Morning journal and courier., 1880-06-07
OFFICE 400 STATE STREET
Price Four Cents.
Rural Improvement.

I
 has passed over the places; noble grove
 has been cut away, shady fern-clad dell 1 dumped full of rubbish, grand picturesque ledge ruined by the daubing brush of the ad- vertisement fiend. Most of these misdeeds, l done for greed or improvement, {" have been of little profit in the perpetration, and have wrought almost irreparable harm to the com munity. One's indignation rises at the sight of these mutilations almost hotly as from l a blow in one's own face. We long vaguely
 for some means to prevent these things, and, 1 for the time and occasion would like to be l clotned with absolute power which we would exert summarily and benefcially. How to
 make these vandalisms impossible, and how l to add to the attractiyeness of a place. is the purpose of @ pamphlet recently published by 1 Hon. B. G. Northrop, the secretary of the Connecticut board of Education. The title of the work is Rural Improvement. ' | Mir. Nortfrop has always been warm friend of the cause of natural improvement, and has made thorough study of tree-cul- l ture and other kindred subjects. He was | one of the first, if not the first in his State l to suggest concerted action in beautifyinp and building up country towns. That was lit l tie over ten years ago. His recommends 1 tions were somewhat misrepresented and rid | iculed at the time, but the seed took root
 and there are now over fifty rural improve l ment associations in Connecticut, organized l on the principles he urged, and doing a work 1 which will entitle our prosperous neighboring
 commonwealth to the name of the Garden State. MT. Northrops pamphlet is pow 1 erful and unanswerable argument for the economic as well as the artistic value of rural improvement.
 Such associations have most comprehen- sive fields of work, and can make themselves powerfully felt in manifold ways for the good of the community Covering, as they do, such a wide ground, there is hardly any other o1, k1a ikol rural town can unite to such good purpose ! The contagious spirit of example, and the l urgent force of repeated and frequent recom- 1 mendations, are the great powers by which 1 such organizations best reach their ends. A l good thing, said but once, is soon forgotten, but drops of water, constantly falling, at last
 wear holes in the hardest rock. Mir. Nor 1 throp shows how, among other things, such | an association eultivates public spirit and | town pride, quickens the intellectual life of l the people and promotes good fellowship. A 1 town made beautiful endears itself to it's peo- l ple when thousands of miles away their 1 thoughts return to its pleasant streets and
 snug embowered homes, persons of wealth | and attainments are attracted to make their | abodes there, and it's sons who have made l their fortunes in foreign parts come back to 1 enjoy them, or gratefully and substantially 1 remember their old home when dying, with perhaps the gift of a public library hail. school or park. On the other hand, how I many a lad has left bleak treeless village and in the bitterness of his heart, shaken
 the dust of the joyless barren, hateful place | from his feet, resolving never again to return | to the ugly old nest!
 1 Another aim of these associations is to
 promote public health by spreading know | ledge of sanitary laws and principles, thus
 securing better hygienic conditions in the | general surroundings, such as improved 1 drainage, the removal of waste and offal, and | purer water supply.
 The narrower interest is the source of the l larger; the man who best loves his family and takes the truest pride in his home town will | also have the largest love of country, be the truest patriot. Mir. Northrop's interest in 1 the work therefore centres in the improve l ment of the homes and home life of the peo- 1 ple There still remain too many homes and | grounds desolate, neglected and repulsive, where taste and trees, shrubbery, hedges or creeping vines, with 6 lawn, would make the wilderness blossom as the rose.' Unques- l tionably neglect and slatternliness in and around the house repel from their rural homes many youth who might other wise be bound in strongest ties to their fire- side." He shows how easily and economi- cally, often without any outlay of money, homes can be surrounded with flowers, vines and trees increasing the beauty and market | value of the homestead and helping cultivate l domestic sentiments. An association is need ed to develop private taste and public spirit i to remove defects and disfgurements. | remarkable interest in tree planting has l been awakened by these associations, and | thereby great work in the recuperation of
 sterile lands has been made practicable Mr. Northrop devotes considerable space to show ing how such lands, made barren by mprovi- dence and carelessness, may be given new value, and he speaks at length of the best trees for certain soils and conditions, as | shown by experience in this country and in Europe
 An important work, in which the efforts of
 these associations may well be enlisted, is the improvement of the surroundings of railway
 stations. Travellers always remark the con trast between the beauty of such places in Switzerland, Germany, France and England with their shrubs, flowers and creeping vines
 and the repulsive appearance of the average American railway station, the person arriving
 in a town making his landing as it were, in the very dung-heap of the place." as Donald G. Mitchell says. Most strangers get their first impressions of place from passing through on the railroad, and the most unat- tractive part is apt to be in that neighbor- hood. But the name of the place is likely, thereafter to be associated in the strangers mind with the shanties and dust and rubbish he saw there. But, when he beholds such delightful wayside oases as the little station at Pride's crossing on the Gloucester branch
 with it's pleasing architecture, it's rich, har- monious colors, its blooming window gardens and smooth, trim lawn or the artistic sta ton now building at Magnolia the same railroad or some of the nice stations on the Providence railroad-that at Mt Hope, for instance, with it's flower beds-he says This is surely pleasant spot; here will I stop; here will abide A town would find it prof itable to pay the extra cost of tasteful rail road station and of keeping it in good or der.
 Among the minor aims of these associations
 Ina limo 0f do fn,- the comfort of pedestrians setting up water ing -troughs at convenient points; furnishing plans for rural architecture, and for gates on fences, or securing hedgerows in the place of fences, or, better still in many villages con-
 bining to remove all fences and visible divid-
 ing lines, so that the private grounds seem to | unite with the wayside in one large lawn Gas at Longwood); the suggestion of neutral tints for buildings in place of glaring white; the arrest of stray cattle; and the enforce
 ment of the laws against the disfguring of
 natural scenery.
 highly important work would be the bet
 terment of the surroundings of factories too frequently disfgured and made unsightly.
 MT. Northrop shows how, by carrying out these principles of beauty in such cases, the problem of labor troubles would be solved to great extent, for the influence of pleasant surroundings upon operatives refnes their taste, promotes their happiness and content, gives them an interest in their work and in things about them, and increases their self respect. MT. Northrop cites the example of the two model factories of New England; the one the silk factory of the Cheney Bros. in South Manchester, Ct, with it's fine grounds and surrounding operatives village of about 200 houses, all standing apart and varying in style, and, with the beautiful grounds of the Cheney mansion, presenting the appearance of an extended park; the sec ond the scale manufactory of the Fairbanks company at St. Johnsbury, Vt, doing busi- ness of about $2, 900, 900, and where similar liberal, generous policy toward the working people is pursued. In both of these instan- ces the projectors have reaped golden har- vests, for they secure the best class of work ing people, who are permanently employed and among whom strikes have never been known or hinted at.
 Mr. Northrop, who offers to lecture on the subject, without charge for services or ex- penses in any town in Connecticut, appends the bylaws and regulations of the Clinton Rural Improvement Association. The objects are similar to what has already been stated. The officers include an executive committee of fifteen, six of them ladies. Beside an an-