The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-07-16
WHAT MUST BE DONE TO
 BEAUTIFY BIRMINGHAM
BY SAM cLABAUGH.

that may be set on foot either for the
 moral or physical advancement Of the | city.
 When the alley evil Is remedied, the
 first and most difficult step toward better | ment will have been accomplished.
 course it may be impractical to endeavor
 to effect a complete elimination of the l alleys. but at least they can be improved. l Yet there is no telling. With Mayor l George B. Ward in the executive char,
 it is difficult to fix the limits of what can l be accomplished. Just now he IS aeuVe- l Iy engaged in cleaning out the streets anu l avenues of municipal politics. No one will tegrudge him the time he is taking for
 he is undoubtedly supplying a long felt
 want.
 When the Mayor has, however. rem l dered the city free from all irregulari-
 ties in the administration of affairs he
 might again turn his attention toward l the physical improvement.
 Visitors remarked recently that in some ] sections of the city we had the weakest , excuse or attempt at sidewalk paveing 1 he had ever seen. A great portion of the 1 streets have only large pieces of stone l irregularly placed to serve as sidewalks. 1 One will be higher than the other, an- l other will be broken and again one en- 1 tirely removed. The consequence is, that | on rainy days these substitutes for side 1 walks are merely continuous rows of l puddles of water and mud. This could easily be improved without great ex- l pense or heavy burden to the property l holders.
 After discussion of the sidewalks it might be well to speak of other dis 1 fsurements.
 | Birmingham is not the first city to be 1 confronted by the advertising evil. In 1 fact. the Greeks and the Romans and 1 even the Assyrians and Egyptians tried
 in vain to solve the question of allowing huge posters to be placed in the public highways. It is useless then to hope for | a complete abatement of a practice so 1 long in vogue as the use of bill boards 1 But we are entitled to and should de- mand a restriction of the indscriminate use of walls for advertising purposes. l Wherever they tend to lessen the beauty or detract from the appearance of the
 city. their construction or use should be prohibited.
 Take as an instance of the disigurement l that is sometimes wrought by this prac- l tice, the little plot of ground to the east i of the government building. Here is the l only attractive green spot in the whole 1 business portion of the city It is the
 only relieving oasis in the whole desert l of brick buildings It is Kept in splendid 1 condition, and adds to the attractiveness l of the setting for the postoffice building. | But it's beauty Is seriously marred by l COnHlOHlcTdllOIl Ol CHtdply lltubSIdpleu l advertisements carelessly pasted on a 1 erumbling mass of brick wall. Some of l them proclaim the advent of some show
 or other attraction that has long since come and gone; others are so weather 1 beaten that the name of the tobacco it represents cannot be distinguished. l No excuse can possibly be framed for a ! federation of this species of disfgurment We cannot hope or expect to have total l aboshment of the custom. but we have | reason to believe that laws will be en-
 acted putting limitations on the use of 1 posters and billboards.
 Of course we cannot anticipate a city | beautiful when the streets are sprinkled
 as seldom as they are here. It is abso-
 lutely necessary that sprinl<lers be used I frequently and often, or it is an impossi- bility to have cleanliness
 Stringent garbage laws have just been
 made, but they cannot be carried out
 fully if the city has not enough wagons I to fulfill it's part of the agreement.
 A forward step has been taken recently
 in the way of advertising by many of
 the merchants. It is the adoption of the use of the electrically illuminated sign.