Making our town beautiful (Good citizenship section)

Media

Part of The Young Citizen: The Magazine for Young People

Title: Making our town beautiful (Good citizenship section)
Year: 1939
Rights
Fulltext: 112 THE YOUNG CITIZEN Ma.rch, 1939 GOOD CITIZENSHIP SECTION Making Our Town Beautiful (A Play let in Three Scenes) By PABLO M. CUASAY * (The idea presented by Mr. Cuasay in this playlet m"ay be adapted by any school, good citizenship club, or parent-teachers association. The "winning composition" is merely suggestive.-The Editor.) 'rHE PLAYERS: MARIO JOVITO, a bright upper grade boy. JAIME, ALFONSO, GERARDO, QUIRICO, MANUEL, ESTEBAN, AD~LAIDA, JOSE.FINA, all upper grade Pupils. THE ANNOUNCER. MR. CRUZ, principal of the school. PUPILS IN THE ASSEMBLY-ROOM, any number. THE PLAY: Scene I. A table in a school library at which are seated Jairne, Alfonso, Gerardo, Quirico, and Manuel. It is recess time. The l>oys ~re talking. Mario: (Entering the library) I have good news for you, boys. Or have you already read the principal's announcement? It is en the builetin board. All the Boys: (Speaking at the sanw time -one boy saying one thing, another boy saying something else) An announcement! What does it say"! What is it about? Are we going to have a holiday? Tell us about "' Principal, Cabugao Elementary School, Cabugao, Ilocos Sur. it. Mario: You can see it for yourselves. Jail!le: Not now. Wa want to look up something in the library. We ean't go there until later, ~so tell us about it now. Mario: Okay. Well, the principal is offering· a prize to the boy or girl of our school who writes the best composition on a certain bUbjei:-.t. Alfonso: A composition! About what? What is the subject of the composition? Mario: The subject is "Making Our Town Beautiful.'' Gerardo: That's a practical subject. It's interesting, too. QuiriC'o: When must the compositions be turned in? Mario: According to the announcement, the contest opens today and closes in two · weeks. Manuel: Fine! We have plenty of time for preparing our compositions. Jaime: Does the announcement say anyone can enter the contest? Mat io: The contest is open to those pupils who are members of the • 11 Good Citizens Club." There are many boys and girls in our school who want to be good citizens, and are interested in civic enterprises, so nearly all the upper grade pupils belong to the "Good Citizens Club." March, 1999 THE YOUNG CITIZEN 113 Alfonso: Yes, that is true. Therefore many are eligible to enter the contest. What . is the prize offered for the best composition? Mar;o: The principal is offering a splendid book as a prize. He thinks that is better than a cash prize. Gerardo: What is the book? Mario: If I am not mistaken it is called Rizal: Man and Martyr and was written by Laubach. Quirico: I often hear father and mother speak about Laubach's book on Rizal. It must be a very good book. Mario: Yes, and it would be very instructive and useful to any of us. M'1nuel: The Mr. Cruz: Good morning, boys and girls. Sit down . Esteban: Our teachers told us that you wish to see us. Mr. Cruz: Yes. (The pupils find seats.) I sent for you because I should like to tell you about the results of our contest. (The -;;upils look interested.) Out of some eighty compo8itions submitted by the upper grade pupils, we have selected the best five. These five compositions are those written by you boys and girls. (The pupils look happy. They smile and their eyes sparkle.) And from those five compositions which you wrote, we chose the one which we consider th e best. Of course, not o.ll of prize is s u re 1 y worth working for. I'm going to enter that c o n t e s t. I Clean away the rubbish. you can win, as there is only one prize. I must congratulate all of you, think we should all enter. Well, it's about class time. Mario: Of course we'll all enter the contest. (The bell rings and the boys leave the lil1rary. Curtain.) Scene IL ·The prineipal's office. Two 'weeks later. Mario, Adelaida, Josefina, Ge'l'ardo, anrf-. Esteban ente1· th"e principal's office. Mr. Cruz is seated at his desk. Pupils: Good morning, Mr. Cruz. however. You surely must be doing good work in your English classes. The Five Pupils: Thank you, Mr. Cruz. Josefina: Have you decided yet which is the best of the five? Mr. Cruz: Yes, we have. Shall I tell you? Adelaida: We would like very much to hear. Mr. Cruz: The judges have voted Mario's tomposition to be the prize winner. Josefin.."l. Adelaida, Gerardo, Esteban: We (Please turn to page 116.) 116 MAKING OUR TOWN BEAUTIFUL (Continued from page 118) congratulate you, Mario. Mario: Thank you. Gerardo: I knew, Mario, that you would win the prize. Mr. Crwz: You may all return to your classes now. Next Monday we shall have an auditorium program. That will be the time when the win. ner w i 11 be formally announced. (Curtain) Scene III. The auditorium. iltr. Cruz, Mario, Adelaida, Josefina, Gerardo, Esteban, and the announcer are seated on the stage. In front of the stage the pupils of the school are assembled. Announcer: The first· number of our program for today i~ a song· by the assembly, ''Philippines, My Phi 1 i ppines," lead by Miss Adoracion. (The pupils assembled sing the song.) Announcer: Now we shall have a talk by our principal. Mr. Cruz: Boys and girls, you all know about our composition contest on the subject "Making Our Town Beautiful." The five pupils seated here on the stage submitted what we consider the best five compositions chosen f r om more than eighty. The judges have selected the best compo. sition out of those five. The ,, .. riter of what the judges consider the best composition is Mario Jovito. (Great applause). The winner will now read his composition. Mario : (Goes to the front and reads the following comTHE YOUNG CITIZEN position:) ·Making Our Town Beautiful I believe that our town today is just as dirty and ugly and unsanitary as it was fwenty-five years ago. I think it is about time we start to improve the place, and make our town beautiful. This composition is written not for the purpose of finding fault, but t() recommend some practical improvements in our community. As I walk about our town, I observe that in almost every lot and yard there is an unsightly amount of trash and refuse. There are tin cans, pieces of old board, leaves, paper, and other things. My ti r s t. recommendation for making our town beautiful is that every resident remove all trash and refuse from his premises, and that it be taken away at public expense and destroyed. My second recommendation is that the streets should be kept clean. To insure cleanliness, animals should not be permitted to run loose in the streets. Dogs should not be permitted to run loose at night, for they overturn garbage cans in search of food, and thus make our streets very dirty and unsanitary. Persons should not be permitted to throw garbage into the streets, but they should place it in garbage cans provided by the town. Third. The town p I a z a should be placed in good condition. Weeds and rubbish should be removed, and trees, shrubbery, and plants be kept March, 1939 in such a state of cultivation than the plaza will be a beautiful place in our town. Number four. The town market should. be closely supervised by competent: inspectors who will see that market sellers keep everything in a neat, orderly, and sanitary condition. Those sellers who will not do this should be refused permission to sell in the town market. Five. Our public buildings should be put into a state of good repair.· They should be painted. Everything about them should be put in good condition. Six. Mud holes and pools of stagnant w.ater where mosquitoes breed should be filled up. Pigs, goats, carabaos, and other animals should be cared for by their owners so that they will not make unsanitary places in our town. Seven. Citizens, parents, boys, and girls--everyone in the whole town-should be encouraged to do everything possible to make our town beautiful, and to take pride in doing so. This can be accomplished through our schools, both public and private, through o u r newspapers, through our churches, and through public posters. The people of our town oan make this a beautiful town if they wish· to do so. Let us get to work. Everybody-young und old, rich and poor-get to work and make our town beautiful. And wlien it is beautiful, let us keep it so. (Tirrn to page 118) 118 THE FQUR FRIENDS (Continued frorri page 95) The poor M u d - D a u b e r jumped about so much thatcrack !-her w.aist broke in two, and she died instantly. The Snail had seen the two tragedies. She began to weep and wail. "Poor Draggie and Muddi~ are dead," she wept. She wailed so loudly that she actually loosened her body from the shell-rip! rip!and in a Jittle while she, too, died. Only the last of the four friends, the S h r i m p, remained. That morning she had busied herself with cleaning the yard before they should go on their outing. While she was at wor)\, her attention was attracted by the loud walling of the Snail. Soon she learned that her two friends, the Dragon-Fly and the Mud-Dauber, were no more. And then, before her very eyes, her friend, the Snail, came to an unhappy end, so that she was the only one· left. "Poor Draggie and GUESS MY NAME (Answe,·s fro·m pnge 111) I.An fC:JCJ THE YOUNG CITIZEN Muddie and Snailie are all dead, dead," she wept. "Oh, what shall I do?" Marek, 1989 MAKING OUR TOWN BEAUTIFUL (Contfnued from page 116) Announcer: Our principal She, too, began jumping will now award the prize. and lamenting. Hither and Mr. Cruz: This school is thither she jumped, neither proud to have a pupil like Maseeing nor caring where she rio Jovito. The ideas in his went. Suddenly she landed in composition are good, and he a pot of boiling hot water has explained them well. We which the Dragon-Fly had are all proud ·of Mario. Puprep.ared that morning to pils, you have heard his comcook their rice. Into the position. Now we must begin water she went-sizz ! sizz ! a campaign to get th e s e -and instantly poor Shrimp- things done in our town, and ie was scalded to· death-a so make our town beautiful. dreadful fate which caused Next Monday I shall call you the end of the last of the four all to the auditorium and anfriends. noun~e our plans. And now The news of the terrible to Mario J ovito, the winner of happenings spr~ad arid all the this contest, I award this neighborhood mourned for splendid book, Rizal: Man Draggie and Mudd i e and and Martyr by Laubach. I Snailie and Shrimpie. They congratulate y o u, M ·• r i o. buried them in the yard of (Gives Mario the book and the little house where the shctkes hands with him. There four had lived so happily. is much cippla:u.<;e. Mario bows To this day the folk of that his thanks to Mr. Cruz ctnd to community tell of the unhap- , the A.ssembly.) pv fate which overtook the Announce~: Now we ~hall Dragon-Fly, the Mud-Dauber, stand and smg ~ur nat10nal the Snail, and the Shrimp. anthem, after which we shall The always end their sad r~turn to our rooms. (T~e story b re ea tin this an- song is su1~g. Then all pu'!11ls y Y p g. d pa.SR to their room.<;. Curtmn.) cient saying: "Happ mess an sadness are the two extremes C&oss:WoRD PUZZLE of life. They come one after anothe1·. You are happy today, but tomorrow you may be sad or-dead." 1 CHOOSING THE WORD (Ans1ce1'8 from page 111) 2 1. is 2. go 3. is 4. her 5. met 3 6. play 7. going 8. was 9. has JO. play 11. take 12. killed 4 13. for 14. bring 15. were (Answe1·s from page 111) 1 ~ 3 4 K I N G I R 0 N N 0 R A G N A T