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Show 0 Building English Town Built With Eye to Beauty With the Increase of population and the advance of civilization the uglifi-cation uglifi-cation of the countryside proceeds apace. Squat and dismal little towns spring into unlovely being, especially in the vicinity of great cities just where some touch of nature's beauty Is most needful. And where the jerry-builders jerry-builders are not active the billboard men work their cruel defacements. The United States has been held up to scorn as the nation which gives the greatest scope to the uglifier. Justly, too. For the United States, being young as' a nation, lias offered the greatest field for devastation. But the old countries have not escaped. England stands very near the top of the list of beautiful countries. And t tie English people are trying hard not to permit the destruction of the na-! lion's gift of beauty. There is a council for the preservation preserva-tion of rural England, and it Is doing do-ing effective work. Where great, and beautiful estates are being broken up for town building or for other resi- dential purposes the moral suasion of the council Is preventing haphazard and destructive activities. Under its I direction handsome suburbs and out-1 out-1 lying towns and villages are being created. And all the efforts of the nature-destroyers are being intelligently intelligent-ly opposed. As a result it will be a long time before England becomes ugly. And if England can provide practically for growth of population and industry without surrender of all esthetic ideals the United States, too, can save Its rural regions from becoming miserable mis-erable encrustations and defacements on the face of nature. The effort is worth while if we care for the future of our nation. Chicago Journal. |