Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-09-27

Village improvement Societies.
In an article upon the above sub
iect in Scribner's for September, DR..
says:
There are just about four months in
the year In which an ordinary country
village is a pleasant place to dwell in,
VIZ, from May to September. The
muddy streets and sidewalks of
autumn and spring, and the icy and
snowy ways of winter, render it uncom-
Portable for walking or driving. The
foliage and heritage of summer cover
up the ugly spots, and the scenery of
the growing months transforms the
homeliest details into the pleasant and
picturesque. The moment the greenery
dilapidated fences, broken
down sheds, unkept commons, neglected
trees, and all the tolerated uglinesses
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 discom-
forts to comfort. Every man takes
care of his own. There is no organic
or sympathetic unity, and the villages,
instead Of being beautiful wholes, are
inharmonious aggregations. Some
paint and others do not paint; some
keep their grounds well, others do not
keep their grounds at all. Unsightly
wrecks of vehicles, offensive piles Of
rubbish, are exposed here and there,
and every man apparently feels st
liberty to make his belongings as un-
pleasant to his neighbor as it pleases
him. No public sentiment Of order is
developed; no local pride is fostered;
there is manifestly no desire for beauty
Or convenience that goes one step be-
yond ones home in any case.
It is, therefore, with great gratifica-
ton that we notice here and there the
organization of country improvement
societies, and the beautiful work which
they are accomplishing. Wherever
they have been in existence long
enough to accomplish anything, shade
trees are planted by the side of the high
ways; old, neglected commons are
fenced in, graded and planted; side
walks are laid in all the streets, and a.
developed, which makes every man
more careful of his own. Two villages
of which we happen to know have
been quite transformed within two or
three years by the operations of these
organizations; and their benefcent and
beautiful work, already done, will
insure to their localities 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 institut ed, while
individual citizens have co-Operated
with them in their schemes.
There is no good reason why ever
considerable village of the country Cal
not be made convenient, beautiful and
healthful by the operations of such So
cieties as these. There is no good rea-
son why a public feeling of pride
should not be engendered by them, and
an earnest purpose developed to make
each village more attractive than It's
neighbor. Selfish interest is all on the
side Of the societies; for improvement
in beauty and comfort means i'm
provement in value. Emulation be-
tween neighbors and between villages is
excited, and 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 exer-
cised the influence we have stated.
Again, these societies are agencies of
culture. Developing public spirit and
a feeling of local pride, they cannotfail
to bear fruit in other and higher direc-
TONS Public and domestic 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 ambition will be developed
liz relation to public buildings and their
The new town hall will
be ssbetter than the DID, The new
church will be an ornament and q glo-
ry, which the old one was not. Lyce-
ums, reading clubs and libraries are just
as natural an outgrowth of public
spirit engendered by these societies,
and public culture nourished by them,
as they are, themselves, the outgrowth
of a. nl1hlic necessitv