Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1904-02-23
BEAUTIFUL AMERICA.
The Baneful Effects of Modern
Civilization.

dent of the American League for
Civic Improvement is contribute
ing a series Of articles for the
Ladies Home Journal on the sub
ject of beautlfying our homes
and villages. Two numbers have
already appeared and they may
be found in the January and
February issues.
Several of the towns of Oregon
have been working quietly for
two or three years past along
these lines. The Civic Improve
ment society Of Corvallis holds
monthly meetings on the last Fri
day of every month in the County
Court. room at 7:3o p. M, to
which all of our citizens interest.
ed in village improvement are
cordially invited. The next
meeting occurs on the 26th inst.
An extract from Mr.. McFar-
lands January article may prove
suggestive just now as we are
looking forward to the Spring
and its work:
81 live in a city lying along
the banks of one of Americas S
most beautiful rivers. From
these banks I see a magnificent
panorama. A favorite drive of
mine is to go north of the city by
an unimproved, and therefore less
nasty, public road parallel with
the river, returning along its
edge, with a changing vista of
natural beauty every rod of the
way. Over the edge OF the river
bank the wild phlox and the
saponaria, the goldenrod and the
asters have entrencbed them
selves, and the thorn trees BIOS
som and fruit in competition of
beauty with the willows, locusts,
birches and e1ms. Even in these
winter days there is much to at
tract in the tree forms, delicate
and symetrical, or rugged and
strong, and in the wonderful va
riety OF soft color spread on ma
ture's snowy palette.
'But all too soon we come to
the city line, and no topgraphi-
cal mark is needed to show that
civilization is at hand, for the
flowers give Way to tin cans and
potato parings, and the trees
have long been buried in dirty
ashes or worse. The clean, peb-
bly, beach of the upper stretches
has been developed and i'm
proved by coating of Shiny
sewage. Truly, civilization has
fowered on this river hank!
Is this an exceptional picture
of our civilized efforts to suppress
beauty? If any reader thinks
so I suggest a walk about the
farm house, the city dwelling,
even the suburban street, with
eyes open to the comparison, and
the mind on the clean places
where the beasts live. Do you
find the farm yard sweet aud
clean in all its parts, audi hesi-
tate-but the truth needs the
words, are the pigs housed where
they have an opportunity to be
as clean as they are willing to be-?
How is the village garden in its
corners and angles? Aud the
city dwelling? it is doubtless
decorously fronted at least; but
what does the back yard stand
for, and does the high board
fence, deemed necessary for pri-
vacy, protect a clean and slightly
place? Is the outlook of fence,
trolley poles and ash barrels rest
full to the eye and soothing to the
spirit?
True civics teaches unselfsh-
ness, and we need much unselfsh-
ness in America, for it is selfish
ness that has made US dirty and
unbeautiful in our community
lives. Out of sight out of mind
is the text upon which tin cans
gather on vacant lots, garbage
festoons the river banks, and
typhoid fever starts its deadly
course; and selfshness dictated