Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1903-02-07
USEFUL SOCIETIES.
VALUABLE WORK OF VILLAGE IN
pROVEMENT ASSOCIATIONS.

ter Sanitary Laws Secured and
Some Phenomenal improvements
Made by These Organizations.
Those who would profit by the in
creasing attention to the opportunities
offered by towns and small cities both
for living and for the conduct Of bust
ness must needs resolve themselves
into active local improvement organiza-
tons such as already exist in all parts
Of the country, says Frances COpley
Scavey in the Chicago Tribune.
These societies, clubs, associations
call them by what name you will-have
become the chief factor in the transfer
nation of hundreds of places from the
happy go lucky, shiftless, down Mt the
heel appearance and condition charac-
tcristic of the ordinary small place to
neat and lively business centers that
offer many advantages as places to
live. These organizations have been
started for various purposes, and wom-
on have been largely, often exclusively,
concerned in their founding and main
tcnance.
Of the movement has been an active
evil due. perhaps. to sanitary defects,
as in the case OF Montclair, n. j., where
an epidemic that reused the women to
action was found to spring from milk
supply poisoned at its source by fever
germs SO that residents had actually
been paying for n fresh stock Of fine,
| active microbes delivered daily at their
DOORS Again, it has been the direct
result of a longing for neatness and
beauty and good outdoor hOusekeep.
ing
Some one, usually a woman, has dis
| covered that the local cemetery, q place
hallowcd to every resident, was in Il
shamcfully neglected condition; that
park for holding out Of door celebra
| tons had become necessity; that fine
natural water privileges were being
neglected or debascd by the ignorance
OF scltishneUs of the few to the direct
| detriment OF the many, etc.
Towns that were mudholes and dust
heaps by turns, where tradesmen daily
| turned loose flying flocks of waste pa
| per to mar the streets and frighten
| timid horses, where naturally charm
| ing adjacent country rOadsides were
made the common dumping ground for
| all sorts of unsightly rubbish, where
| vacant lots bore no attempt at decOra-
ton save mounds of tin cans and will
dernesses of tangled weeds, have as
sumed the pleasant aspect of neatly
| paved, agrceably shaded streets.
Receptaclcs ut street intersections re-
ceive the erstwhile loose papers, ba
mana skins and other refuse formerly
carclesSly thrown into the streets to
decay or on the sidewalks to produce
dirt or disaster. Vacant lots have been
cleared up and Il weed ordinance passed
| and enforced. Ashes no longer form
mountain ranges along streets and al
lrys, all being utilized in grading and
| filling streets or low ground. River
banks have been cleaned, planted and
in several instances walled, and with
the stream have become the chief at
traction of the place. Country roads
have been relieved of their accompan-
imcnt of broken crockery, wash boil
ers, old mattresses and springs, etc,
and nature given the chance to repair
damages and make the drives of the
immediate envirOns as delightful as
Cndisturbed rOadsides always are when
far enough removed from the haunts
OF man
1t is a nice comment on the ways Of
humanity to note that neglected ma
ture is always in way beautiful,
never offensive. 1t IS only when hui
man beings crowd in that ugliness and
squalor result. This truth Is even par
allced among dumb brutes. Wild an
finals do not devastate and wipe out
the beauty of the woods, fields and
waterways. 1t Is only where domestic
animals congregate that vegetation is
destroyed. beauty obiterated and sur
roundings made wholly unbeautiful.
Truly civilized man can hardly do
less or more than devote some of his
mind, ingenuity, time, strength and
money to covering up his worse than
unsiGhtly tracks. If natural beauty is
the heritage of mankind, if we are to
leave the world more beautiful than
we found il" we must be up and do
| lllS, LOT tHc ways vi lIILdtlOu
Obstructing or destroying its charm at
every turn.
There must be some building up
where there is SO much trampling
down, or what will the world look like
after Il few more generations of civ
ilizcd' humanity have battered it out
of all shape and comeliness: We go
gayly along, cutting and hacking ut
everything we find in the way; we,
mostly. take no thought in the matter
of giving nature an opportunity to re-
trieve the opportunities that we have
wrested from, her. yet we make great
hullabalOo when there are floods and
drOughts and unSalubrious conditions,
although we continue to allow all the
trees and underground on the water
sheds to be swept away. Civilization
Is strange term for such stupid, self
ish or. at the best, ignorant proceed
ings.
If every community would look out
for itself In these respects, bare banks
would again be clothed with the vege-
tatiOn that not only makes them love
ly, but also prevents their being wash
ell into gullies when the water PUSHES
unhindered down such slopes. In the
one case it clashes over them as it falls,
scours out the soil and becomes a