The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-09-06
Village Improvement Society.

Village Improvement Society.
From scribner for September.
There are just about four months in
the year in which an ordinary coun-
try village is a pleasant place to dwell
in, viz: from May to September. The
muddy streets and sidewalks of au-
tumn and spring, and the icy and
snowy ways of winter, render it un-
comfortable for walking or driving.
The foliage and heritage of summer
cover up the ugly spots, and the green
cry of the growing months transforms
the homeliest details into the pleasant
and picturesque. The moment the
greenery disappears, dilapidated
fences, broken-down sheds, unkept
commons, neglected trees, and all the
tolerated ugliness of the village assert
themselves. The village is beautiful
no longer. There are thousands of
villages scattered over the country in
which there has never been a public
spirited attempt made to reduce their
disorder to order, their ugliness to
beauty, their discomfort to comfort.
Every man takes care, or does not
take care, of his own. There is no
organic or sympathetic unity, and the
villages, instead of being beautiful
wholes, are inharmonious aggrega-
TONS Some paint and some do not
paint. Some keep their grounds we'll,
and others do not keep their grounds
at all. Unsightly wrecks of vehicles,
offensive piles of rubbish, are exposed
here and there, and every man appar.
emily feels at liberty to make his be-
longings as unpleasant to his neighbor
as it pleases him. No public sentiment
of order is developed !; no local pride
is fostered ; there is apparently no de-
sire for beauty or convenience that
goes one step beyond ones home in
any case.
1t is, therefore, with great gratifi-
cation that we notice here and there
the organization of Village Improve.
ment Societies, and the beautiful work
which they are accomplishing. Where
ever they have been in exitence long
enough to accomplish anything, shade
trees are planted by the side of the
highways; old, neglected commons are
fenced in, graded and planted; side
walks are laid in all the streets, and a
public interest in order and beauty is
developed, which makes every man
more careful of his own. Two vii
lagos, Of which we happened to know,
have been quite transformed within
two or three years by the operations of
these organizations and their benef-
cent and beautiful work, already done,
will insure to their localities a certain
amount of beauty and convenience for
the next hundred years. They have
not been met by the public apathy
that they anticipated, and they have
been enabled by subscriptions, fairs
and festivals, to raise sufficient money
for the work they have instituted,
while individual citizens have cooper
ated with them in their schemes.
There is no good reasons why every
considerable village of the country
should not be made convenient, health
full, and beautiful, by the operations of
such societies as these. There is no
good reason why a public feeling of
pride should not be engendered by
them, and an earnest purpose develop
ed to make each village more attrac-
tive than it's neighbor.
Selfish interest is all on the side of
the societies ; for improvement in
beauty and comfort means improve
ment in value. Emulation between
neighbors and between villages is ex-
cited, niggardly property-holders are
shamed into efforts to contribute to
the popular desire for harmony. This
is not a theory; it is experience for,
wherever they have been tried, these
societies have done the work and ex-
ercised the influence we have stated.
Again, these societies are agencies
of culture. Developing public spirit
and a feeling of local pride, they can
not fail to bear fruit in other and
higher directions. PuSlic and domes-
tic architecture will be the first to feel
the effect of the new sentiment. Men
will Build pretty houses, in tone with
the new order Of things. New ambi-
ton will be developed with relation to
public buildings and their surround
ings. The new town.hall will be bet
ter than the old. The new church
will be an orament and glory, which
the old one was not. LyceumS, read
ing clubs, and libraries, are just as
natural an outgrowth Of a public spirit
engendered by these societies, and a
public culture nourished by them, as
they are, themselves, the outgrowth
of a public necessity.
kentucky Giant and His Giantcss.
From the Rochester Express