Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-04-29
RURAL IMPROVEMENT.


, Suggestions for . Pleasant and Prontabl,
Reform In tho Country.
The ordinary rural village is dreary
and distressing to any person of re
fined taste. Improvements within
easy reach not only satisfy the resi-
dents and the public, but add substan
tial value to the property SO adorned
Many of the old New England hamlet;
have been regenerated, and there and
elsewhere ''village improvement socie-
ties" are happily not uncommon. The
system is simple; the improvers start
with their own property; all the better
if adjacent owners be interested, as il
makes more conspicuous beginning.
Tumbledown fences are removed, AMI
lots thrown open so as to add width to
streets and roads. OF course this in
wolves the enforced absence of stray
cows and pigs. Sidewalks are planted
uniformly with shade trees; surfaces
leveled down. or up, to grade. and
sodded: flower borders and small flow
ering shrubs planted; streets put into
the neatest kind of order and kept so;
division lines between lots marked by
neat posts and perhaps 4 single wire.
or the posts alone suffice. NeighbOrs
are then wrestled with to follow the
lead. In some cases the reformerS get
permission to renovate the premises of
stubborn conservatives, and in every
case known these people have very
soon come around and settled up the
bill voluntarily.
Nothing is more contagious than
such an example, and it soon spreads
to the nearby farms. which are put in
good order, and the improved roads
furnish pleasing drives for the villagers
and attract the notice of strangers and
visitors who are seeking homes or
summer board; and this of course in
creases the value of property. The
funds for these purposes are raised by
subscription, but the work is mainly
done by the reformers at their leisure.
Some money is needed to carry out the
full purpose. This is raised by enter
tainmcnts given by the leaders-as
readings, festivals, concerts. lectures
by popular men who are easily induced
to make very reasonable terms, and in
other ways as may be found practica-
BILE. But this is in itself one of the
most profitable parts of the whole
plan; for literary society, ladies
sewing circle and other social gather
ings tend very much to the improve
ment of the village. A farmers club
to meet in the village one afternoon in
the week would be most excellent ad-
iunct to the association, and this might
lead to Il cooperative union of the
members for business purposes.
The end in view being PLAIN and
simple, nothing more is required than
q determination to carry it out by
gradual consecutive steps; and these
advances are evolved one from another
rs the work goes on. The main point
is to make beginning. and the pleas
ing result of the first efforts is usually
such as to insure continuance. BY the
association of several persons. seeds,
shrubs and trees are purchased cheap
ly, and in one very successful instance
a nursery of cheap evergrcens and
Towering shrubs was made ut a small
cost and the profit from the sale of
these after two years furnished the
means for planting the village streets
with shade trees. One needed part of
the work is to put up, or induce others
to put up, hitchinS posts to secure
the horses so that they may not be tied
to the newly-plantcd trees by thought
less strangers. In cases where this
happens members of the association on
the watch for such accidents gently
suggest to the stranger the propriety
of using the post and saving the trees.
There will be no drawbacks and re-
bluffs. but pleasant persuasive pres
sure on public opinion soon leads it in
the way it should go, and in a short
time the whole community become in
tercsted and help in the work, or at
the least passively acquiescc in it and
are soon infected with the spirit of it
Cor. N. Y. Tribune.