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Show CHATTER. (Being tho personal opinions of the writer and for which no ono else is in any manner responsible). In a comparatively short tlmo the work of paving Fourth South street, between West Templo and State streets will have been commenced. It Is to bo hoped that tho rows of trees along both sides will be spared; that the curb will bo set out a loot or two In order to save them from tho sacrifice sac-rifice that the city engineer will no doubt make if not restrained by the city council. These trees or some of them at least, are over 30 years of age. Infants have grown into men and women and havo children of their own; old people have passed away by tho hundreds since those trees wore first planted, and another generation will havo attained maturity oro other trees planted in tnelr places can attain tho growth and beauty these have. Unhappily for tho trees they are located lo-cated directly In tho lino of tho curb. Now Salt Lako streets are wide enough; will bo wide enough if two or three feet on cither side is suaved off and these trees, tho ornaments of the city, are left to grow and lend their cooling shade to tho people who will walk along under them. City engineers aro not sentimental. There isn't a bit of sentiment in a straight line anyway, and that is what engineers deal with. There never was an engineer who know anything about beauty, except that embodied or found in straight lines. No engineer ever chiseled a Venus from cold marble or fashioned an Apollo from tho stone of Florence. An engineer has no eye for undulation or sweeping curves, or swaying branches; all ho thinks of is grades and angles. Doremus and Kel-sey Kel-sey mowed down trees to make room for cold curbing galore. Grand old poplars that had tossed their green heads in tho gentle winds of forty summers camo down with a crash and today tho sweltering pedestrian who walks along tho places whore onco they stood curses their folly, for folly it was. And it will bo tho same with tho present city engineer If ho is left alone. Ho will set up his transit, squint through his glass, make a few figures in his note book and in a few days a lot of laborers will come along with axes and the work of tho fathers of this city will fall, as does tho grass before the cutter bar of tho modern mowing machine. It Is safe to assert that could this city bo paved within tlio next year its beauty would bo destroyed, de-stroyed, because more than half of the trees that now beautify tho wide avenues av-enues that havo mado us so famous as a city, would fall. A narrowing of tho streets four feet would save these trees. Two feet on a side and what is that? Then tho streets, with the exception of thoso in tlio northeast portion, would bo 128 feet wide and who wants a wider thoroughfare? Tho writer hopes this crlmo against tho beauty of tho town will be provonted; that tho city council will declare as one man that tho trees must and shall bo preserved, even if it has to curb tho impetuosity of tho gentlemen who drng tho chains and do other things preparatory to curbing curb-ing and paving. While on this subject, let mo say that tho property owners In many parts of the town aro growing careless care-less on tho subject of trees. When ono dies, it Is not replaced, as was tho case formerly. As a result, there aro many places vacant, whoro thriving trees should bo growing. Another fault Is observed and that Is In time of drouth, such as wo had some years ago, plenty of people could be found watering or sprinkling a lawn that could bo grown in thirty days and permitting per-mitting a trco that consumes years in attaining maturity, to die for lack , r I water. This is all wrong rtl I should bo nurtured and cared far I Grass is cheap and if the choice Z I o be mado between the tree ami h I awn, lot the lawn go by aVmea I Ono moro observation. In the Bw" I Ion of trees, choose those that I beautiful. A Lombardy 0 , nice tree for nn avenue where tho I trees are planted in rows and grow to a uniform height, but as you a down State street, just north of ,hn county building, on the east si L look at tho three Lindens Inside 10 fence, twenty years of age, and , they are not about as handsome and shapely as any grown in this section The Linden and tho box older arc T tre "s hat add beauty to a homo and aro reos that should be planted and nur tured The writer would like to seo more Interest taken in heautlfyinK thl, city. It costs but little money to cic '?-away '?-away the brush that grows around tho box older n tho spring, or to clean p tho burr docks that will grow on va cant and unused property. If these va' cant lots wero cleaned up, the citv would look a great deal better and thn argument that applies to vacant lots will also apply to many that are not vacant. Nature cannot do everything she must be assisted. Where one comes to the assistance of nature tho I most beautiful results are ac'com-plished. ac'com-plished. To return to tho planting of trees i At present tho effect Is rather mixed' i Had uniformity been observed this would havo been a moro delightful town than it is. Suppose Second South from Main east had been planted plant-ed all tho way with Lombardys; Third South with box elders; Fourth South with lindens, and then commencing at Fifth South, begin with Lombardys again, and so on to the limits. Sup-pose Sup-pose that this rule had been adopted all over the city. Who will deny that tho effect would have been very pleas-Ing, pleas-Ing, and that every ono who came hero would havo been charmed with the sight? Why, of course they would. It would have been tho prettiest city on tho globo. Now in relation to tho pavinglmd caring for streets. Why not sot the curbing outside these rows of trees, construct eight or ten-foot sidewalks and plant the rest in grass, requiring tho property-owner to keep tho same In good condition. It would require the expenditure of but a few cents or an hour or so of work each week, and tlio result would be simply grand and very pleasing. Municipal beauty Is being be-ing agitated in other cities, why not in this ono? Sordid commercialism has occupied our attention so long; we havo been so busy that wo havo forgotten tho things that delight tho eyo and make happy tho soul; Is it not time that we took a look backward at tho things that used to delight us and determine that wo will preserve what wo havo of them now and add to thorn as wo live? Save tho trees, Do not let them bo cut down, and destroyed. de-stroyed. It would bo a sin, a crime. |