Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1899-04-16

seriously the suggestions they made.
They began Ito agitate the matter of
more thorough street sweeping, and to
prove that the results for which they
contended could be attained, took
charge Of certain sections Of our
streets and kept them in order The
success of the experiment attracted the
attention of the public and by and by a
general petition was presented to the
Council, asking that the City Com
missioner be instructed to sweep all
our paved streets three times a week.
Council acted favorably on the petition
and now the matter of street sweeping
is a permanent feature of our NUM-
cipai administration. The same thing
is in a measure true Of the care of our
parks. ,..... 4.
Knowing that 1t Is difficult to keep
up a public work by means Of private
contributions, just as soon as the SEN
timent of the town made it possible, all
the work in our parks that could be
turned over ito Council was lncorporat-
ed in the municipal administration so
there Will be no backward move in
that department"
asked him how they succeeded In
getting the papers off the streets so
completely.
Just as we did the other" he re-
piled, through agitation and educa-
| tion. School teachers were asked to
| speak to their pupils and urge them to
help in the matter. Large baskets
were placed on prominent corners and
through press notices the people were
informed that those baskets were for
the reception OF papers, peanut shells,
banana and orange peels, and they
were urged to use them. Very little
attention was paid to the matter at first
but the ladies were persistent and by
and by their agitation began ito bear
fruit Now and then something would
happen to impress the matter upon the
minds of the careless ones in such
way that they never forgot 1t after
wards. For instance, Jim Lovejoy
was walking down Central avenue one
morning just about month before he
was to be married. He bought ban
ana, ate it and dropped the peel on the
sidewalk. Just as he was turning the
corner he met Anna Darling, his fiance
Not being pressed with work that
morning, he turned and walked back
up the street with her. AS they walk
ed along, chatting, Anna spied the
banana peel, and stopping she picked
1t up saying at the same time, that
since the ladies had provided baskets
for such things, she would like to see
the dolt who droped it there and give
him bit of her mind. She carried 1t
to the nearest basket and deposited 1t,
at the same time making another
caustic remark. Just then Jim remem-
bered that he had pressing engage
mint down town, and excusing him
self hurried back down the street. He
came into my Office a few minutes af-
terward looking like a whipped cur.
He related the incident to me and
swore that from that day on he would
eat banana peels rather than dropthem
on the walk. .
"One of the most serious difficulties"
my friend said, was confronted when
the ladies undertook to suppress the
promiscuous throwing of handbills
on door steps and about the streets.
After trying in vain to persuade the
merchants and theatrical managers to
instruct their boys to slip all bills un-
der the door or deposit them in the
letter boxes, Mrs. Rush moved in one
of their public meetings that the mem
bers Of the Village improvement Asso-
citation withdraw thir patronage from
all advertisers who continued to dis
regard their request, and that they use
their influence to get others to do the
same. The motion was seconded at
once, and for a minute it looked like
it would be adopted. But when the
President stated it and asked il there
were any rmarks, Mrs. Lvel arose and
in very terse speech made it clear
that the introduction of a boycott into
their reform work would inevitably
bring about mischief in the end. She
advised the Association to vote the
resolution down, saying that as far as
she was individually concerned, she
thought it quite enough to let advertis-
ers know that she burnt all handbills
that were thrown into her yard or on
the door step, reading only those that
wer put under the door or into the let
ter box. That speech was effective.
From that time on advertisers sending
out handbills began instructlng the
boys to place them in such way that
they would not prove a nuisance to the
people of the city.
Thus" added my friend, 1.-The city
has been gradually transformed into
what you see it today. Most of the re-
forms have been wrought out in such
a way that they will be permanent.
We are all justly proud of our town
and the time is coming when the ori-
ginal improvers, once looked upon as
agitators and disturbers of the peace,
will have their names written on the
city's roll of honor"
"And what effect has all this on your
tax duplicate?" | inquired.
That" said my friend, 'is one OF
the most interesting features of the
whole matter. The people have learn
ed that by interesting themselves in
efficient and economical administration