"THE PICTURE-SQUE." From his earliest connection with the school Professor Allen felt that beautiful grounds and buildings were among the best of educators. He desired the students to be surrounded by what would give them types for spiritual achievements and exalted motives for all they did. This idea, though it cost him so much of sacrifice of self, was one great power in his life work. He had many ways of awakening the ideas he wished to impress upon the students. Rev. Frank Place says: "I shall never forget, when a boy, when just entering the academy, the first chapel lecture I listened to from Professor Allen. He called his subject The Picture-Sque.' It was easily seen that he had long been vainly trying to have an unsightly object (an old barn) removed from the campus. For a few moments he spoke on the real beauty of nature and art, and their influence over the human soul, then, pointing to the offensive object, by sarcasm and ridicule he set the students into roaring laughter. Becoming eloquent over the subject of Greek and Latin, over ancient ruins and architecture, he would suddenly bring in the idea of bleating sheep and calves in an old barn, till the students knew no bounds in expressing their applause." It is needless to say that the offensive buildings were soon afterward removed. As soon as the grounds came under his immediate care, books were bought on landscape gardening, and a systematic work of beautifying was begun. The ground was carefully surveyed, and walks and drives laid out so as to get rid of the ugly straight lines. These were also raised above the surrounding grounds by dirt and gravel, so that they would not be blocked by the snows and drifts of winter, nor washed away by the rains of summer. THE WORK OF BEAUTIFYING. Chapel lectures from time to time, and a general arousing of the citizens, made such an impression that at one time more than twenty teams were at work plowing, scraping, and bringing gravel for walks, where many more hands put the material in shape. The campus being so large, only a small portion of it could be thoroughly prepared and planted each year. In the grove where the new buildings were placed in 1846 the small trees and shrubs had been removed, leaving only the larger elms and a few other trees standing. These, lacking the protection of the undergrowth, soon died out, save a few that had grown up in the open space. In replanting, the effort was made to keep in harmony with nature; many flowering shrubs and trees were planted, but elms and evergreens being favorites, were made to fill the open spaces, because the soil and climate of the hillside are especially favorable to their growth; besides they were needed as wind-breaks to protect the walks and roads. Mrs. Ida F. Kenyon, so long the teacher of German and French, has been a valuable assistant in the development of this work. For many years the early mornings of spring and summer have found her toiling patiently among her flower beds, where she has cultivated a large variety of annuals and shrubs that have been a joy to us all. Mr. Allen once told the ladies when the Aid Society was to meet in the hall that he would pay them more than they could earn by their sewing if they would spend the afternoon at work on the grounds; he would give them ten cents an hour and their tea. After this liberal offer more than thirty playfully turned out with hoes, shovels, pickaxes, and rakes, and, with the help of students, a good deal of ground was put in order and several flower beds made, but, more than all else, an enthusiasm was created for the general beautifying of the campus that continued through the years. MUSIC OF THE TREES. During the summer of 1893 an old student was seen walking through the grounds. Later in the day, while making a call, he remarked: "It is now years since I was last on these grounds, so I have been leisurely strolling about, listening, as Professor Allen said I would, to the music of my tree, and to those that were planted at the same time with it. How well I remember the talk in chapel on the morning of Arbor day! The ground had been prepared, the trees received, and were in readiness beforehand. A general lecture was given on the 'Mission of Beauty,' after which the students were notified that all could help who wished to, in planting the trees. These ranged in price from twenty-five cents to a dollar, and were, many of them, paid for by those who planted them. President Allen said, 'You are planting for the future, and when in after years you return, these trees will sing to you, and the music of your own will be sweeter than any other.' May the students long continue to come back from time to time to enjoy the beauty they have helped create. No man better appreciated the value of money or the power of the useful arts to build up for man's progress all that inventors or philanthropists can do. How it feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, and makes it possible to develop the higher sense of beauty! On this subject we cannot do better than to quote from his own words this "power of the beautiful":— POWER OF THE BEAUTIFUL. "Ignoring this service of the useful to the higher ends of being, utility all too often compels the building of home and school and church in the cheapest manner possible, innocent of all finish or decoration. The angel of beauty plants flowers, shrubbery, trees, hard by the door of home or school, to shake down beauty upon all passers-by; all over the fields, to gladden the hearts of all beholders; all along the old walls and fences, to hide their deformity; all along by the pleasant water courses, to laugh when the brook sings; all around houses and barns, to cover their ugliness; singing in the sunshine, laughing in the storm, to console in the hour of sadness, to distill beauty on daily toil, to help educate childhood, awakening a love for purity and peace, for the beautiful, the noble, and the gocd. Utility, shouldering his ax, goes forth, hews down the lithe and graceful elm, all a-tremble with beauty, the generous maple, full of all sweet sentiments, its branches a domestic circle, nestling down cozily |