Evening star., 1917-05-27

- oE who adds one line or tint Of
III ii beauty to the city beautiful is
Jn its friend, while he who
q < through Ignorance avarioe or
neglect takes from it one line or tint
of beauty Is its enemy. The builder
who goes into residence section OF
detached houses, with neat lawns and
pretty flower beds In front and at the
sides and there erects a block of Small,
cheap houses, standing flush with the
building line, with no room for grass
plots or flowers, cannot be regarded as
a friend by those who have good taste
and love the beautiful.
The owner or tenant OF a house with
space in front or at the sides for grass
plots and flower beds who neglects TO
utilize this space to mako 1t an adorn-
ment to the hoase and the street Is an
enemy, and SO is he who owns a vacant
lot and allows It to be covered with
unsightly and noxious weeds, instead OF
keeping it green, neat and wholesome.
How few there are who do not think
source of pleasure to the eye and cheer
to the heart and what precious memories
Hnger around hours there spent, in the
happy days of childhood, the romantic
episodes of youth, the resting periods Of
middle age, or the diversion seeking
times of elderly maturity! Yet there
are many who do not think Of repay
ing a part of the debt they owe for
such pleasures by contributing to the
support of the charm of flowers,
through the cultivation of few. at
least, in their front parkings, or their
back yards in the city.
A street with modest and inexpensive
houses, neatly kept tastefully decorat-
ed and painted, with pretty parkings,
beautified by green lawns and bloom
ing flowers, is much more pleasing to
the eye and satisfying to the mind than
rows of more ambitious and expensive
houses. built close to the sidewalks and
with no strips Of green or brightness OF
flowers to relieve the monotony OF walls
of wood, brick or stone and concrete
walks and pavements.
+
OF course, i'll the business sections of
a city the front parkings are imprac-
ticable and even many shade trees are
often not desirable, the attractiveness
of the streets depending entirely upon
the architectural beauties of the build
ings and the cleanliness and good re-
pair of house fronts, sidewalks and
pavements, but in residence sections
the beauty depends as much upon the
condition of the surroundings as upon
the houses themselves, and especially
upon the flower beds and lawns during
at least eight months Of the year, in
the District of Columbia.
1t is often very annoying and discour-
aging to the owner of beautiful flower
beds in the front yards, which have
been cultivated to state OF high per-
fection by constant care and strenuous
effort, to have their beauty marred or
destroyed by mischievous children or
covetous adults. who often pluck the
flowers and break the plants with
be taught to find pleasure in looking
at the flowers without plucking them
and an ordinance making it a mis-
demeanor, punishable by a fine, to pluck
or injure flowers or plants in the yards
or parkings of others. would be very
useful, to restrain adults from their
selfish and thoughtless mischief and
keep them from being aggressive en-
emies of the city beautiful.
The backwards, however, protected by
! fences and gates. are usually safe
ground in which the lover Of beautiful
flowers may employ his taste, knowl-
edge and Judgment and expend his
efforts to produce results that will
afford pleasure to himself and his
household, as well as to his neighbors.
AS exhibits Of what may be done to
beautify the ordinary little backyard.
where the reimmaculated lingerie loves
to disPort itself in the breeze on wash
of climbing and bush roses. The climb
ing roses are Refine Marie Henriette.
C1otilde Soupert, Gruss an Teplitz,
d reSES GmR5e:s of China
Victoria, American Beauty and Taus-
endschon. The bush roses are Gruss an
Teplitz. Magma Charta. Frau Karl
Druschki, Jacqueminot. Paul Neyron.
My Maryland. Radiance. Killarney.
George Dickson and Sunburst. With
these varieties we have nearly every
color and shade known to the rose
family and variety Of odors. making
a sweetness that is never absent from
the garden during the whole Of the
towering season, which, with US, is
f~rr ,.lx tv, ~rtI ~.
her and we have had the early blooms
OF spring in March and the last blooms
Of autumn as late as the following Sth
of January, our yard being sheltered
from north, northwest and northeast
winds.
Neither our climbing varieties nor the
busA roses are ever without blossoms
non sthem from the time they begin to
blefm in the spring until the cold OF