Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-07
CORPORATIONS
GREED DEPLORED
REV. r. ]. BURDETTE TALKS ON
CITY BEAUTIFUL
SAYS RAILROADS ARE SURE TO
SECURE RIVER BED
Declares Woman by Her Taste in Sc
lecting Hats Has Lost Reputa-
ton for Superiority in
Esthetics

Rev. Robert j. Burdette of the Tenn
pie Baptist church preached the first
of a series of sermons yesterday MORN
ing on 1.-THE City Beautiful; Lights and
Lighting" DIR. Burdette deplored the
encroachment of railroad and street
building on natural beauties. Grand
mothers row of stately hollyhocks
stands in the right of way of some be-
nevolent railroad" he said, (which, if
it does not grab the city streets, will
richly compensate the despoiled mu-
nicipality by building beautiful res
idence for the railway president IN
New York or Boston and summer
palace in Newport" The speaker pre-
dicted that the river bed, which he
called a sewer, would some day go to
the railroads. He said in part:
''The city is the climax of GODS ideal
of social life The story of the human
race begins in q garden, sweet ana
sinless. 1t reaches its highest ana
closing chapter in city, holy ana
beautiful. 1t begins in the Garden Oh
Eden, where mans duty is to dress
the garden and to keep it 1t ends in
the Holy CITY,, where the occupation
of the redeemed race is praise. In
the opening chapters sin enters the
garden, and it's gates of peace are
barred against the expelled man and
woman by the flaming sword of an an
gel of righteousness. In the closing
chapter they dwell in the city of God,
with the gates standing wide open for
ever, and sin--just because it is sin
can never enter even through the
wide-open gates. The garden is for
children. The city is for men. The
garden is for seasons. The city is for
the centuries.
Eden for Childhood of Race
'"The Garden of Eden was for the
passing childhood of the race; the Holy
CITY is for the eternity of it's full
grown stature of the fullness of Christ.
A garden-it is always a primitive
thing, simple in it's beauty, which is
caught from the wilderness, the lowell
est garden of all.
"The day we begin to cultivate the
wilderness and to improve the garden
We are on our way to planting city
In the geranium bed, grandmother's row
of stately hollyhocks are standing in
the right of way of some benevolent
railway corporation, which If it does
grab the city streets will richly recon-
pense the despoiled municipality by
building a beautiful residence for the
railway president, in New York or
Boston, and a summer palace for him
in Newport. Does the greedy city want
the earth? 1t wants all that comes
within it's borders to be city Our Los
Angeles river, despite its name, is a
sewer, from the dove cotes to the sea.
The river bed will some day go to the
railroads; some day they will get it,
though the Seven Wise Men of Athens
were the council, and Socrates, declared
by the Oracle of Delphi to be the wisest
- H..
we can do with these things is to make
the best bargains we can, and do as
wisely as we know and build with such
good taste as God gives to men.
Loses Hope in Woman's Taste
1--WE did once hope for much from
the women. But after watching for a
long winter the fearful atrocities, the
monstrous Nightmares of shapeless hor-
rors with which women have disgraced
their shapely heads, it will be many
years before men can be again led to
believe in the superior grace of feni-
nine taste in anything.
Building city begins with the desc
Grafton of natural beauty; it runs
througs years and years of tearing
down and building up, of dust and ex
cavations, of scaffoldings and ragged
streets, filthy alleys, subterranean
crossings, makeshifts and temporaries
of all utilities; combination livery
stables es-and-opera-houses wooden pa
vilions,' summer gardens, consisting OF
half a dozen palms in green tubs and
a hundred kegs of beer; streets that
are dust heaps in summer and mud
holes in winter; chaos and half lighted
darkness, litter and debris cheap and
nasty cottages and would -if-I-could
business blocks, all gradually giving
way to symmetry, order, taste conven-
ience. And the number of times a city
has to be rebuilded in the course of it's
building depends on the way we build
it the first time. And one of the first
requirements of the city beautiful is
good clean, serviceable streets and per-
feet lighting"