The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-08-08

| euc SeIccts VI tiilS i've Town. Inat
makes more bushes for the cleaner
and helps to make a live town.
! In the live town we are now speak
ing Of, the trees along the walks and
in the lawns are bushy looking and
have many superfuous limbs and
suckers adding to the business OF
the tree and spelling their appear
ance and usefulness. They make
neither shade nor timber. The lilac
bushes are not trimmed and they
look like parts OF a hedge rather
than like ornamental shrubs. There
Is old dead growth all about the
roots and dead branches reaching
up among what would be graceful
stalks II properly pruned. The
ground Is hard and dry about the
roots and growth Is slow and grow
ing more SO. These characteristics
are not essentials of live town, but
usually go with the kind Of a live
town we have described, and there Is
certain relation between the in
dividuals who make the first men,
toned features Of the town and the
last named features. AS the visitor
looks thru the town he can generally
connect them up with considerable
certainty. er 4
The character of town Is usually
indicated by its street drainage, and
II 1t 10 an irrigated town, the bitches
and ditch banks are good index Of
the character OF It's citizens. II 1t
Is a very live town Of the kind de-
scribed in the beginning Of this arti-
Gle, the ditch banks will be very un-
couth and irregular. There will be
places where the ditch leaks and
places where the dykes are much
higher than the water ever gets, and
these superfluous dykes stand in the
way from year to year and the peo-
pie responsible for the unsightly and
inconvenient condition are too busy
making a live town to carve down
the dykes and have them looking
good and easily kept green and live
looking. The ditch banks frequently
lap over upon the side walk in such
towns, and destroy the usefulness of
that much Of the walk besides being
mussy in wet weather and looking
disorderly.
In live town of the kind we are
describing there will be lawns that
are slightly higher than the water
line in the ditch and ever and anon
courageous efforts will be made to
jam the water thru and get it up on
the lawn. There will be lawns that
are as high as the sidewalks and
in order to hold the water On the
lawn and keep 1t off of the walk,
small dykes will be built along on
the frontiers of the lawn and on the
border land of the walk. The ordin-
ance defines the width the walk must
be, but because it does not expressly
forbid erecting earthworks on top
Of the walks, the earthworks remain
in the live town.
One of the signs of a live town is
to have cement sidewalk with a
cement curbing at proper distance
and barren ridge between them.
The city plan contemplated that
when the walk and curbing were
built, the property owner would re-
move the waste terrain and make a
strip of lawn or flower beds in it's
place, but the ordinance does not
expressly declare that It must be
done, nor does it require that the
high, barren bank shall be removed,
SO the people engaged in maintain |
ing live town look upon the ter
rain as no mans land and when they |
have to go that way they go over |
the top.
In a live town the officers can al |
ways win money on bet If they can
get anyone to bet with them. It is
q safe bet that il the officer goes to
the average citizen and calls his at
tention to something that needs
up, that citizen will i'm
begin to look around for
q comeback" and will point out
belonging to another man
and will ask the officer why he does
not make that man clean up his
place. 1t is habit they have Of
shifting responsibility or cultivating
he habit of watching for and keep
n mind, some example or specimen
hat is worse than self or worse than
heir own and of being content so
ong as there is a worse example
han theirs. =
Ye editor has interviewed good
many people lately to find out what
hey want at the fair and to see what
hey think the community ought to
10 to make good fair and to at
ract attention to the town and as
hey say, put it on the map" and
is interesting to listen to sugges- ,
ions and then go around the block {
nd take look at their property and {
ee what kind of an advertisement it
makes for the town.
1t looks now as if a great many
'eople would visit Blackfoot next
month to see our fair, and in Octo- {
er comes the teachers institute for {
week, and they will all look over
he town more or less to see whether ,
is live town in the usual sense.
he teachers will study the character s
t the people by taking the measure {
t their home life and note whether
hey live largely on the street, nour- t
shed by canned goods and cold buns, {
r whether mother and daughters 8
re real home makers and can cook {
cal food to maintain live people. I
1t is quite study, this thing of
making and keeping live town, and
here never was a season when '
'lackfot had more reason to clean v
p and trim up than right now.