Civic Tidiness and Municipal Public Spirit at Fort George

HE men who form the advance guard of settlement,
whether in mining or farming districts, or in young

towns and cities, are always men of enthusiasm and action.
The citizens of Fort George are no exception to this rule.
Municipal government is of course not yet organized, and
there is as yet none of the civic machinery which in older
towns attends to municipal housekeeping. But in place of
the elaborate, and sometimes inefficient and costly, organiza-
tion of older centres, the residents of young cities, like Fort
George, undertake to voluntarily do all that is necessary to
keep their city in order, and for this purpose they hold
periodic “housecleaning days,” when every able-bodied man
contributes his share of labor to make streets and lanes, gar-
dens and grounds, neat and presentable. The picture on the

opposite page represents such an occasion. It was taken on
May 23, the day preceding Empire Day, one of the
Dominion’s national holidays. On the following day Fort
George was to hold its first public celebration, and in anti-
cipation thereof the town was cleaned up thoroughly. It is
safe to say that no city in British Columbia presented a more
spic and span appearance than did Fort George after its citi-
zens had finished their work that evening. It was “Spotless
Town,” with not a tin can littering its lanes, nor an old and
dirty newspaper disfiguring its streets. “The public and civic
spirit that prompts such personal and voluntary service is
certainly not the least important of the assets and conditions
that will one day make Fort George the third city of
British Columbia.

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