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Show THE TOWN DOCTOR i (The Doctor of Towns) A .11 A V CA N iUTKKtUTE ONTY THAT WHICH HE KNOWS Hcconls show that many of the old BiiyiiiKS are falling by tho wayside, tlio latest of which la the one about tho Impossibility of converting the hearing apparatus of a female omnivorous om-nivorous manual into a silk overnight bag. A man In New York has ruined that by actually making Bilk of a bow's car. But tho tired and proven statement that "A man can appreciate appreci-ate only that which he knows" will undoubtedly outlive tho span of years of tho most of us. Arlluir Brlsbano tells a story about a brown rat hi Lincoln Tark, Chicago. This rat lives happily in his hole under a tree, never doubting but that tho wholo park was made just for him, as some pooplo believe the I The voters who deter the building of better schools, the paving of roads and streets, the making of play grounds, the laying of sewers, the Installation of disposal plants and water filtration plants; the business people who insist on being "storekeepers" "store-keepers" and "pooh-pooh" the idea of clerk training, yet weep and wail that chain store and capital are ruining their business; the resident to whom a stranger says: "This looks like a pretty good town," and replies: "Yeah, it's all right, if you like it"; the merchant that the community com-munity has supported but who refuses to belong to a service club or a civic organization, and who belittles, runs down and decries every attempt on the part of anyone to help the community; com-munity; Mr. Average Citizen who sits back and says nothing, does nothing, with an "It's none of my affair" atti- wholo town in which they live was mado just for them. This rat is an agnostic you can't make him believe anything that ho cannot understand and provo, and as he cannot understand under-stand or prove very much, ho is happy and self satisfied. He is a good rat, however, minds his ov a business, and keeps regular hours. He runs up and down his little path, looks with' contempt at the queer animals which live up the tree, an 1 some day he will die in his hole, with his teeth grown long, convinced that ho has not missed a thing that life has to offer. Without Intention of drawing any tude; the. ever-present percentage that go out of their way to run the community down maliciously; the resident who takes no part in the clean-up campaign, an orphans' home benefit, hospital or other charitable tirive; the property owner, resident or otherwise, who refuses to eradicate visible community abominations; the man, grown old, who cares not a whit if the swimming pool of his forgotten for-gotten boyhood joys is polluted with the refuse of his factory; the gossip, the civic derelict, the knocker and, the fool these are the rodents who must be shown and tought the costliness of their ways before, and in order umluo comparisons, tho fact nevertheless never-theless remain that in every community com-munity there aro residents, who, like tho rat, deny what they can not understand; under-stand; citizens who are contemptuous of that which is near them, and that which could be appreciated. Intellect-1 Intellect-1 ually, these people are as rats rodents ro-dents to tho civic life of community. These people do uot know but unlike the caso of rats, it does mako a differenco and upon tho shoulders of somebody or some group of somebodies some-bodies is the responsibility of doi:ig that which is necessary to make them appreciative. that they may appreciate. Now is the time for every tlLinilng' citizen and civic organization, every business man and every city official to awaken to the very evident fact that "What was, isn't" that things have changed and that old fashioned ideas of community life will not stand the gaff of modern ways of doing do-ing things. Copyright, 1929, A. D. Stone. Reproduction Re-production prohibited in whole or in part. This Town Doctor Article is published pub-lished by this paper in cooperation with the local Lions Club. |