Evening star., 1902-05-09
PUBLIC UNTIDINESS.
American Streets Dirty, Sidewalks
Rough and Parks Ill-Kept

Prof. A. D. F. Hamlin In the Forum.
The average American is pretty we'll sat
isfied with his own country and people
However small his knowledge of foreign
lands, he has always-at least until recent
years-been noted for his confident assur-
ance that his own land is the best that the
sun shines on. He has been wont to look
upon the old world as ''effete,'' and to re-
sent criticism of American WAYS; retorting
usually upon such criticism by shifting
the issue to something on which he could
advance a tn Quoque to the advocate of the
British or German or Italian example. This
provincial complacency has however, re-
ceived many rude shocks of late years
and tends to disappear through larger con-
tact with the world about us. Wider hori-
IONS are already beginning to broaden our
views OF our own institutions, and we are
occasionally subjected to Searchings of heart
which are no doubt good for our souls.
Amid the varied shocks which our national
Self-satisfaction is bound to receive in the
process of our graduation form inSularity
to world power, there is one preparation
which may come as surprise, even to
well-educated Americans although its cause
has long been matter of painful conscious
ness to individuals, especially to Americans
who have Travelled abroad. We are slowly
learning that We are the most untidy
among all the great nations of the world
We are gradually awaking to the humiliat-
ing embarrassment of one who. entering a
company of his fellow men, discovers that
he alone, among them is shabby and I'M
kempt, and that he has entirely failed to
apprehend the ideas Of dress and the stand
ards of personal appearance that prevail
among those whose company he is to fire.
Quent.
The discovery that there is more of filth,
Squalor and general slovenliness in public
places and works, in streets, squares, river
sides. docks, quays, roads and bridges in
the United States than in any other coun-
try Of the first or even second rank is a
b1 hl1f what
may be called our public housekeeping, in
the outward appearance and maintenance
of places and works administered by public
or Semi-public enterprise, we rank with
Turkey rather than with England or Ger
many. Oriental Japan, tiny Switzerland
and slow-going Holland stand far ahead of
the United States in this respect. Our ma
tional slovenliness is seen in dirty streets
and unsightly water fronts; in ill-kept
squares ragged sidewalks and abominable
pavements; in shabby railway stations and
embankment walls built up of rotting sleep
ers; and in a thousand shiftless substitutes
for solid permanent works. The unspeak-
able country roads which abound in so
many regions not only illustrate the exis-
tence but also demonstrate the folly, of
this semi-barbarous slackness of admins
tration; for they constitute the most costly
means of transportation possible, impose
a heavy tax on every farmer and other resi-
dent, and are a clog upon the general pros
perity of the regions they traverse. Tidi-
ness and the efficient maintenance of public
works cost more in the first outlay than
negligence; but they save this excess many
times over In the end.
Dirt has been defined as matter out Of
place." disorder as things out Of place"
When both matter" and things" are out
of place. we have in the combination of dirt
and disorder one of the commonest mani
festations of untidiness. Now. untidiness
is the unfailing concomitant Of wasteful-
ness, and we are notoriously wasteful
people. We possess abundance of energy.
but perhaps little thrift. Tidiness, like
thrift. requires attention to details; waste
fulness scorns details. But untidiness is
also often, and largely, due to ignorance.
and is thus amenable to the corrective in
fluence Of education.