JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AOT) RURAL ^TASTE. 



£ fxrfnrm MtM, 



IWHERE is one feature in the municipal government of most of our towns and vil- 

 ^ lages, indicative of so low a point of civilization, that it calls loudly for reform. 

 It would, perhaps, hardly be worth while to call attention to it, trusting to the pro- 

 gress of good government and propriety to banish it, did it not appear rather to take 

 the position of a more established fact, year by year. 



We refer to the custom of allowing animals that belong to the pasture-field, and 

 barn-yard, to run at large in the highways of the country, and streets of the cities. 



We believe we are correct in saying, that this abomination prevails by toleration all 

 over the Union, with the exception of one single state, Massachusetts — which forms a 

 most honorable exception. 



The traveler may journey from one end of Massachusetts to the other — he may 

 visit her smallest hamlets — her lovely, elm-embowered villages — her busy manufactur- 

 ing towns, or her thriving and populous cities — and everywhere he sees more order, 

 cleanliness, and good government, than elsewhere. If it pains us as a New-Yorker 

 to be obliged to confess their superiority — it gives us pleasure as an American, to be 

 able to point to one of the states where public education has been longest and 

 most largely diffused, as a standard in these respects to other states that yet lag behind 

 in these external marks of civilization. 



We believe, indeed, that the same municipal laws governing the towns and villa- 

 ges of Massachusetts, which forbid the running at large of animals in the streets, are 

 for the most part in existence in other parts of the country. But in Massachusetts 

 these laws are enforced — in other states they are a dead letter. 



The most flagrant violation of these laws, and the most unaccountable one, is in the 

 great commercial metropolis of the country. New- York. In the third largest city 

 the christian world, where the wealth, luxury, and refinement of the oldest and 



Oct. 1, 1851. 



No. X. 



