Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-05-01
Money Value Of Street Lighting.

How MANY readers of the Kennebec
Journal have noted the instant uplift
III the good nature. of group from
the turning on of light Many builders
of homes have made their dining
rooms dark and cool; i'm some cases
tie idea has been carried 10 sepulehrai
effect. But have you never noticed the
cheer that suddenly flows into one OF
these places with the turning on of
light?
"Ye love darkness better than light
because your deeds are evil"
Indeed, all humanity loves light. ex-
cept for deeds of evil and for hiding
from the consequences thereof The
best lighted places attract the trade
and good will of humanity. even as
| the lantern attracts the moth.
jewelers. Weekly says:
1.-THE most prosperous. the most talk
| ed of street in the western hemisphere
is Broadway. New York. Electric hgnt-
ing made it so. Its millions of electric
bulbs stand for business enterprise,
wealth, prosperity. That good street
lighting means dollars and cents to
community, the city of Cleveland mas
demonstrated to its own satisfaction.
A few years ago the north side OF
Euclid Avenue between East FIFTY
fifth and East Sixty-sixth streets, in
stalled block OF ornamental street
fixtures. The result was magical, THAT
| side of the street was crowded; ths
other side, deserted Real estate val
| ues Increased on the illuminated ano
| decreased on the dark side. Not unit
both sides were equally well lighted
| was commercial equilibrium estab-
lished on that particular section OF
| Euclid avenue. Similarly, Minnesota
| streets, between Fourth and Seventh
streets, in st. Paul. was transformed
from a gloomy thoroughfare, Hanked
by dilapidated structures. into pros
porous street in which new buildings
took the place of the old-a result ae
complished entirely by street lighting
'"rhree hundred cities in the United
states and Canada have tried orna
mental street lighting and have fohn'
that il pays as a municipal Investment
as well as in heightened civic PRIDE, II
greater prestige, and, therefore, IN bet
ter citizenship.
Cities, like human beings, are judg
ed by impressions. The dieting glimps
| of a town caught from the windows o
| a railway train that stops for fev
| minutes at station leaves an indeli
| HE immersion upon the traveller. If h
sees nothing but forbidding gloon
,unetuated by an occasional tiickerln
pas lamp. he inevitably sets down tina
| community as a third-rate municipal
, Nv. if he catches glimpse OF a mai
street ablaZe with light, ne Knows ,ha
here business thrives. Gloom mean
dirt, squalor, stagnation; heht NEAR
activity, industry, life. From the hsh'
( ing of a city its character can invar
ably be deduced.
What is the. immediate appiica
| tom" you ask? 1t is the money vait
| of good-yes, of brilliant-street hgh'
ing Let Kennebec cities do away wit
| overhanging signs and dim and sea-
tering street lights. Let us Keep Il
| with the times; let us look about I
and copy the good things, or, even ee
ter let us set the pace and Other
follow. Let us have better street lSh'
ing, particularly in the business SCI
tions of our cities, and by all NEAR
abolish dark alleys and gloomy corner
Beware Of This Kind.
rb. swirrdIers are not all dead an