
Either.

The street parkings of Topeka are
her chief feature, and the one which
distinguishes her from all other cities,
and Is most noticed by visitors.
It Is the beauty of Topeka,
particularly in the summer when the
trees are in full leaf that attracts pop
ulation, and helps the town to grow
more than many imagine. In the best
residence parts of town the street park
ings have been almost brought to per-
lection by the owners Of property 'front.'
ing on them. The grass, bright green
and freshly sprinkled, the spreading
elms and the occasional adornment OF
garden urns and well kept clumps of
shrubbery give to these parts OF the
city an elegance seldom seen in places
the size of Topeka
By an effort on a more extended scale
aided and fostered by the municipality
why should not these improvements be
extended over the entire city? Why
should not all the parkings be soWn TO
grass instead of being grown up in
weeds or left barren and homely, and
why should not rows of trees be planted
along all the streets uniformly, making
the whole city in a few years the most
superb in the United States.
All it needs to accomplish this is
energetic effort and encouragement by
the municipality. Not one citizen out OF
fifty would object to the city govern
ment levenng off the parking in front
of his home, sowing it to grass and
planting eIms or other suitable trees,
and charging the cost up to the adjacent
property. The expense per lot would
be small, indeed. 1t would not be neces-
sary to plant large expensive elm sap
ungS. Small ones which would be more
apt to survive and would grow rapidly,
would be fully as satisfactory. THESE
improvements could be made UNIFORM
by the city and whole blocks and streets
rapidly turned into slightly thorough
fares. As it is now, you frequently ma
one man has improved his parking
while the next has left his unkempt
and unadorned, or has planted his trees
out of line with his neighbours, produc-
ing an incongruous and inarust1c effect
If this work were done by the city, re-
suits would be much handSOmer and 1T
is safe to say it would also be done
much cheaper. There is no beautifier
like grass. 1t costs little, but it covers
a multitude of sins against artistic
taste. That bugbear of the tired house
holder, the lawn mower, need not be
feared A machine with a morse at
tached could NOV the parkings of an
entire street in a single half day at
one-f1fth the cost that hired man
pushing a hand mower can do it. The
streets of a city are not for the individ-
uals who happen to live along each par
ticular street, but for the whole city;
why then should not the whole city, as
a corporate body look after all the
streets, and the parkings are as import
ant a part of the street as the road
way or the sidewalk
A city ordinance properly framed
could accomplish all that is desired,
and part of the street force that is now
kept uselessly digging up the streets
with a grader could just as well sow
grass and NOW it and plant trees.
The Improvement of the parkings
would naturally lead to q desire to
pave the street, and we should soon
find an enthusiasm for beautiful streets
springing up that would insure the paw
ing of dozens of streets. The move
ment for 30-foOt paved rOadWayS would
be accelerated and it would not be long
before mud would be relegated to the
outskirts of the city and with 1t the hOr-
rible clouds of disease breeding dust
which make our windy months a terror
even to the old settler These i'm
provements would be certain to raise
the price of property and would make
Topeka more and more a desirable
place to live in. It would do much to
cause the city to climb toward $4,000
and 1000 in population, and would give
it fame from one end Of the country
to the other.
All this can be done with very little
expense-only grass seed, elm saplings
and elbow grease are needed. This
movement could be greatly aided by
City Improvement association COM
posed of active, interested men and Wo-
men, particularly women, whom the
Journal counts on as being the quickest
to see the beauties Of this proposition.
This City Improvement association
could be well assisted by the CONNER
cial club, and in less than three years
we could see a mighty change wrought
in the appearance of Topeka. By that
time we could have the grass and we
could wait for the trees to. grow.
The State Journal hopes that the citi-
zens will study this matter and see if
there isn't a great opportunity to make
life still more worth living, especially
If you are so fortunate as to live in
Topeka.
When the people have begun to beau
tify the city, it will be found that pub
lie spirited citizens will spring up every
where. They will present it with sta
tues and drinking fountains. Parterres
of flowers will adorn some of the streets,
and ornamental foliage groups such as
are now only seen in the parks of the
great cities will be familiar sights along
the avenues of our city. As the i'm
provement goes on, one and another will
see where an added charm can be
wrought and it will be a gradual or
perhaps rapid evolution from the COM
monplace to the beautiful.