Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 216, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1915 — HOME TOWN HELPS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOME TOWN HELPS

CLEAN MINDS; CLEAN CITIES People Must Be Educated to the Necessity of Proper Appearance of Municipality. "I’m as good as you are,” said the dirty man to the well-dressed gentleman in the street car who had drawn away from him a bit. “You may be right,” answered the clean one, "but you certainly don't smell as good.” “Lord!” exclaimed a visitor to one of the most populous sections of Boston. “What smells there are here.” “Yes,” agreed the social worker of the party, “we’ve got to clean out a lot of minds before we’ll get rid of this dirt.” “You have to clean minds!” “Surely. Dirty minds make dirty people, and dirty people make a dirty town. The idea of cleanliness must be put in the minds of those whose present standards of cleanliness are elemental. “The woman who will tolerate cobwebs in the corner of her ceiling has cobwebs in the corners of her mind. Disorder in a home is evidence of the presence of minds that are disorderly. Our surroundings always reflect what! we are within. To make these streets clean we must create in the people who live here a desire for clean streets.” “Do you mean to say that the peo-> pie here are content with all this dirt around them?” the visitor asked with surprise. “The majority of them are. What the majority really and truly wants, the majority can have.” The speaker was silent for a few moments. When they reached the next corner, he said, “If there was on this street one man or woman who wanted more than anything else to have this street cleaned and made sweet-smelling, the work would be done.” “The old story of Sodom and Gomorrah, eh!” observed the cynic.—Ford Hall Folks.