The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1915-08-12

lily.
Dear Sir:
Someone has mentioned the necessi-
ty of painting our city and much has
been said about cleaning up" l
wish to make a few suggestions along
these lines and sincerely trust that
they will be received III the same
spirit in which they are given.
Hattiesburg is remarkable place
for its natural beauty. Natures kind
gift of green foliage and great, spread
ing trees all 90 toward making Hat
tiesburg beautiful. But nature needs
help in building cities. If left alone
nature will turn the cities to great
wildernesses; hence, human aid is al
ways necessary to make anything con-
form with the laws OF civilization.
Now to get down to what am driv-
ing at: To make a pough estimate,
80 per cent of the buildings in Hat
tiesburg need painting and some of
them need it badly. The residents of
the city should get together and paint
up. Paint the fences Whitewash the
outhOuses and board fences. White
wash the bases of the shade trees,
and last, but not least, paint the roof
of your house. Use some bright color
such as red, blue or green for the
roofs with Their various colors, nest
ling among the green trees. Think of
how pretty this wOaid make our city
appear to the visiting stranger. He
would think of Hattiesburg as 1.-The
painted city" rather than "the rusty
city" This is no idle talk, nor is it
poetry. If you wish to see just how
ugly the implanted roofs of the city
look, just get on tkf fourth or fifth
floor of any of our big office buildings
and look out. The sight that greets
our eyes will not be pleasing at all.
You will wonder why people prefer tt
let the roof of their house rot rather
expensive roof paint every two years
or more. For an example of what
paint will do for a building, look at
the Phoenix Laundry That building
has been recently painted white from
top to bottom and undoubtedly pre-
sents more imposing appearance
than ever before, yet the building is
of the most ordinary architecture.
Purely an example of what paint will
do.
/ am not selling paint. / am merely
a citizen who sees the great necessity
for painting property which is fast
going to ruin for the want of it. But
we say the hard times" prevent one
from spending money on paint as sit
takes about all man can make to
keep going" Granting these circum-
stances to exist, / suggest the mu-
nicipal authorities bring about means
to purchase paints in large quantities
and sell them to any citizen who de.
sires to show his civic pride by paint
ing up, city not to make any
profit at all. Merely handle the
paints and oils for the purpose of see
ing our city grow more beautiful, thus
making it more inviting to strangers
and prospective settlers.
Now | have spoken of paints, etc.
Let's speak of weeds. We have some
bumper crops of weeds right here in
town and, believe me, they should
easily make a bale to the acre The
weeds grow abundantly in vacant lots,
along sidewalks on side streets and
worst of all, along the street car track
on Bay street. | could enumerate a
hundred and one different places
where weds are allowed to grow, but
hit isn't necessary, you will not have
| to go far to find them Maybe they
are so thick on your neighbOr's side
walk that you have to go around the
|