News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1905-08-16
MUNICIPAL ADORNMENT.
American Towns and Cities Awake
to the Blessings of Beauty.

American Towns and Cities Awake
to the Blessings of Beauty.
Time and again the charge has been
made that American cities and towns
are ugly Sometimes it is the American
critic who has been abroad who brings
back with him this verdict, and some.
times it is the candid expression of the
visiting foreigner who has been asked
what he thinks of America. A writer
in the Craftsman, who appears to be
an American, makes the broad charge
that the indifference of municipal gov
ernments in the United States in the
matter of municipal art and adornment
is retarding the advance of democratic
government all over the world, be-
cause of the general impression that a
popular form of government implies
complete Indifference to all matters OF
art and aesthetic culture.
This critic treats with small consid-
Grafton the plea that American cities
and towns are yet young and that they
will in time turn attention to the prob
lem of Identification. Nothing more
stupid has been said during the past
fifty years, he declares, "for we are the
inheritors Of the knowledge of all the
ages. We know all there is to be
known about municipal beauty" He
insists that it is not because we do not
know, but because we do not care, we
do not feel, we are not sensitive to the
general ugliness Of our environments.
In a word, he concludes that Ameri-
cans lack a high average of refinement
in taste.
Nevertheless the youth of American
towns accounts for much, if not for all,
of their crudeness, and as to the older
of American towns, it is a fact that
more and more attention is being given
to ideals of Identification. Paris, the
model in matters of adornment, it is to
be remembered, is not sudden crea-
tion but a growth of centuries. That
town during the first century or so
of its development should direct its
virile energies toward industrial thrift
is both natural and necessary. Not
until there has come accumulated
individual, turn to the refnements of
life. The reproach that we break rec
ords in the United States for doing
things quickly may carry the sugges-
ton that we do things rudely and
crudely, but plenty of illustrations can
be cited to show that we are founding
as substantially as any of our foreign
contemporaries
And it is true that almost every
American city and town of note is
awakening to the purposes and plans
of beautifcation-in architecture, in
sculpture, in mural decoration, in land
scape adornment-in all matters that
tend to make urban life more harmo-
NOUS and lovely. 1t is to be hoped
that it will be long before that sort
of artistic temperament develops in
this country which seems in some of
the European centers to carry with it
a lassitude and incapacity for meeting
the rougher phases of life. There is
profound beaNty in utility which Amer.
leans understand and fully appreciate,
but which the artistic foreigner does
not always seem to grasp. We have
always taken the harsh criticisms of
our manners and our tastes with meek.
ness and most likely with profit. If
we do not improve, it is not because
Of lack Of candor from the critics.
Baltimore American.
Are you ready for the Lamoille Val.