"Isn"t the easiest way to call their attention to it to have a piece in the paper?" asked Ethel Brown.
"You"ve hit the right idea," approved James. "If your editor is like the Glen Point editor he"ll be glad of a new crusade to undertake."
"Particularly if it"s backed by your grandfather," added Della shrewdly.
The result of this conference of the Club was that they laid the whole matter before Mr. Emerson and found that it was no trouble at all to enlist his interest.
"If you"re interested right off why won"t other people be?" asked Ethel Brown when it was clear that her grandfather would lend his weight to anything they undertook.
"I believe they will be, and I think you have the right idea about making a beginning. Go to Mr. Montgomery, the editor of the Rosemont _Star_, and say that I sent you to lay before him the needs of this community in the way of added beauty. Tell him to "play it up" so that the Board of Trade will get the notion through their heads that people will be attracted to live here if they see lovely grounds about them.
He"ll think of other appeals. Go to see him."
The U.S.C. never let gra.s.s grow under its feet. The Ethels and Dorothy, Roger and Helen went to the office of the _Star_ that very afternoon.
"You seem to be a delegation," said the editor, receiving them with a smile.
"We represent our families, who are citizens of Rosemont," answered Roger, "and who want your help, and we also represent the United Service Club which is ready to help you help them."
"I know you!" responded Mr. Montgomery genially. "Your club is well named. You"ve already done several useful things for Rosemont people and inst.i.tutions. What is it now?"
Roger told him to the last detail, even quoting Tom"s remark about the "three little girls," and adding some suggestions about town prizes for front door yards which the Ethels had poured into his ears as they came up the stairs. While he was talking the editor made some notes on a pad lying on his desk. The Ethels were afraid that that meant that he was not paying much attention, and they glanced at each other with growing disappointment. When Roger stopped, however, Mr. Montgomery nodded gravely.
"I shall be very glad indeed to lend the weight of the _Star_ toward the carrying out of your proposition," he remarked, seeming not to notice the bounce of delight that the younger girls could not resist. "What would you think of a series of editorials, each striking a different note?" and he read from his pad;--Survey of Rosemont; Effect of Appearance of Railroad Station, Town Hall, etc., on Strangers; Value of Beauty as a Reinforcement to Good Roads and Good Schools. "That is, as an extra attraction for drawing new residents," he explained. "We have good roads and good schools, but I can conceive of people who might say that they would have to be a lot better than they are before they"d live in a town where the citizens had no more idea of the fitness of things than to have a dump heap almost in the heart of the town and to let the Town Hall look like a jail."
The listening party nodded their agreement with the force of this argument.
""What Three Little Girls Have Done,"" read Mr. Montgomery. "I"ll invite any one who is interested to take a look at the graded schoolhouse and see how much better it looks as a result of what has been accomplished there. I know, because I live right opposite it, and I"m much obliged to you young ladies."
He bowed so affably in the direction of the Ethels and Dorothy, and "young ladies" sounded so pleasantly in their ears that they were disposed to forgive him for the "little girls" of his t.i.tle.
"I have several other topics here," he went on, "some appealing to our citizens" love of beauty and some to their notions of commercial values.
If we keep this thing up every day for a week and meanwhile work up sentiment, I shouldn"t wonder if we had some one calling a public meeting at the end of the week. If no one else does I"ll do it myself,"
he added amusedly.
"What can we do?" asked Ethel Brown, who always went straight to the practical side.
"Stir up sentiment. You stirred your grandfather; stir all your neighbors; talk to all your schoolmates and get them to talk at home about the things you tell them. I"ll send a reporter to write up a little "story" about the U.S.C. with a twist on the end that the grown-ups ought not to leave a matter like this for youngsters to handle, no matter how well they would do it."
"But we"d like to handle it," stammered Ethel Blue.
"You"ll have a chance; you needn"t be afraid of that. The willing horse may always pull to the full extent of his strength. But the citizens of Rosemont ought not to let a public matter like this be financed by a few kids," and Mr. Montgomery tossed his notebook on his desk with a force that hinted that he had had previous encounters with an obstinate element in his chosen abiding place.
The scheme that he had outlined was followed out to the letter, with additions made as they occurred to the ingenious minds of the editor or of his clever young reporters who took an immense delight in running under the guise of news items, bits of reminder, gentle gibes at slowness, bland comments on ignorance of the commercial value of beauty, mild jokes at letting children do men"s work. It was all so good-natured that no one took offence, and at the same time no one who read the _Star_ had the opportunity to forget that seed had been sown.
It germinated even more promptly than Mr. Montgomery had prophesied. He knew that Mr. Emerson stood ready to call a ma.s.s meeting at any moment that he should tell him that the time was ripe, but both he and Mr.
Emerson thought that the call might be more effective if it came from a person who really had been converted by the articles in the paper. This person came to the front but five days after the appearance of the first editorial in the surprising person of the alderman who had been foremost in opposing the laying out of the park.
"You may think me a weatherc.o.c.k," he said rather sheepishly to Mr.
Montgomery, "but when I make up my mind that a thing is desirable I put my whole strength into putting it through. When I finally gave my vote for the park I was really converted to the park project and I tell you I"ve been just frothing because the other aldermen have been so slow about putting it in order. I haven"t been able to get them to appropriate half enough for it."
Mr. Montgomery smothered a smile, and listened, unruffled, to his caller"s proposal.
"My idea now," he went on, "is to call a ma.s.s meeting in the Town Hall some day next week, the sooner the better. I"ll be the chairman or Mr.
Emerson or you, I don"t care who it is. We"ll put before the people all the points you"ve taken up in your articles. We"ll get people who understand the different topics to talk about them--some fellow on the commercial side and some one else on the beauty side and so on; and we"ll have the Glen Point nurseryman--"
"We ought to have one over here," interposed Mr. Montgomery."
"We will if this goes through. There"s a new occupation opened here at once by this scheme! We"ll have him give us a rough estimate of how much it would cost to make the most prominent spots in Rosemont look decent instead of like a deserted ranch," exclaimed the alderman, becoming increasingly enthusiastic.
"I don"t know that I"d call Rosemont that," objected the editor. "People don"t like to have their towns abused too much; but if you can work up sentiment to have those public places fixed up and then you can get to work on some sort of plan for prizes for the prettiest front yards and the best grown vines over doors and-so on, and raise some compet.i.tive feeling I believe we"ll have no more trouble than we did about the school gardens. It just takes some one to start the ball rolling, and you"re the person to do it," and tactful Mr. Montgomery laid an approving hand on the shoulder of the pleased alderman.
If it had all been cut and dried it could not have worked out better.
The meeting was packed with citizens who proved to be so full of enthusiasm that they did not stand in need of conversion. They moved, seconded and pa.s.sed resolution after resolution urging the aldermen to vote funds for improvements and they mentioned spots in need of improvement and means of improving them that U.S.C. never would have had the courage to suggest.
"We certainly are indebted to you young people for a big move toward benefiting Rosemont," said Mr. Montgomery to the Club as he pa.s.sed the settee where they were all seated together. "It"s going to be one of the beauty spots of New Jersey before this summer is over!"
"And the Ethels are the authors of the ideal" murmured Tom Watkins, applauding silently, as the girls blushed.
CHAPTER XI
THE FLOWER FESTIVAL
The Idea of having a town flower-costume party was the Ethels", too. It came to them when contributions were beginning to flag, just as they discovered that the grounds around the fire engine house were a disgrace to a self-respecting community, as their emphatic friend, the alderman, described them.
"People are always willing to pay for fun," Ethel Brown said, "and this ought to appeal to them because the money that is made by the party will go back to them by being spent for the town."
Mrs. Morton and Mrs. Emerson and Mrs. Smith thought the plan was possible, and they offered to enlist the interest of the various clubs and societies to which they belonged. The schools were closed now so that there was no opportunity of advertising the entertainment through the school children, but all the clergymen co-operated heartily in every way in their power and Mr. Montgomery gave the plan plenty of free advertising, not only in the advertising columns but through the means of reading notices which his reporters prepared with as much interest and skill as they had shown in working up public opinion on the general improvement scheme.
"It must be in the school house hall so everybody will go," declared Helen.
"Why not use the hall and the grounds, too?" inquired Ethel Blue. "If it"s a fine evening there are various things that would be prettier to have out of doors than indoors."
"The refreshments, for instance," explained Ethel Brown. "Every one would rather eat his ice cream and cake at a table on the lawn in front of the schoolhouse than inside where it may be stuffy if it happens to be a warm night."
"Lanterns on the trees and candles on each table would make light enough," decided Ethel Blue.
"There could be a Punch and Judy show in a tent at the side of the schoolhouse," suggested Dorothy.
"What is there flowery about a Punch and Judy show?" asked Roger scornfully.
"Nothing at all," returned Dorothy meekly, "but for some reason or other people always like a Punch and Judy show."
"Where are we going to get a tent?"
"A tent would be awfully warm," Ethel Brown decided. "Why couldn"t we have it in the corner where there is a fence on two sides? We could lace boughs back and forth between the palings and make the fence higher, and on the other two sides borrow or buy some wide chicken wire from the hardware store and make that eye-proof with branches."