The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-14
NOTES OF DAY IN
 THE SOCIAL WORLD Work for the City Beautiful Arouses Much Interest GOSSIP OF THE PEOPLE Will Children Form Auxiliary to City Beautiful9-Personals About We'll
 Known People-General so-
 ciaI News of the Day.
GOSSIP OF THE PEOPLE
By MYRTLE MILES.

Telephones: Bell, 116o; Peoples, 2ee.
 Letters issued from the office of the Mayor last week asking that meetings for formation of block improvement so- cieties be called have already been wide ly productive of results. A number of meetings will be held today, and many others are called to take place tomor- row. Many excellent plans will be discussed which will have as thelr general purpose merely organization. The suggestions outlined in the at traotive booklet called the "By-Laws of the Block Improvement Society Of the City of Birmingham" will be tho foundation on which the movement will be laid in all societies. though origi- nal ideas will no doubt be advanced.
 When the women of Birmingham un- dertake a task like this one they ara sure of success, and 1t is for a task of this nature that the women are pecu- liarly fitted. They are of course adapted to the doing of things in which the de- tails are the important factors, and their work now before the public can not be perfected without attention to the minutest details. The planting of trees and window boxes, the levelinG and grading of sidewalks and streets, the building of confining walls the cut ting of weeds, and a number of oth ar things all have their own peculiar inn portance in the making of the City Beautiful. In woman's sphere, with the small things of life under her daily observation, 1t is but natural that she should be the prime mover in effecting such a revolution as this calls for.
 And the Birmingham women will sue ceed. The love of beauty and clean liness is too general among both men and women here to allow them to fail Witness the success achieved in the past two years by that too small body of patrons of the public schools-the School Improvement association. Build ings have been enlarged, playgrounds bought and athletic sports made possi- ble, through the medium of that body. They have made it possible to point to school buildings with pride which be- fore looked cheerless enough. Tho South Highlands school is one of the most attractive buildings in the city, with its asphalt walks winding among grassy lawns and bloowing flowers, and the improvement society was instru- mental in making it place refreshing $ to look at.
 The same is true of the Ullman school, which is surrounded with masses of flow CTS and draped with vines, Here, too, the lawns are carefully looked after, and the effect of the whole adds much to the charm of that neighborhood. Barker school too, on the North Highlands, is a picturesque, grassy spot, which also reflects the glory of the organization. Eloquent pictures in all of these build ings speak of the ambition of the women who did so much to make 1t possible for them to be purchased.
 And in this connection comes a timely suggestion offered by woman whose 10- year-old son went to her yesterday and said: .'Mother, 1 am going to pick up some papers that 1 saw in the alley. If we are going to make city beautiful out of this neighborhood, we mustn't have any papers flying about" Why not have a children's auxiliary to the Block Im- provement association? Great good might be accomplished by interesting the little people in the work, not only for immedi- ate results, but to make them careful as future citizens.
 Another suggestion was made yesterday by a young woman who. is much inter- toJ ba Gaid i. If we could succeed in interesting the colored women of the city in this work, great assistance might be had both in our own homes and in those sections oc- cupied only by people of their race. be- lieve it would be easy to get leaders among them to start the movement, and once started they might work wonders My maid, for instance, loves flowers. Some tune ago I gave her small plant sepa- rated from one of my ferns. She has cared for it and loved until now it Is almost as large as my own, and it makes an attractive spot of green on her tiny porch. They, as a people, love pretty things, and they like for their home sur roundings to be clean. My maid tells me that in an alley between Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth streets. Alley E, I think, there Is quite pride taken in keeping it neat. Every Saturday morning the women who live there get out and sweep and clean up until everything is just "spick and span
 The plan of asking some leader among them to form colored woman1s asso- citation seems attractive, but whether 1t will be done remains to be seen. How ever, some of the most influential of their ministers have been seen and it is ex- pected through that medium to perfect some good plan.
 In the meantime the good women of Birmingham are urged to push the move ment forward as vigorously as possible. thus assuring the success of a project