The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-23
 VALUE OF A BEAUTIFUL CITY.
Considerations Especially in Point as
 Spring Comes On.

Considerations Especially i'll Point as Spring Comes On.
 'It is a beautiful city''--this is the remark that sets the seal on the suc- cess of many community. just as the neatness of mans residence frequent ly sets the seal on his businses and so- eial success. s@&ss&
 Hence, the duty of city to sprig up; dress well; beautify and adorn itself is clear. No city that seeks to attract residents or build up industry can af- ford to neglect it. Peculiarly. too, it is a part of the duty of every resident of the city and thus 1t becomes a matter of civic-sentiment, brought about by education and exhortation.
 We notice, for instance, that steady current of comment is, being made by western writers for the press and mag azines touching the adoInment of some of the leading western cities. Denver, Col, is having a spell of municipal adornment, Portland, Or, has voted to spend thousands of dollars in purchas- ing rose bushes to be planted along side the principal streets in honor of the decoration of Portland for the an- niversary of the Lewis and Clark expe- dition--these roses to be a reminder through all the years in which they grow and blossom. of the anniversary of which they are a part. It is an es- thetic climax in civic decoration, but we submit that it is rational and sensi- ble--better than gingerbread palaces, shoot-the-chutes or flying horses.
 Abroad, the same spirit of municipal art-study Is long ago apparent. Paris finds it's chief stock in trade to be in it's own beauty and in the loveliness of it's parks and boulevards. Budapest has spent millions on pure art decora- ton, Every feature of her externals is intended to be artistic-even to her street railway service and the electric lighting fixtures on her streets. The crude telegraph poles, the tangles of overhead wires, the ugly watering troughs and the inartistic frontages of ugly sign boards are obliterated and whenever the eye rests, it is purely pleasing so far as it is possible to make It.
 We feel that we have here In Lewis ton and Auburn the same opportunity in modest way, to make the most of the surroundings-just the same as other cities are so industriously doing. We are getting into the danger of un- derestimating ourselves and finding too many holes in the municipal skinner. The croaker and the knocker are too often abroad growing under breath at every evidence of business enterprise. The men who have faith in the future of the cities seem to be in for a whole lot of trouble from envfous critics in- stead of being applauded for their zeal and commended for their purpose. Suggest any sort of public expendi- ture for the identification of the cities under any other guise than the purest utility and up goes the chorus. We have had too much of the critical in years gone past. Partisan politics is largely at the bottom of 1t and the willingness ito say sharp things about others at the expense of all. This con- dition of affairs is not peculiar to Lew tston and Auburn, but is incidental to all cities where political matters rule the rooslt and is in itself a continued bar to civic progress.
 What we need in this and in all other Maine communities is sense of our. own value and the idea that we have futude to fulfil-fortunate, happy and fruitful as we can make it, Every man needs first, last and all of the time to be jealous of the good name of these cities. Every man needs to be careful