The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-28
THE ADVERTISER co.

W
 The following is an extract from The St. Louis> Post-Dispatch showing how Missouri cities are being improved upon similar plans to that which The Adyer- xiser advocates:
 Az the first Napoleon made Paris beau dful with trees. So the Carthage, Mo-. Board of Education has made Carthage beautiful with flowers.
 Carthage Is the Dayton of Missouri. No other Missouri city has 80 many pretty lawns. so many vines upon stumps, trees and back fences. so many foliage beds and masses Of shrubbery, 50 many asters and petunias and~so many beau uful window gardens.
 Decorating the home and the yard Is not merely a matter of pride in Car thage. You get a prize-if you do it we'll. "A Carthage boy can win & in gold by exhibiting the prettiest and most skill fully kept boys vegetable garden. A lit. dollars by exhibiting the prettiest aster bed or by running the best moon vine over the porch. the back fence or up some stump or tree. There are thirty-six of these prizes. They range from H down to F. The people and the merchants of- fer them. The women's clubs of the city are the judges. Hundreds of people contest. and the ladies who serve SIS judges 20 from end to end of the city many times during the summer and the flower seasons, for the work of each con- testant must be closely viewed.
 This is the way in which Carthage has been made a beautiful city. w. J. Stevens. Superintendent of the Carthage schools. began the work two years ago. Five hundred school children went to work in their wards. The flowers grew xl,A rfv,Ar nltv la1 nd oofn hnr>o was a city of flowers. a beautiful city, d city such as Missouri had never seen This is the third year. The Carthage flower movement grows apace. People see Carthage and exciaim. "Oh, what . beautiful city! How was it done?' In- ouiries pour in from every eide. People come to hear and to see. Carthage plant ed a seed at evening and the morning. behold. brought it fame.
 Carthage, Mo-, March N.-Carthage is Q little city of less than 10000 souls, but in this little city man has done big
 W. J. Stevens is the Hannibal of the new Carthage. Of walls he has builded none at all nor brilliant feats of arms performed: but he Is none the less the modern Carthaginian General, and he of boys and girls They have fought the ugly stump. the unsightly alley, the un- attractive back yard, the neglected lawn. the yard without foliage. the porch with out vines and the bald spot and all these they have routed until the fragrance of their victories fills the air of Carthage from the time the first daisies bloom in spring until the last morning glory dares
 One hundred and fifty boys and girls of Carthage went before the flower and fo- liage judges last year and said:
 T have little exhibit for prizes at my homo, and would like you to see it.
 Ever and ever so many little girls had pretty flower beds upon lawns which had never been so beautiful before; scores of boys had litle vegetable gardens ant eNifully groomed as the lawns of Kings country place. People who did not go to school at all followed the example of the school children. and now one may walk the length and breadth of Carthage fin summer time and never be out of the sight of flowers and flowers and flowers.
 All ever this country school boys of the proper age write that laughable little rhyme beginning:
 Az sure as ivy grows round a stump
 what do they know about ivy growing avcund the stump? But the Carthage boy knows. He has been raising ivy now plant, when and how to plant it, and how far it will run. Ivy is one or his specaal.ies. He has been in the ivy con- test. He has had the judges at his home DO you think he would go ask tne judges fhing worth seeing? Not for dollar.
 Jiris the world over have written
 Roses are red. volets are blue.
 The girls of Carthage raase more more rose rose other riris. That is one of the reasons they have been the most active foi Bowers of MT. Stevens, the flower leader and the good stt,f3 WSrs aspaT 5aey in % she nowef season in . hundred Carthage yarde.
 fast year was very dry year, put carthage had her flowers. It takes somer