Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-26
Education in Civic
Cleanliness IL Urged

2O w09 &oAtoE % 1uo 061ks
A few years ago the Nerchaut% ~
ISOLATION Of New York CITY enrolled,
from the civics classes IN the high
volunteered 70 help clean the city and
keep It clean. Each "block captain"
undertook 70 urge the householders IN
the block assigned to him to cooperate
In Q campaign for Q ''clean New York"
Efforts are now being made In the
National Capital to have not only q
"city beautiful" but . clean city, BY
1881, when the Nation = TO celebrate the
200th anniversary Of George Washing
ton;s birth. and when people from every
State in the Union wiz visit Washing
ton. Would It not be o good idea II
our Board Of Trade and Chamber OF
Commerce were to organize in our high
schools o movement similar to the
admirable one inaugurated In the high
schools of New York by the Merchants
Association of that city?
But the special purpose OF this COM
munication IS to suggest another and
q very far-reaching service to our beau
tiful city In behalf Of cleaner city, by
teaching the gospel Of civic cleanliness
to the younger children before they
reach the high schools. The plastic
time for developing good habits Is be-
tween the ages Of and IL or II.
Rightly directed, habits are easily form
ed during childhood, and, once formed,
they become the fixed habits Of q
lifetime.
An effective and easy way of instiJl-
ing into the minds Of our young chill
dren an instructive preference for clean
streets would be to teach the children
In our kindergarten and primary grades
very striking song called white
Wings" the title Of which was sug-
gested by the nickname given to the
"Street Cleaning Brigade" In New York
City when 1t was reorganized and put
into white uniforms by that great apos-
tie Of municipal housekeeping, the late
Col War1ng.
The song has been admirably set to
music by q distinguished composer,
Henry T. Burleigh, who for over 80
years has been the baritone soloist at
st. Georges Church, New York City; it
has been published In cheap form by O..
Ricordi & Co., IA East Forty-third
street, New York City.
The melody is a very tuneful one
which would be quickly caught by chill
dren. It Is what kindergarten teachers
call an action song" because It Is to
be acted out by the children with ap-
propriate gestures. The words, which
are very picturesque and full Of appeal
to the dramatic instinct Of children,
are as follows:
LAS was walking down the street,
A Man in White CHANGED to meet;
A long-handled broom there hung at
his side,
While a huge pile Of dirt he ruefully
spied."
Then comes the chorus, which Is in
tended to be illustrated dramatically by
the children, with the characteristic
motions Of picking up and sweeping:
"Pick-uppity, pickl
And sweep-ity, swept
This u the way he cleans the streets. "
The second verse contains q sugar
coated moral which would certainly
sink into the minds of the very young
If the lesson Is emphasized by the
teacher. That verse forcibly reminds
the children that the surest way for
everybody to clean the streets IL to
learn never to dirty them:
And though WIRE young, We surely
know
That on the streets We MUST NOT
throw
The skins of fruit and paper scraps,
For great deal Of harm they may do
PERHAPSI
Pick-uppity, pickl
And sweep-tty, Sweepl
This Is the way WE clean the streets. I"
One could devoutly wish that some
millionaire, with q vision for q Ma
tton-wide cleanliness, would distribute
that song to the primary schools and
kindergartenS in every State in order
to help teach all the Riddles in Amer
lea to sing that song. And the surest
way to teach q truth Is to set 1t to q
To bring This matter nearer home T
venture to hope that some wealthy man
or woman of vision in Washington
would bear the comparatively slight
expense Of furnishing that song to all
the ktndergartens and primary grades
In Washington. II during the next 10
years all Of the younger children in our
schools could be taught to sing that
song, and to do it with gusto, the
streets Of Washington, which are now o
before very long remind one Of the
legendary "Spotless Town Of ST. Sas
POLIO" If our streets were once cleaned
1t would be so much easier to keep
them clean. To illustrate that point,
permit me to confess q sin Of my own,
or rather to describe q certain occasion
when I narrowly escaped yielding to
the temptation Of being untldy.
Many years ago I was walking
GknOub4 bAAC StkSCIo VI t1lG NdcIS
man city Of Regensburg, or Ratisbon,
and was struck by the extraordinary
cleanliness Of the streets. bought q
bag Of large, ripe peaches, and as I
was in foreign city, with no friends
nearby who would have criticized q
grown man for such an unconventional
act, proceeded to devour those lus-
ciouS peaches as walked along the
street on the way back to my hotel
When I had finished the first peach, I
was on the point Of doing what would
have done in any city in the United
States-namely, to throw the skin and
the stone into the street, Just as had
poised my arm In readiness for that
lnseemly act and was about to throw
the stone into the street, it came to
me with Q shock that ought not thus
to soil street that was as clean as o
well kept kitchen floor, and although
ate all the peaches before reached
my hot(, scrupulously put all the
skins and stones In the paper bag,
which carried IN my hand until I
could deposit it In one Of the cans for
rubbish, which were placed ct con-
venient points along the sidewalk. At
that moment In my own education in
good habits an entirely new sense Of
civic cleanliness was born in my own
mind, and have never unlearned that
habit RICHARD n HARLAN