Fort Madison High School - Madisonian Yearbook (Fort Madison, IA)

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E HICH SLHOOL TIM began to take an interest all over the little town hundreds joined the competition Now Northampton has wonderful gardens that brighten the whole city and put something of beauty into the lives of the poor The vacant lots are often the despair of the c1v1c worker They are generally used as dumping places or are over grown with weeds One solution of this proplem has been worked out in Philadelphia under the leadership of Samuel S Fels who is president of the Vacant Lots Cultivation Association The owners of the lots loan them for as long a time as they do not wish to build upon them The Association furnishes the seeds plants and rough plowing Each gardener is charged a fee of one dollar the first year two dollars the second and so on to pay for the supphes furnished him Last year between Hve and six hundred of these miniature farms were cultivated within the limits of the city md as many families were supplled with food which they themselves had earned It is said that in one year over thirty thousand dollars worth of vegetables were raised on these lots by unskilled labor work mg at odd hours But the vegetables are not the only gain A feelmg of neighborliness is developed between the gardeners and healthful ex ercise IS provided for grown ups and children In some cases the ex perience gained in these gardens has opened the way to work on a larger scale Bill boards are another nuisance which stand in the way of civic be muty All through the cities wherever there is sp ice these ugly signs may be seen often next to some beautiful building or plrk hven in track sometimes extending continuously for a quarter of a mile or more These cannot help but give to most people a bad impression of the re gion which allows itself to be so disfigured In many places movements have been started to do away with these nuisances Groups of women have pledged themselves not to buy anything ldvertised on bull bo lrds This somewhat limits the buying but is said to be very effective The Woman s Club in Evanston Illinois has co opelated with the city ofhcxals and has done several things of some importance Back tllies have been cleaned up milk and air tests in v1rious places made and the inspectlon of bakery and grocery basements has been setuied In Cuthbert Georgia the women in one year have planted two hundred trees in a public park medical inspection uid sanitary drinking faucets have been secured for the public schools and mtexest unused in 1 sewerage system which is now being built 'I he magannes of to day are doing 1 gre at dc tl to liclp the move 22 T I-I 1 S S E S Q . . . , . ' 1 7 V . ' . I 1 7 ' Y I . . . . , , - z . Y 5 V . . . 2 l - . the rural districts, they are in evidence, especially along the railroad , . ' z ' ' z ,. , . V I . . v i U I . s 1 v - ' . Q . i . K . 2 r . . . ' ' .' , - 2 ' z ' 1 'z ' -

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THE H H OOI IM wrtlr crvrc rmproverrrent but Rro de Jmerro has been called the first Arrrerrcan crty beautrful She has the adv urttge of 1 wonderful srtu 1 tron and clrrnate but her attractrveness does not he rn these alone The streets are lrned wrth trees even rn the busrness part of the crty and the very lamp posts are works of art The srdewalks and streets are kept perfectly clean not onlv are they swept but even scrubbed It rs hard to belreve that only ten years ago thrs crtv was a sleepy fever strrcken town wrth rll paved streets The lessons rn sanrtatron taught at Panama have been so thoroughly learned and applred that the puprl has outstrrpped the teacher and Rro de Janerro can bear close rnspec trorr wrthout losrng any oi her charm so thoroughly rs she burlt Now the crtres of the Unrted States are wakrng up to the fact that they rre behrnd the trnres All over the country socretres for the rm provenrent of crtres are berng formed md the crvrc prrde of the people tw lkened A notable example of thrs movement rs Kansas Cuty About 1890 tlrrs crty had approxrmately one hundred twenty frve thousand people and was wrthout a foot of ground used for a park Then George Kess ler the landscape gardener drew plans for rmprovrng the crty As soon rt rorned forces llrrs opposrtron party was composed marnly of those who had rnlrerrted tracts of land whrch had become valuable through the crty s growth or those who had bought land when rt was cheap On the other srde were the small property owners or those ownrng none 'I he last two classes were rrr tue nrajorrty but therr success came only after 1 long struggle Frnally the crty was grven power to burld parks ind drrveways On the west srde opposrte the Urrron Depot was a dreat yellow clay bank Now thrs lr ts been transformed by terr lces mto a beautrful puk llre wrld north bluff wrtlr rts great forest trees wls changed onlv by the constr uctron of drrvcways Throughout the crty more con verrtron 11 parks 'md playgrounds were made and rn the rnajorrty of Q tses burldrngs were removed and streets and alleys oblrterated to make room lor tlrerrr lwenty years tfter the campargn was begun Kansas Lrty had over two thousand acres of parks and twenty srx mrles of boulevards lhe cost was srx rnd one half mrllron dollars but the peo ple feel that rt has been 1 profitable rnvestment About erghteerr years tgo George W Cable the novelrst started a. rrroverrrerrt for better gardens rn Northampton Massachusetts and prrzes were offered for the best results People of all classes and ages I G S C H , 'l' E S 21 as there began to be talk of carrying these out, the people who opposed g. ' l gs' . V 1 L lb 1

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Q l M ment for better Clt13S In one msttnce a large monthly ln 1906 pub hshed photographs of some of the neglected spots xn Memphls Tennes see In 1910 the magavnne gave pxctures of the same places after the cltuens had gone to work to rnd thexr cltv of these evesoles In our own Clty there ns plenty of xoom fox nmprovement We have the vacant lots used as dumpmg grounds b1ll boards are ln evn dence 111 many places and some of our streets are anythlng but beautx ful especxally where all the trees have been cut down Most of the al leys Lre stdly xn need of 1 thorough cle :mug to make them respectable Fort Madlson has great possxlulltles for beauty On the south there lg the gre xtM1ss1ss1pp1 Rlver Wldl ned at thxs pomt mto Lake Cooper and on the north and east the beautnful bluffs rlse Wntll these natural ad vantages there ought to be a general movement for cnvlc progress One thmg whlch has been done recently along thls hne IS the extens1on and mlprovement of Rlver Vlew Pzrk lh1s park takes the place of the coal sheds and ramshackle boat houses whxch usually occupy the rxver front and thxs mnovatlon glves the traveler 1 favorable hrst IITIPTCSSIOII of our clty And now whlle we ire tlylllg to make FortMad1son Flrst ID other respects let us profit bv these examples of other C1tl8S and m tke It first nn be iuty llso 192 VFR V' sz 9, 'l'l-Ili HIGH SCHUOL 'l' ES 23 its-1 rig? 'L' My h U xr, Y A 'ff lt YH l .' X.