The Portland daily press., 1865-09-05
prrRAI, BEAUTY IN CITIES AND VII.
LAGES.

Time was-and that not long ago-in most
of our towns, when, in order to keepup with a
civilization that was supposed tohave its grand
center in cities, war was declared against
trees as the ignoble monuments OF an aborigi-
nal barbarism, and the great ambition was to
cover the land, ifpossible, with compaeS ranges
of brick edifcies, from the red exterior OF which
the suns fiery rays might reflect burning
heat upon the moving and melting throngs
that crowd the narrow thoroughfares and pas
sapeways.-and proudly call that city. If
some old miser held on to few acres of wood
land or open ground, these were enough to
qualify the honors of the place, if not to
to degrade it to the level of a bushwacker's
settlement" Things in this respect, happily,
have, of late years, undergone a considerably
change. The country is beginning to be re-
garded as the home of beauty, and is being
brought, as far as possible, Into the city. Ru-
raj charms are becoming the grand attractive
ornaments of our villages and towns. Public
spirited individuals, social organizations, and
municipal authorities are lining streets with
shade trees, protecting them by artificial and
legal means, laying out public gardens and
promenades, providing for open commons OF
parks, with cultivated lawns, water-fountains
and jets 'eaa and private citizens, with less
disposition than formerly to crowd their build
ings to each others caves, are willing to build
farther apart, SO as to allow themselves elbow
room upon their own premises, and to provide
space for ample yards, gardens, &c, where fam
lies can luxuriate in pure air, and cultivate d
pleasant acquaintance with mother Earth-an
old friend hitherto too much repudiated iii
cities.
confess was surprised when in the Little
island of Great Britain few years ago, where
land certainly is more densely crowded with
humanity than it can ever be in this country, to
find in all the villages and cities of England
which visited, SO many rural spots - the
breathing places of the citizens. In London
itself, which has a population larger than all
the cities of the United States if run into one,
there are more parks than can be found within
the city corporations of cur Republic. In that
single city, are no less than four thousand
acres of open grounds-the very lungs of that
vast metropolis. Some of those parks, or
commons as we should call them, cover areas
of fifty, one hundred, three hundred, and in
one instance eight hundred and thirty six
acres, in the very heart of Londoni They are
like beautiful farms, open and free to all in ev-
cry part of the city. The largest park in the
United States, except the new one laid out
on the outskirts of New York. lis old Boston
common, and that covers but forty acres
hardly so large as the smallest one in the
British capital Philadelphia has her monoto-
nous square, or building lots not built upon.
And these are about our only cities that have
not driven the country entirely out of their
domains. 1t is too late, perhaps, to correct
this unfortunate error in our old cities, but in
our newer ones. and in our growing villages,
there should be purpose formed, aided by
municipal enactments, that win secure public
grounds, gardens and parks, which shall always
be reserved as healthy breathing places for the
citizens and their families, and never be invad-
ed by ranges Of compact dwellings, or lines OF
mercantile warehouses. The health, the COM
fort, the happiness of all the crowded towns
require the cultivation of rural taste that
shall at once adorn and bless the habitations
of the people:
In Maine we are behind some other states
in this matter, but by the cultivation of a
proper rural taste, our State may yet be made
one of the most beautiful and attractive ones
in tha American TTpiop r., A. a;,,<-..l.. -.
riety of scenery which we enjoy coastwise and
inland, from lakes to rivers and from noun
tains to meadows, we enjoy the natural fea-
lures for beauty unsurpassed. A few of our
country villages have Of late years provided for
public commons, shaded avenues, and spacious
cemeteries, for which posterity in all time will
thank the present generation. Some of our
cities, too, have done honor to themselves in
arboriculture. Portland is well named the
Forest City," We are proud of her on this
account. Her streets are so well lined with
full grown shade trees, that beheld from the
cupola of her Observatory on Mmjoy, she
appears like city built up in forest
These rural embellishments, together with her
natural beauties, have made this commercial
Capital of Maine, about the handsomest city
on the Atlantic sea-coast of America. 5s
Augusta, too, the political Capital, though
not as large, is quite as beautiful as Portland !;
and this beauty is the result of her great num-
Der of shade trees, lining nearly all the streets
of the city, SO that, seen from the dome of the
State House, she is hardly seen at all, being
buried in the green foliage of her elms and
sugar naples. The view of that rural city
from other stand points is more open. As
seen from several adjacent hills, she is always
admired by the strangers who visit that part
Of the Kennebec Valley.
There is a law of our State which offers to
an inhabitant who will provide a watering
trough steadily supplied by the wayside, for
the benefit Of man and beast, an abatement
Of three dollars annually on his taxes. This
has given our highways luxury which has
been provided for by no other State. Ex-Gov-
ernor Hubbard is entitled to the praise of this
excellent provision. There is, too, believe,
another law of Maine, which proposes a GER
tain abatement of taxes to every landholder
on our public roads, who will set out and pro-
tect a row of shade trees upon the front of
his premises. In some towns 1 have noticed
this wise suggestion improved by our farmers.
Had all our great thoroughfares, twenty years
ago, been thus lined with shade trees, Maine
would be, at this day, the handsomest State in
the Union to ride in, and the farms thus orna-
mented would now be advanced quite large
b.. t. Il.
hence redeem the neglect of the past. s's.
t1eas TRAxI.
TRAGEDy TN MTssOrRr