Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-09-12
NO. gig.
Misrellaneous.
VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT SOCIETIES.

In an article on the above subject in Scribner
Tor September, DR.. Holland says
There are just four months in the wear
IN which an ordinary country village is a
pleasant place to dwell in, viz: from
May to September. The muddy st, eets
and sidewalks of autumn and spring.
and the icy and snowy WAYS Of
winter, render it uncomfortable for walk
ing or driving. The foliage and herbage
OF summer cover up the ugly spots. and
the greenery of the growing months
transforms the homeiest details into the
pleasant and picturesque. The moment
he greenery disappears, dilapidated
fences, broken-down sheds, unkept COM
mons, neglected trees, and all the tolerat-
ed ugliness of the village assert them
selves. The village is beautiful no long
er. There are thousands of villages scat
tered over the country in which there has
never been public spirited attempt made
to reduce their disorder to order, their ug-
Iiness to beauty, their discomforts to COM
fort. Every man takes care, or does not
take care of his own. There is no organ
ic or sympathetic unity, and the villages.
instead OF being beautiful wholes, are in
harmonious aggregations. Some paint
and some do not paint. Some keep their
grounds well, and others do not keep their
grounds at all. Unsightly wrecks of ve-
hicles, offensive piles of rubbish. are ex-
posed here and there, and every man ap-
parently 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 fos-
tered; there is apparently no desire for
beauty or convenience that goes one step
beyond ones home in any case.
1t is, therefore, with great qualification
that we notice here and there the organiz-
alton of Village Improvement Societies,
and the beautiful work which they are ac-
complishing. Wherever they have been
in existence long enough to accomplish
anything, shade trees are planted by the
side OF the highways; old. neglected COM
mons are fenced in, graded and planted
sidewalks are laid in all the streets, and
public interest in order and beau
ty is developed, which makes
every man more careful of his own.
Two villages, of which we hap
pened to know, have been quite trans
formed within two or three years by the
operations of these organizations; and
their benefcent and beautiful work, al
ready 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 en-
abled by subscriptions, fairs and festivals,
to raise sufficient money for the work they
have instituted, while individual citizens
have co-operated with them in their
scheme.
There is no good reason why every con-
siderable village of the country should not
be made convenient, healthfuI, and beau
titul, by the operations of such societies a.
these. There is no good reason why q
public feeling of pride should not be en-
gendercd by them. and an earnest purpose
developed to make each village more at,
tractve than its neighbor. Selfish inter-
est is all on The side Of the societies for i'm
provement in beauty and comfort means
improvement 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 theory it is experience for, where
ever they have been tried, these societies
have done the work and exercised the in
1uence we have stated.
Again, these societies are agencies of
culture. Developing public spirit and
feeling OF local pride. they cannot fail to
bear fruit in other and higher direction.
Public and domestic architecture will be
the first TO feel the effect of the new senti-
ment. Men will build pretty houses, in
tone with the new order of things. New
ambition will be the developed with rela-
ton to public buildings and their devel-
oped with relation to public buildings and
their surroundings. The new town-hall
be better than the old. The new church
will be an ornament glory, which the
old one was not. Lyceum, reading clubs.
and libraries. are just as natural an out
growth of public spirit engendered by
these societies, and public culture nour-
ished by them, as they are, themselves,
| the ont growth of a public necessitv