The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1881-04-28
Village Improvement Societies


The last number of the Chicago Adpmce
has an article ON this subject which is so
good that we take the liberty to quote
from it,
"What difference there is in the gener-
al characteristics OF American villages.
In some of these you will see hun
bred various signs conspiring to show the
thrift, the intelligence, the refined taste
the public spirit, the peryasive enterprise
and the general foresightedness of the peo-
pie, The aspect of the churches; the
school-houses; the garden fences, the
streets; the sidewalks; the shade trees; the
fruit trees; the village park; the tone of the
village newspaper, and so forth; all speak
the praises Of the village The children,
as they grow up in these homes and vii
lage communes, will naturally grow into
the best qualities of the community. In
innumerable ways and by occasions OF all
the Eome-village comes in, consciously and
unconsciously, to help in the development
of character Ideas and ideas of life get
themselves implanted in the minds Of the
young. Important rs is the influence Of
the character Of ones early home IN deter
mining his own character, that Influence
is hardly less than that which comes from
the homes Of the neighborhood and the
village
parents are hy no means the only per-
sons who have to share in the responsible
ty or the nurture and training OF chlldren.
Such villages as We have in mind may lose
yet not altogether lose some Of their
finest boys aud girls, as they come to ma
iurity, and go forth, huudred ways some
to the cities; some as emigrants and colo
nists, to reproduce il newer fields such
corporate ideas, aspirations, institutions of
the true Christian town, as they have left
behind and vet have not wholly left 9th
ers to enter more public paths of human
endeayor in their own land or to take
part in the humble. glorious work Of teach
ing the heather people how TO build true
homes and to multiply new centers for the
gracious and cyermore coming kingdom of
heaven In consequences Of the marvellous.
ly reproductive life Of such villages as We
have spoken Of, through those who were
reared aud trained in them, although they
may I've located in comparatively secluded
places, may touch upon the best life of all
the world.
But there is quite another sort OF vii
lage II is so often TO he seen, it scarcely
needs to I've described. The paint is of
the church, aud the very house looks dis
couraged; the parsonage, il there chance
TO he any, looks AS gate aud garden,
fruit aud shade trees, had early fallen
from grace the sidewalks have evidently
been seized with Saint Vitus' dance; the
fences about tho school-honse would not
bear description; the grog shops e1nlt IN
their setting Of rags and blossoming noses.
Even il one family happens to have we'll
kept home. the next one to II, with its
general rickets, weeds, and unkempt shub-
berry, mocks at lis betters, and gets back
about as little Of human sympathy as il
gives. Ten, twenty, thirty years ago,
when the early settlers might hare 30
started and organized the Institutional
character aud life Of the community, and
might have 50 built the highways and
planted trees, joined common forces in the !
building mp and liberal sustaining Of in
stitutioas for the common good, which, by
this time would have made the place TO
be Ike the field whieh the Lord hath
blessed they we're destitute q public
spirit wrAhgling, louuging, horse racing,
OF merely tending to their own business,
in the solitary ways q a wre,ched aud