HoUinger Corp. pH8.5 SUGGESTIONS FOEb BEAUTIFYING HOMEVHIAGEANDKOADWAf By WARRILN H. MANNING. Secretary of the American ParR and Outdoor Art Association. WITH THE, COMPLIMENTS OF THE YOUTH'S COMPANION. The Perception of the Beautiful. The following is an extract from a paper written in 1839 for a State Public School Convention in Connecticut by Mrs. Lydia H. Sigoarney, the well-known poetess. The title of her paper was, " The Perception of the 'Beautiful." I hope the time is coming when every isolated village school- house shall be a temple on whose exterior the occupant may study the principles of S3^mmetry and of grace. Why need the structures where the young are initiated into those virtues which make life beautiful be divorced from taste or devoid of comfort ? Why should they not be erected in fine, airy situations, overshadowed with trees and embellished with shrubbery? Why should not the velvet turf attached to them be bordered with hedges, divided by gravel walks, tufted with flowers? Why should not the thick mantling vine decorate the porch, or the woodbine and convolvulus look in at the window, touching the heart of the young learner with a thought of Him whose breath perfumes them and whose pencil paints? Why should not the interior of our schoolhouses aim at somewhat of the taste and elegance of a parlor? Might not the vase of flowers enrich the mantelpiece, and the walls displa}', not only well-executed maps, but historical engravings or pictures, and the book-shelves be crowned with the bust of moralist or sage, orator, or the Father of his Country? Is it alleged that the expense thus incurred would be thrown away, the beautiful objects defaced and the fair scenery desecrated ? This is not a necessary result. I have been informed by teachers who had made the greatest advances toward the appropriate and elegant accommodation of their pupils that it was not so. They have said that it was easier to enforce habits of neatness and order among objects whose taste and value made them worthy of care than amid that parsimony of apparatus whose very pitiful mean- ness operates as a temptation to waste and to destroy. Let the communities, now so anxious to raise the standard of education, venture the experiment of a more liberal adornment of the dwellings devoted to it. Let them put more faith in that respect for the beautiful which really exists in the young heart, and requires onl)' to be called forth and nurtured to become an ally of virtue and a handmaid to religion. Knowledge has a more imposing effect upon the young mind when it stands, like the apostle with the gifts of healing, at the beautiful gate of the temple. Memory looks back to it more joyously from the distant or desolated tracks of life for the bright scenery of its early path. After a lapse of sixty-three years, " The Perception of the Beautiful," as set forth by Mrs. Sigourney, is being realized through a national movement for the beautifying of public schoolhouses and grounds. J •-: y n W A >>< n h r.W Putnam 30S'0A SUGGESTIONS. Beautiful surroundings increase values and refine. Ugliness and filth cheapen and degrade. Abate disagreeable sights, smells and sounds as public nuisances. Rubbish exposed to the public gaze is a public nuisance. Dirty streets and open lots show untidy towns ; dirty back yards, untidy householders, and dirty dark corners, untidy housewives. Provide a suitable enclosure for rubbish, and keep it in its place. An abuse of public advertising is a public nuisance. The use of an offensive stench or blare of noise to force a merchant's goods on public notice would be a public nuisance. So, too, is the use of glaring posters on walls, on fences, and in an attractive landscape. Do not allow your property to be thus disfigured, even by a little sign. Shabby, useless, ugly buildings and fences are public nuisances. If they cannot be removed or improved, then cover with paint, colored whitewash, vines, or screen with rapid-growing shrubs or trees. Uninviting, uninteresting and untidy school grounds give evil impres- sions to children that later will be reflected in their home and business surroundings. The character of a community is indicated by its treatment of public grounds. Make home grounds as inviting and convenient to live in as home rooms. First make survey and simple plan of grounds with such clearly defined compartments as lawn and garden, kitchen, laundry and stable yards with only walks that are required, and upon which plantations are indicated. Use hardy shrubs, vines, trees and flowering plants against bare walls to hide bad views, to frame in turf areas, and at the base of buildings to merge hard angles into flowing lines of landscape. Use tender plants and annuals in flower-garden, flower-boxes, or beds at edge, not in center, of lawn. Use few large trees in small places. Consider ultimate, not present, size of all plants in planning. Use a few reliable varieties in large quantities at first, adding variety later. The common native plants about you are reliable and often quite as beautiful as the best exotics. Exotics in common cultivation for years are reliable. You can buy exotics and garden varieties and some natives from local dealers. You can collect most natives successfully if large masses of earth are retained on roots at transplanting. The common plants on pages ii and 12 are suggested as types for various conditions in different parts of the country. [1] 1. If there are streets in your town as bare and unattractive as this 2. They need only towering trunks and graceful stems of trees in winter, 3. And masses of tree foliage in summer to make them attract- ive by unifying discordant architectural features. Think of the pleasure and comfort that every citizen will gain from the shade and the beauty of the individual trees ! ■■, -*.a!?r, !=.-i^ '-:■' ^.•- -3111/* E2] 4. Every householder and every tenant can add to his own pleasure and to the beauty of his town by making his home surroundings attractive. This is a neat and orderly home, but neatness and good order do not alone make beauty. 5. The rigid building lines and the hard angle between house and ground should be softened by masses of foliage about the base of the building, 6. Or the building clotlied witii a drapery oi hard)- vines. [3] 7. An abundance of flowering 8. And flowers always in vines on piazza posts window or piazza boxes. 9. A cheap and unattractive iron bridge is poor econom}^ 10. When it is possible to secure stone for inc i nstruction of a bridge like this that has lasted a hundred years. [4] 11 and 12. With flowers and vines the humblest cabin may be made a place of beauty by masses of foliage about the base of the building-. 13. Even the back yard of the crowded city home may be made a bower of beauty from the use of shrubs, flowers and vines. yj^!CTiiBflfl..jJH [5] 14. How can you expect men and women to appreciate and work for more beautiful towns and homes, when so many of childhood's days are passed amid such plain and bare surround- ings ? 15 and 16. A drapery of vines upon the school buildings adds beauty to the severest bare walls as well as to the most graceful work of the architect. [61 17. First impressions of a town are lasting ones, and such impressions are fixed by unattractive conditions about the railroad-station. An attractive station, with flowers and vines, will give pleasure to every resident, every visitor and every traveller who passes by. 18. Even the surroundings of mills and factories may be made attractive by planting trees and shrubs in waste places, or encouraging the growth of native trees that will spring up spontaneousl3^ 19. How much of the beauty of this scene is dependent upon the spontaneous growth of trees about a plain and ill-propor- tioned building ! [7] 20. Do not forget the common roadside growth, and the beauty that lies therein. If it is disfigured by such unauthor- ized signs as are represented here, make it your mission to destroy them, for an offense to the sight in such a place is as much of a public nuisance as an offense to the ear or nose. Never sweep away a bit of wild growth in your home, school or public grounds without studying it for at least a year, in order that you may learn to appreciate its beauty at all seasons. An appreciation of the beauty of common things leads to the highest in art. [8] 21. Kven such unattractive city back-yard conditions can be transformed by the flower-gardens of No. 13, where condi- tions were no better, or window-boxes like No. 8. 22. And by the use of vines on poles or latticework. Considerably more than half of the pupils in our public schools receive their instruction in rural schools. A large proportion of those who attend these schools never enter a high school or college. In fact, many fail to complete even the common school course. If the stability of a free government depends upon the education of the people, it is of the greatest importance that our rural schools — the schools wherein most of our future voters and legislators are being trained — should attain the highest possible state of efficiency. — School Education. [9] 23. Such city conditions, however, emphasize the need of public parks and playgrounds, where dwellers in cities may go frequently to find relief from the inevitable noise and repulsive- ness of city life and conditions as they go daily to the home to seek relief from the cares of business. The public school is the place to which we should turn chief attention in our effort to promote a more beautiful public life in America. [10] Trees, Shrubs and Vines. In very cold or arid sections care must be used in selecting from this list, and in all sections it is well to determine if any plant selected is already growing successfully in gardens or fields. I/arge Deciduous Trees. Red Oak, all sections. American Elm, all sections. Cottonwood, all sections. Water Oak, Southern States. I/arge lEvergreen Trees. Magnolia Grandiflora, Pacific and Southern States. Live Oak, Pacific and Southern States. Camphor Tree, Pacific and Southern States. Rubber Tree, Pacific States. White Pine, Central, Northern and Western States, Monterey Cypress, Pacific and vSouthern States. Monterey Pine, Pacific and Southern States. Small Deciduous Trees. Small Evergreen Trees. Mulberry, all sections. Mock Orange, Southern States. Red Bud, all sections. Red Cedar, all sections. Flowering Dogwood, all sections. I^arge Deciduous Shrubs. Crape Myrtle, Southern and Pacific States. Figs, Southern and Pacific States. Mock Orange Syringa, all sections. Armoor Privet, all sections. California Privet, all sections. Lilacs, all sections. Native Viburnum, Cornels and Elders of all sections. Bridal Wreath Spir^a, all sections. I/arge Evergreen Shrubs. Tree Box, all sections. Rhododendron, all sections except limestone soils. Strawberry Guava, Pacific States. Chinese Hibiscus, Southern and Pacific States. LauresTinus, Southern and Pacific States. Small and Medium Evergreen Shrubs. Mahonia, all sections. Daphne Indica, Southern and Pacific States. Gardenia, Southern and Pacific States. Cherokee Rose, Southern and Pacific States. [11] L of C. Small and Medium Deciduous Shrubs. Japan Quince, all sections. GoivDEN BELI., all sections. Dwarf Deutzia, all sections. Hardy Hydrangea, all sections. Service Berry, all sections. Spir^as, all sections. Thumberg's Barberry, all sections. High-Growing Deciduous Climbers. Grape, all sections. Bitter Sweet (Celastrus), all sections. Virginia Creeper, all sections. Japanese Ivy, all sections. Clematis Paniculata, all sections. Banksian Rose, all sections. Crimson Rambler Rose, all sections. High-Growing ISvergreen Climbers. Ivy, Southern, Eastern and Pacific States. BouGAiNViLL^A, Southern and Pacific States. Begonias, Pacific States. Plumbago Capensis, Southern and Pacific States. l/ow- Growing Climbers. Large Flowered Clematis. Japanese Evergreen Honeysuckle. Evergreen Ground-Covering Plants. Periwinkle (Vinca Minor), Northern States. Periwinkle (Vinca Major), Northern and Pacific States. Wild Strawberry, Pacific States — in shade. MESEMBRYANTHEMum, Pacific States — in sun. Deciduous Ground- Covering Plants. Lily-OF-The-VallEy, all sections — in shade. Moneywort, all sections — in shade. Sedum, all sections — in sun. Herbs. Ascension Lily (Lilium Candidum), all sections. Tiger Lily, all sections. Day Lily, all sections. Peony, all sections. Larkspur, all sections. Phlox, all sections. Chrysanthemum, all sections. Japan Anemone, all sections. [12] Unimproved. Beautify the School virounds. The following is an extract from an article which appeared in The Youth's Companion Aprils, 1900: Is it, then, unreasonable to urge that the rural school grounds be made more attractive by the planting of trees and shrubs ? With little expense the bare ground about the building can be converted into a place of beauty. The pupils themselves, with the aid of teachers and friends, can do it. Is it not a vpork well worth under- taking? The Youth's Companion believes that it is. Moreover, it believes that the growth of the imagination and the artistic nature will result ; that the finer sense will be developed and the character of those who do the w'ork will be strengthened ; that a love of the beautiful will be imparted, which will last through life, and manifest itself in the homes which these pupils shall build in future years. The work of adorning the grounds of rural schoolhouses is one which will exercise an important and lasting influence for the good of the national life. It is the purpose of The Youth's Companion to aid in creating a national sentiment which shall eventually result in the beautifying of the grounds of the rural schools of the United States. Improved. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ^ W^ 'WU tSb^f ^^ CONGRESS .HHfi7A