Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1906-06-26
BEAUTIFUL AMERICA.
What the Children Would Desire it To
Be.

Il
are from an address delivered recently
by Mr.. j. Horace Mcfarland. president
of the American Civic Association.
| I think every child. except those who
live in cities that have no parks or
playgrouds, knows just what sort of a
beautiful America will suit the child
rem. Grass to roll upon; dandclions to
pick, with long pipes of stems to make
hose with; viOlets and daisies coming
with and after the dandeliOns, and
other flowers to look at but not to take;
| trees to shade big enough to hide be-
hind in play; pond to wade in, to sail
little boats upon; a tennis court, a
baseball diamond, football field-all
| these belong to Beautiful America for
children. And this much of Beautiful
America must be near enough to all
| the childrcn's homes to reach every day
before school and after school, and on
holidays.
Holidays forgot about the picnics
that belong to the holidays, when we
want to go on a longer walk into the
woods, where the squirrels and the rab-
bits live, and birds nest and sing in the
trees, while we look and listen. and
eat the lunch spread out on the grass or
| the last years leaves.
This sort of Beautiful America for
children. as / have said. ought to he
near our homes, whether we live in big
towns or little towns, or in the real
country, which is for the most part
Beautiful America anyway-but not al
| ways!
| Now, when Columbus sailed across
the Atlantic Ocean to that island in
the BAHIA maS-dOwn near our State OF
| F'lorida-Which came then to be called
San Salvador, but is now plain Cat
Island. the great America close by had
no cities of farms, no factories or
houses. The Indians lived there, in
tents or "wigwams," and America was
| surely beautiful, even if il was wild.
and it was clean-fit to live in, work in,
and play in.
Is it clean now? Any boy or girl who
reads this can easily answer about that!
Dirty yards in the towns. dirty streets.
ldirty corners! Many dirty houses and
more dirty factories, dirty rivers. and
even dirty snow in the winter, when
the smoke from the factories sticks to
it.
The real country is only little bet
/ i
land barnyards, nasty piG-psns and
home yards. shut-up and smelly houses,
Are these dirty cities and country
places fit to really live in or play in?
think rot. Men and women. as well
as boys and girls. do better work and
Ihavc the fun that belongs to them in
the clean brighter places. The real
| Eeautiful America would DC Il good
place for clean towns ana the right
kind of factories and clean streets
would make cleaner business, too.
Il isn't telling secret to the boys
and girls to say that the pigs are not
really fond of a nasty pen. If they
| have a chance they will clean them
selves. and they live in dirt only be-
cause they must. to live at. all So,
having really Beautiful America
means giving the pigs Il chance 10 be
clean,
But some older folks will tell you that
this is poor talk and that the country
might be ''improvcd.' To be sure. we
can't have and don't need the great
woods of the time of Columbus. but we
don't need. either. to have piles of tin
cans, ugly bill-boards. dirty backyards
ana farmyards to be ''imprOvcd." We
can Improve" all the time.
Now some will wonder why am
preaching such things to the boys and
girls. I'll tell you why.
| Some years ago some good WomC3 be-
gan to clean up the city | live i'll by
putting up large iron cans for waste
paper and asking people to put in them
not only the waste paper. but banana
and orange skins. and such things as
had been making the streets nasty.
| These ladies went to all tho schools and
talked to the boys and girls about help
ing. Of course the boys and girls
| were willing. and they remembered
what was told them. My own boy was
ono of them.
| one day after that my boy went with
me to the postoffice. and as we walked
along the street l tore the wrapper
from a magazine and threw it away.
"You mustn't do that papa" said the
boy; "thc ladies told us it is wrong to
throw loose papers in the street"
| I was ashamed. and I picked up the
paper putting it in one of the iron
boxes. My boy was Il better citizen
than I.
This convinced ne that the boys and
1
| clean, and as I think about it. am
sure that children can do wonderful
work for this great country that we all
love.
| Most of TIL" dirt is made n little at Il
timc-onc tin can on the dump. one
paDcr in the street. That is, each
thoughtless person helps to make
America dirty. If the chidren-the
boys and girls who will in a few years
he the mon and women of the country
would do a little toward cleaning up.
we would soon he all stirred up about
it, and American would get beautiful
again.
Each girl can try for q cleaner place
about the home. Each boy can help
keep the stuff off the street. Many of
the children can easily induce their
parents to plant some vines or flowers
and il would he nice to have one tree
planted each year by each child. or for
each child.
The boys and girls can ask their
fathers. too. who have votes to try TO