Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-04-03
LOCAL COMMENT

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| Spring is here 1t does not feel just
like 1t but it is here and the time has
arrived to clean up. Ash piles, tin
cans, mulching and litter of all kinds
must be made away with. Let there
| be no delay for the neglect of one prop
erty owner creates unsightly surround
i ings for the whole neighborhood; it
| actually depreciates values on the
| entire street The pressman in the
T.-R. plant has devised an ingenious
method of disposing Of tin cans which
is worth passing along for the benefit
of others. Experience has taught him
that cast iron crate in boiler or
furnace would melt if covered by ashes
hence the idea that a tin can would
Durn up If buried in the furnace fire.
He tried 1t one can at time covering
1t up with fuel and the can completely
disappeared, Ever since then he has
been conducting his own incinerator at
home and he has no pile Of tin cans
on the place.
And when the premises are cleaned
up it might be well to do some plant
Ing for beauty. Mr.. Rubee will change
the landscape around the court house
this spring with a few bushes and trees
but Rubee has no monopoly on bushes
or trees. Currant and gooseberry BUSH
es make excellent hedge rows and
could be used for ornamental clumps
on the lawn. Fruit trees thrive in the
back lot and grape vines will COM
pletely cover the back fence if given
an opportunity. For screening out
buildings lilac bushes are cheap, grow
fast and are beautiful. One editor of
this newspaper has returned from Pas
adena, where the city park commits
sioner has complete charge of the
parkings between sidewalk and curD
and maintains them on each street
planting and trimming the trees and
cutting the grass Independently of the
lot owner and the Womens City
Beautiful Society sends men and
teams about town blowing up the
weeds on vacant lots until that city is
the gem of all southern California for
beauty. We can do the same in Mar
shalltown of we will only try.
. Our citizens will approve the decis-
ion of the city council to raise the
street paving flush with the sidewalks
district. We have seen what it means
at Center and Main streets and we all
want it done elsewhere. When new
paving is designed for residence dis
tricts the same convenience should be
accomplished in the new work. The
elimination Of the curb step at cross
ings is very common in western cities
where most of the street paving has
viii in
on modern engineering lines.
Ii is to be hoped that the school
boards of the county will be fully rep
resented at the county convention next
Tuesday for selecting county super
intendent. The legislature has made
an effort to dignity the position OF
county superintendent and make of 1t
an executive office of some positive
force in the general management OF
the county schools and it is now up TO
the various school boards to select an
officer who can measure up TO the
purposes of the office. Indifference
and non-attendance Will probably be
rewarded by service of a similar kind
And II is time the play ground move
season is here. A man has to go away
from home to really appreciate how
slow an old community is to adopt
modern ideas of. progress for there is
scarcely country school or village
school in southern California which is
not provided with adequate grounds
and complete equipment for childrens
play. Out in the rural communities
the union schools have swings. turn
ing bars. rope merry -go-rounds, run
ming tracks, basketball grounds and
tennis courts as well as bicycle sheds
To an Iowan accustomed to the shack
at the country cross roads which we
call school house with its twin OUT
buildings half buried in the weeds at
the rear a country school in California
attractive in it's modern architecture
and supporting tennis court and a
basketball ground is an incongruous
sight to behold. Then when tine KIDS
come riding to school over pavements
on their bicycles fresh from the farm
the picture of a Musquakie Indian driv-
ing an automobile has been eclipsed as
an object of interest. Marshalltown
being a city. is expected to lead ahead
Of the country school, but Marshall
town has not yet walked up to the
play ground when practically every
western city has provided them and in
some of the larger cities bond issues
have been voted to buy and equip the
grounds.
However, we have Y. NJ. c. A.
which is the equal if not the superior
of anything in the west. After COM
pairing our building with larger and
more expensive buildings in Pasadena,
Los Angeles and San Diego, one can
realize that Marshalltown has every
thing that those larger buildings have
except not on SO large a scale and the
interior being the newest of them all IS
far more beautiful and attractive than
Y NJ C. A. buildings have ever been
constructed anywhere. And this points
to the fact that we can have here IN
Marshalltown everything that goes to
make life worth living whenever we
IA An1