Bryan daily eagle and pilot. [volume] (Bryan, Tex.) 1909-1918, 1911-07-23
CIVIC IMPROVEMENT


10 the caption, CIVIC Improvement.
II is with some diffidence that | un-
dertake the task, for | must admit
that very meagerly equipped person
has been chosen for such an article.
This feeling of inaptitude was in
creased by the statement of one of
the ladies who remarked, Civic i'm
provement seems to mean plant a
rosehush and all is done.'" 1t may be,
however, that one looking upon the
question from the viewpoint of new
arrival can offer some suggestions not
altogether unworthy of the subject.
AS the purpose of the Civic League
is to beautify the city, one may pre-
sent the query, Why do we call q
thing beautiful? What is beauty?
Here We are upon questions that go
deep. In search of answers we find
ourselves thrown straight back upon
the soul and its structure, for the
beautiful is evidently a spiritual per-
ception. Place horse in front of our
fairest prospect and it sees nothing
of what We mean by the word. Even
in man himself the perception is one
that unfolds only gradually. The saw
age has little sense of it. II has taken
ages to develop this special response.
And yet it lies in the depth of every
soul, and in proportion as that soul
moves toward perfection does the sen.
timent find amplitude and volume of
expression.
But what is this response? What is
contained in our idea of beauty? On
this subject philosophers and scien-
fists have discoursed abundantly from
various viewpoints. Materialists have
discussed ii as an affair of curves,
surfaces and sensory impressions. But
when all has been said 1t remains that
the recognition of beauty by the mind
can be explained satisfactorily in only
one way. Our feeling here is recogni-
ton, that is removing, reminder
of what the soul already knows, of
what is native to its realm. The
beauty of nature is the work of a SUI
preme artist whose fundamental ideas
are reproduced, however, family, in
our own. Without such a relationship
to begin with there could be no posi-
BILE recognition of beauty on our part.
The topic as it thus opens up is far
more than merely speculative one.
We must admit that it has some i'm.
portant practical. consequences. For
instance the incubation of righteous
ness should ever link itself with the
souls innate sense of beauty. But the
subject has a wider bearing than its
application to Sunday worship. Our
municipal life is as yet only at its
beginning. There are hundred differ
ent lines along which it has to de
velop, but one of the greatest and
most fruitful will be in its education
and satisfaction of the public sense of
beauty. The mass of American people
are children here where the ancient
Greeks were grown men. In coming
generations our towns will be, not an
outrage upon nature, but blend with
her. And the beauty cultivated will
be that which appeals not only to the
eye, but to the ear also We shall be
an approach to the municipal
ideal when the whole civic atmosphere
is so penetrated with high and en-
influences, with such elements
of art and refinement, that the mean
est citizen, by the mere fact of ming
ling with it, will find his own life i'm
enriched. | have been
very much impressed with the organi-
zation of towns in the Canadian west.
Each town is laid out in such way
that beauty of formation and rapidity
of progress go hand in hand And we
should endeavor to instil this sense of
beauty into the citizenship of every
town where the inhabitants are work
ing for material progress and an in
creased population. There are many
things to which | should like to turn
the minds of our citizens, especially
the minds of those who sincerely de-
sire a city of beauty in its true signifi-
cation. / need not elaborate the vari-
Gus matter; a suggestion will suffice,
and my readers can perform the work
of elaboration. There are two evils
that, to my mind, require immediate
One of these Is profanity
on the public streets, the other is ex-
pectoration on the sidewalks-both of
which are offensive to persons who
have any conception of decency. Then
there is plot of ground east of the
& Texas Central depot, ex-
tending south for two blocks, which
is an eyesore to our Civic League, and
| am sure it also causes a good deal
of comment amongst visitors to our
city These are three of the matters,
selected from a number pressing upon
us, to which the members of the Civic
League should apply themselves.