West Virginia daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1894-1902, 1902-01-28
BEAUTIFYING CITIES
SOMETHING MORE NEEDED THAN
THE USUAL IMPROVEMENTS.

A Number of Interesting and Prac-
teal Points Regarding This Prob
Iem-The Individual Must Take a
Hand In the Work.
Should we wish our cities to be beau
tiful as we'll as prosperous? If so, in
what way may they be beautified and
by whom? These questions are asked
| by Charles III. Caffin in The Worlds
Work, and they are answered ia 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 a city in the country of which
its own citizens are not proud. In
what does their pride consist? Prima-
rily. no doubt, in the fact that their
city offers them an opportunity of sue
cessful work and investment. Their
pride is 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. ''In some of our biggest cities,
| where there should be the biggest
scope for pride and loyalty, the indi-
vidualism seems to be most rampant"
A large number of people, the ma
jority in fact, have no consciousness OF
the desirabilitt of beauty in a city.
When they make comparisons between
their own municipality and others. it is
| the convenenceS 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 a 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
to the Parisians about $200,00O,0O0 a
year. But / hate to dwell upon this sor-
did part of the question. There is an
other and a 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 commune
| ties. Only in the wider. more compre-
henSive matter of the city'S beauty as
| whole is there a marked apathy; in
those matters, in fact, which primarily
| come within the puryiew of the mu-
nicipal authorities.
Something more is necessary in a
| city than the Improvement which en-
| sues from the investments of individu'
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 a word, while the
desire to beautify 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 a democratic city VIII
have 10 be widespread in order to be
effective; equally, it must represent
the prevailing conditions by having as
its leaders men of standing in the com
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
er 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 be
sailed into the harbor how impressive
ly they group themselves and rear like
bastions against the sky and would
see III them most eloquent testimony
10 tie aspiring energy of the people
and TO the dignity of their commerce