Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-08-23
Five Ways Of Making the Com
munity More Beautiful.

We need more beauty in rural ar
chitecture. There has been a great
Improvement in this rspect in recent
wears, but too man, farm houses are
still swithout form and void" 1t
takes no more money or material to
build a house along approved and
beautiful architectural lines than 1t
does to build one in the form OF an
architectural m~onstrosity. And there
is lust as much difference between a
planless, ill-shaped house and a real
lly beautiful design as there is be-
tween a Mother Hubbard dress and
one of the finest creations of the
dressmaker-s art. No farmer ought
to be allowed to build a house with
out modelling it on the plans OF a
competent architect. A small house,
beautiful and we'll built, may be far
more attractive and enjoyable as a
place of residence than a poorly plan
ned house twice as big and costing
twice as much.
2. Let's help "Make the South a
Land of Painted Farm Houses" In
this day of high-priced lumber and
high-priced carpenters, paint pays
for itself once as a financial invest
ment. It pays a second time in the
added beauty it gives to the house. 1t
pays a third time in the psychology
cal influence on the people who live
in the house. Men and women, boys
md gir.s, who live in a beautifully
painted house, almojt invariably
come to feel that they must have
their work and their farming and
their general attitude toward life as
progressive as the painted house
gives pledge of their being. 1t is hard
for a man to get the spirit of pep"
and hustle in an implanted, ram
shackle dwelling. The painting which
brightens the building often bright
ems the lives of all the occupants,
too.
8. Let's make the home grounds
beautiful. We are not going TO sug-
gest plans that call for the constant
watchfulness of a caretaker on the
home grounds. 1t is not hard, how
ever to have grass on the lawn and
NOW it a few times a year. Mrs.
Lindsay Patterson has also pointed
out repeatedly that if you are too
busy to care for regular flowers, 1t
is still easy to plant Towering shrubs
which ask for no attention on your
part and yet go on pouring out a
wealth of blossom and fragrance
wear after year without money and
Z without price. I have frequently rec
commended four Towering shrubs
that give a succession Of beauty from
early spring until frost--the Judas
tree, dogwood, mimosa and Grape
mvrtle-these to be followed by
some evergreen-pine, magnolia, OF
liveoak, to give a touch Of color to
the winter landscape.
4.Our fields and forests need bet
Ter care. We need to quicken our
sense Of the beautiful as applied to
our fields and forests. The sheer ug-
illness of a quilted field or a fire.
swept forest out to hurt US as would
some deformity or show of disease
in a horse orcow. Abeautifullyshap-
ed and well kept field is as fine an
example of art and beauty as a beau
tifully formed and well groomed
horse. And l know nothing Of the
sort that should be more constantly
taught the children than a love for
beautiful trees and whole forests OF
them.
S. Church buildings and school
buildings should be the most beauti-
full buildings in the community Not
only should these buildings be the
best in the matter of architecture,
materials, care and painting, but
they should have the most beautiful
grounds. Too often nowadays we find
cases where large amounts of money
have been spent for the erection OF
beautiful high school buildings or
church buildings but not a thing has
been done to improve and beautify
the grounds. This is like buying a
beautiful picture and mailing it up
on the wall without a frame. The
school and church buildings belong
to all the people o fthe community.
And the love of the people should be
1avished on them. If bows and girls