Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1902-01-17
BEAUTIFYING CITIES
SOMETHING MORE NEEDED THAN
THE USUAL IMPROVEMENTS.

lcm-The Individual must rake a
Hand In the Work.
Should we wish our cities to be beau
tlful as well as prosperous? If so, In
what way may they be beautified and
by whom? These questions are asked
by Charles II. Caffin in The Worlds
Work, and they are answered in way
that brings out the essential points in
the problem and makes them practical
and interesting.
Mr.. Caffin makes comparison of the
growing beauty of the worlds munich
palities and analyses the impulses that
are making for improvement. There is
scarcely city in the country of which
its own citizens are not proud. In
what does their pride consist? Primal
rily, no doubt, in the fact that their
city offers them an opportunity of sue
cessful work and investment. Their
pride Is a personal one in their own
achievements as well as the impersonal
one of attachment to the city. But in
the bigger cities whole hearted eager
ness for the common welfare is likely
to be weakened by selfish individual
ism. SIN some of our biggest cities,
where there should be the biggest
scope. for pride and loyalty, the indl-
vidualism seems to be most rampant"
A large number of people, the ma
jority in fact, have no consciousness Of
the desirablity of beauty in n city.
When they make comparisons between
their own municipality and others. it is
the conveniences and comforts or the
lack of them upon which they harp.
The dignity or beauty of Paris, while
it cannot have escaped their notice at
the time, has not been brought home
to their hearts as thing that it would
be desirable to emulate in, say, New
York. Yet if they had learned from
the foreigner any wrinkle that would
improve their own business they would
be quick to adopt it.
Yet may not this same beauty be
just such a wrinkle? think it is worth
20 the Parisians about $200,000000 a
year. But l hate to dwell upon this sor-
did part of the question. There is an
other and higher one in the better
ment of our own lives, a worthier
memorial to the energy and enterprise
of the community. In many directions
our lives are being bettered. Libraries
are being built or enlarged; finer court
houses, statehouses, banks and public
buildings attest the desire for better
ment and for fuller expression of the
wealth and ambition Of our communi-
ties. Only in the wider, more compre-
hensive matter of the citys beauty as
whole is there a marked apathy; in
those matters in fact, which primarily
come within the purview of the mu-
nicipal authorities.
Something more is necessary in a
city than the improvement which en-
sues from the investments of indivdu-
ais, such as the laying out of streets
and open spaces, the identifying of
those already in existence and the va
rious public utilities. lavatories. drink
ing fountains, lampposts, street signs
and the like, all of which are properly
the concern of the community and
come within the control of the munich
pal authorities. In word, while the
desire to beautfy the city must have
it's origin in the individual, the individ-
ualism must act to secure the wider
possibilities of beauty. A sentiment in
favor of beauty must be aroused. Such
sentiment in democratic city will
have 10 be widespread in order to be
effective; equally, it must represent
! the prevailing conditions by having as
] IL ,f In, 81,
munity.
In two fundamental facts. the uni
versal seeking after beauty and the
tendency of the rich to make others
share in their objects of beauty. we
have the rudimentary causes that
should conduce to the identifying of
the city.
The city stands to the community as
his home does to the individual. by
their streets We shall know them" 1t is
in the builded records of our cities that
an intelligent foreigner could read the
strength and weakness of our own civ
iliZation. And what would this foreign
err see when he visits any of our larger
cities-the largest Of them for In
stance?
He would be struck by the tall office
buildings, would have noticed as he
sailed into the harbor how impressive
ly they group themselves and rear like
bastions against the sky and would
see In them most eloquent testimony
to the aspiring energy Of the people
and to the dignity of their commerce.
But as he came to study the subject at
close range he would find that no or.
ganic arrangement of the city accom-.
panied these great structures, that
they start up here and there according
to no general plan and controlled by nc
provisions for the benefit of all, that
their value often depends upon other
similar structures not being erected
near them, that they abut on streets
from which they exclude the air and
sunshine. that these streets are mar
row, congested and often foul with dirt
and that the general character of the
CITY bellies the dignity and convenience