The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1910-04-08
CLEAN UP THE Town
PLAN HOW TO MAKE MAEKATt
MORE BEAUTIFUL.
Work Of the Civic Improvement League
Is Set Forth By Several Commit
tees at a Meeting Held Last
Night; Msssmeeting in the Opera
House Within Next Two Weeks
Speakers to Be Engaged

league. What Nature has failed TO
do. the handiwork of man. also the
women and children, will accomplish
The chairmen of the committees OF
he league held a meeting in the pub.
he library building last evening for
he purpose al outlining The work that
he league intends To do next year
with view to making the work OF
the membership committee easier.
". II. Gary, chairman OF the com
nittee OH streets and alleys, suggested
a number. of ways in whic.l he he
l.eved the condition of the streets and
alleys should be Improved. Tie nm
slightly wood pile which now stands
on HE boulevard back of the i'rcsby
terrain church should be removed innle-
diaiely The bill boards winch may
he seen in 80 many places, he believes
should be ruled out entirely. The bills
are continually coming loose and blow
ing about the streets, thus necessitat
ing considerable expense in having
Gary believes HAT this ertsng
sionld all be done through he news
papers. He expressed himself as vcry
willing to start the movement by re.
moving his large sign Eoar,. il others
We're willing to follow. Another very
mnch 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 fearing the garments
of the passers-by.
Remove the DISTINCTIONS
George Sugdcn agreed with Mr.. Gary
that the distractions on the streets
and sidewalks should be removed The
city is not as large as st. Paul and
Minneapolis. nor the streets 50 crowd
ed, and it would not Of course be
practicable to require that every OBJ
structiOn be removed as this would
in many eases work an unnecessary
hardship and cause much nard feel-
ing, .ut it is surely not asking too
mrch to require all merchants to re.
strict themselves To tie use of the
three feet of walk, allowed them by
the ordinance. He suggested the plan
Of holding Il large massmeeting in
the opera house in the near future
for the purpose of arousing Il greater
interest in the work of Inc league
For this he suggested having = few
short addresses by citizens of Man
kato, VINO are acquainted with The
work and Interested in il. The Amer
lean Civic association has offered the
rsc of some lantern slides, Illustrating
some features which might he useful
in town the size of Mankato such
az the planting of flowers. arrange
ment of shrubbery. etc. He believes
that talk. Using these slides. might
be very successful in arousing an in
terest in the work. Manager Grie6el
has kindly offered The free use of the
crera hoase for one evening some Iimc
within the next two weeks.
Favored the Mass .ueeting.
c. +. c. Riley of the normal ex-
pressed himself las being strongly in
favor of the massmee!ing, especially
slides. He thinks it is one of the
best possible ways of bringing the PEG
pie to understand the work. The pie
lures. 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 tho
plans of the committee on play
grounds. They have decided dciinitel,
TO have the play grounds and til;
main question under consideration nov
is the securing OF a centrally locate,
lot where children who live in sior,
buildings and i'm fats can easily rcac.
it. A number of lots have been con
sidered, but nothing definite has bee,
decided as yet Then it will be neces
sary to have some apparatus III th
play ground. The young ladies of TIN
town, through their chain luncl.eon;
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
t;rnirg 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 club Lc asked 10 fmrnisI, on
piece Of apparatus, the council one, tn
ladies' clubs one, the Y M. c. A. on,
and so on until the playground /
completely fitted ont with suitabl
apparatus.
Services Are offered.
Mr.. ,>Deerhake and Mr. With o
the Y. NJ c. A. have kindly olrcrc
their services in the supervision OF tn
play. when this is established.
DR. Dahl suggested that the lcagu
90 something to help ont the healil
department. AS II means he propose
having a '-clcan up week, as is don
now in Minneapolis and ST. Pau
However, he world not have It at til
beginning of the season as is don
there. hit later after the regular eli,
cleaning has been done. By the l5t
OF April, all the cleaning is suppose
10 have been done. but there are usu
ally several vacant lots and som
where people arc living which IT
neglected.. BY having this "elean up
week many of these could be clcaEe
I'M x,;tl,ant tho eeryino of leoaI no