Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-04-28
YOUNG BEAUT|F|ERS.
St. Louis Boys and Girls Improv Ming Their Town.
UGLY SPOTS TRANSFORMED

Tine Plan of Offering Prizes For tl.t
 Improvement of Horne Grounds Prov.
 ina Highly successfuI-.vho.e esocxs
 of Residents Interested In the Work,
 The plan adopted in St. Louis to it. duce the children to take up the wor. Inf town improvement might be follow ed by any community to advantage The philosopher who pronounced ts small boy natural savage would modify his opinion if he lived in tl!at town today, for during the last few years the St. Louis boy has developed
 taste for the aesthetic quite equal in kind, if not in degree, to that shown by his sisters and his cousins and his hunts. In addition to the multifarious kmusements and employments, the St Louis boy has acquired a taste fo, flower growing, and all over the town n yards of both low and high degree he sound of the hoe is heard, together with the voice of its operator, as he hoisily consults with his fellows con Eern1lg the best things to plant and low the planting ought to be done.
 This sudden activity on the part Of he boys H not due to aesthetic inspira ion so- L3Slch as to the stimulus fur |. led by the offer of prizes, says the t Louis Globe e-Democrat. The small boy is not natural garden maker. If ke were to consult his individual pref rences in the matter of back yards lmson weed would suit him as wei. |s a hibiscus; broken crockery, tir ans and halves of bricks would an wer his purpose as well as green ward and bedding plants, but with q ve dollar prize in view, together with he distinction arising from it's attain hent, the boy is willing to hustle, and
 many parts of the town the hustline as been followed by surprising re hlts.
 Nearly ten years ago D. NJ. Hazlett
 we'll known citizen of St. Louis, wht D other towns and cities had been lentified with movements having civic
 nprove,nent in view, took up the mat
 r of yard Identification as q specia.
 heme and delivered ill one of the
 hurches in the southwestern district q
 cture on the subject, dwelling espe
 ally on what could be accomplished
 boys and girls in making beautiful
 ke surroundings of the house. Mucl
 kterest was aroused. The lecture was
 (llowed by others of practical char
 ter, with illustrations showing what
 Id been done elsewhere and what
 lght be, Zone here. The boys began tc
 stir themselves. Competition was
 oused. Residents in a block in many
 ses determined upon common plan
 improvement so as to give the neigh.
 rhood the appearance of unity.
 ball prizes were offered for back yaro
 provement by boys and girls. The ea spread, and soon neglected back
 rds began to blossom as the rose.
 Then the Suburban Railroad com
 nv had q sudden inspiration. The
 batter portion of it's line from Nanle- hter avenue to the city limit is locat- ! on it's own right of way, which run> ougl an alley frnged on both sld&> ! back yard fences. ash heaps anu li miscellaneous debris that always I. ects in an alley when, as in that ;. e, no particular objection is made to s use as q dump. The Suburban peo,
 heard criticisms of their roadway. A' iting strangers touring the city were y |ised to ride on other lines, so the la burban management undertook tc T rove it's surroundings by offering k les for the handsomest back yards. ,y he boys and girls along the route n |e not slow to hear of those prizes :, ding. hoeing, planting and watering
 It on, with surprising results. ASl :. ps. tin cans. broken crockery and VI omless barrels vanished, and or aa stretches of the track the fo:ne! n andsome yards became bowers oi q beauty
 ,s |ere Is general idea that flower d 3n is an expensive luxury, attain .s only by the rich. That depends
 gether upon what is planted. One VI spend a hundred dollars and se- iu no handsomer results than by the as (nditure of hundred cents. Rare bs and plants are generally eXpen- ,as but rare plants are not necessary gsa bake yard attractive, and as a N, ral thing the common plants and M being vigorous of growth and pughly acclimated, make a better ring in the yard than the tender 's' gners brought from tropical it'd boy in, St. Louis last year beau , u large yard at an outlay for ar of $1.45. At the close of the n he gathered and stored away or four times as many seeds as " i'll need this year, so will have ~ to sell or give away to his a'a bors. But he did not really need end as much as he did in the first ,oJ for it is surprising how few f are needed to give yard all t of tropical luxuriance.
 Tho Clean Town Grows.