Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1899-03-25
THE COUNTRY VILLAGE.
BENEFITS That May Come From Ju-
dicious Improvement.

uttlouS improvements
The future prosperity of the country
village depends, i'll a great measure,
upon its suitability for the summer res.
idenCe Of those who prefer, at that sea-
son, to leave the hot and crowded cities,
writes a correspondent of The Ladies'
Home journal. y generation ago a lit
tie vacation was considered to be enough
for the busiest and most prosperous of
our city men, and the families of such
men staid in town with the heads of
their houses. When longer residence
was considered desirable and then very
quickly was considered necessary, fam
lilies of means took up their abode in the
great hotels of the various watering
places. After a decade of this, one and
another of those who had learned better
how to live came to the conclusion that
country life was more comfortable, less
ostentatious and altogether more to be
desired. And so the country place be-
came the hobby and then the necessity
of the majority of those who in large
sense had met with material success.
But the majority of those who are we'll
to do have not met with material sue
cess III the large sense-they are merely
we'll to do.
But we Americans are great consum-
brs. We will have the best that is with
in our means. When this immense we'll
to do class realized that country life
was the most desirable kind of summer
life, their ingenuity was at once put to
the test Of finding how it was possible,
without the impossible country estab-
lishment, which none save man of
wealth can maintain. The country viii
lage was found to be the place for them,
for i'll a real country village-not su-
burban village-a man and his family
can be las much in the country as though
they owned "a thousand acres with a
stately castle on a commanding hill,
and, what is more, in such village a
family can have all the delights and
prlvaCies of country life at an expense
which can be regulated with nice GER
talnty and according to the size of the
income, Horses may be kept or not, ac-
cording to that income. The same may
be said of servants, and the scale of liv
ing may be generally properly adjusted.
l know many men who manage to have
country village home, though their
means are quite limited and have heard
the confession frequently made that less
was spent III the country than i'll town.
To take advantage of this growing
taste, this taste which will surely be
iS thp xx,hjoh
every country village should embrace
But village which brings to itself this
kind of residents must have attractions
ATTRACTIONS that are natural to begin
with and which have been taken ad
vantage of by those who own or who
have owned the property. Some villages
have been so unfortunately located that
at Il first glance it would seem impossi-
Bile to invest them with any degree of
beauty. But l have seen so few such
that l am not competent to speak of
them. In my experience the surround
ing country usually gives to a village
such pOtentialities of beauty that few
wise improvements of streets, side
walks, shade trees, and SO on, will work
wonderful change in aesthetic condi-
tiOns. Indeed, where nature has been
prolific of her gifts the problem of i'm
provement is often much more difficult
for man is dangerously apt to distigure
that which nature has made beautiful
when he lays his hands upon it.
But it is in such work that village
improvement society may be useful in
community, i'll such work that such an
organization may confer lasting benefits
upon the locality to which it belongs.