The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1910-04-08
Work of the Civic Improvement League
Is Set Forth By Several Commit
tees at Meeting Held Last
Night; Massmeeting in the Opera
House Within Next Two Weeks
Speakers to Be Engaged

INV V'Suc Hciu Injecting III th' puh
lie library building last evening for
he purpose of outlEing The work that
lie league intends To do next year
with view to making the work OF
the membership committee easier.
w. II. Gary. chairman OF the com
nitiee on streets and alleys, suggested
a number. of ways in whica he be,
l.eved the condition OF the streets and
alleys should DE improved. Tie I'M
slightly wood pile which now stands
on HE boulevard back OF the prcsby
terrain church should be removed ilanic-
diately The bill boards winch may
be seen in 80 many places, he behevcS
SHOULD be ruled out entirely. The bills
are continually coming loose and blow
ing about the streets. tins nccessitat
in" considerable expense in having
item collected and destroyed. MIR.
Gary believes that this advertising
should all be done through he news.
+. papers He expressed himself aS vcrT
willing to start the movement by re
moving his large sign hoard il others
We're willing to follow. Another very
:ni,ch needed improvement which he
suggested was an ordinance prohibit
ing the placing of barrels, boxes.
boards and other rubbish, Oh or near
enough the sidewalk to he in danger
Of catching and tearing The garments
of the passers-by.
Remove the DISTINCTIONS
George Sugdcn agreed with Mr. Gary
that the distractions on the streets
and sidewalks should he removed. The
city is not as large as st. Paul and
Minneapolis, nor The streets 50 crowd
ed, and it would MOI of course be
practicable to require that every OBJ
struction be removed as This wOalt
iii many eases work an unncJeS sarv
hardship and cause much hard feel
ing, ..ut it is surely not asking too
mrch to require all merchants TO re-.
strict themselves 10 tie use of the
three feet of walk, allowed them by
he ordinance. He suggested the plan
OF holding a large massmeeting in
the opera house in the near futur,,
for the purpose of arousing Il greater
interest in the work OF he league.
For this he suggested having few
short addresses by citizens OF Man
kato, VINO are acquainted with he
work and Interested in ii. The Amer
iean Civic association has offered the
use of some lantern slides, Illustrating
some features which might he useful
h.. 81, -,
as the planting of flowers. arrange
ment OF shrubhery, etc. He believes
that talk. using these sli,ics. might
be very successful in arousing an in
teiest in The work. Manager Grie6el
has kindly offered the free use OF the
crera hOuse for one evening some time
within the next two weeks.
Favored the Mass Yueeting.
c. r. c. Riley of the normal ex-
pressed himself las being strongly in
favor of the massmcc:ing, especially
the addresses Illustrated with the
slides. lie thinks it is one of the
hest possible ways of bringing The PEG
pie to understand the work The PIE
TIRES. showing the condition Of lots
before and after. work has been don,
on them, can hardly fail to arouse
an interest on the improvement of tn.
vacant lots in our own city.
Miss van Buren, explained briefly lii,
plans of the committee on play
grounds. They have decided definitel,
TO have the play grounds and III;
main question .un1er consideration now
is the securing OF a centrally locate,
lot where children who live in stor,
buildings ana in fats can easily reac.
il. A number of lots have been con
sidered, but nothing definite has bee,
decided as yet Then ii will be neces
sary to have some apparatus in th
play ground. The young ladies of TIN
town, through their chain luncheon'
have raised something over twenty dol
lars and expect to raise fifty within
the next few weeks. This will be ex
pended for apparatus, such as swing
tanning pole, small merry &c round
etc. But of course this will not q
far and more will have TO be raised
1t has been suggested that the Socia
Science cly.b lie asked 90 furnisii on
piece Of apparatus, the council one, III
ladies' clubs one, the y. M. c. A. one
and so on until the playground /
completely fitted out with snitabl
apparatus.
Services Are Offered.
Mr.. .>Dcerhake and Mr.. With O
the Y. NJ. c. A. have kindly ollere
their services in the supervision OF tn
play. when this is established.
DIR. Dahl suggested that the lcagu
60 something to help ont the healt
department. As Il means he propose
having II ''clean up week, as is don
now in Minneapolis and St. Pau
However, he would not have i at til
beginning of the season as is don
there. hit later. after the regular cit.
cleaning las been done. By the l5t
OF April, all the cleaning is suppose
10 have been done, but there are usl
ally several vacant lois ana som
where people are living which ar
neglected. BY having this ''elean up
week many of these could be cieaEe
mp without the serving of legal 10