AN ASSOCIATION AS AN INCENTIVE, ETC. 205 



AN ASSOCIATION AS AN INCENTIVE TO THE IM- 

 PROVEMENT OF HOME GROUNDS. 



MRS. MILTON O. NELSON, MINNEAPOLIS. 



It has been well said that he who successfully plants a city lot 

 or makes a tree to grow in the right place is a public benefactor, 

 for the beauty so produced becomes public property. The neighbor 

 and the casual passer-by can see and enjoy, and even the owner 

 himself can do no more. The con\erse of this proposition is equal- 

 ly true : tlie man who takes no pride in the beauty of his surround- 

 ings, who makes no effort to make his neighborhood a brighter, 

 better, more attractive place to live in, is a public malefactor, and 

 the room he occupies is worth more than his company. It' matters 

 not whether he be rich or poor, whether his indifference is the 

 result of ignorance, of selfishness, of the pursuit of wealth and 

 pleasure or of mere dullness — the community is better off without 

 him. 



There are some of both of these classes in every neighborhood, 

 and it is just here that the co-operation of those in the first and 

 beneficent class gets in it's valuable work. If in some way those 

 people who are intent on their own welfare can be made to see that 

 the neighborhood's welfare is their own, that their selfishness is 

 in reality near-sightedness — if they can be taught that wealth does 

 not amount to much if not well applied — and if failing in all this 

 we can perhaps shame them or coax them or coerce them into 

 better behavior by reason of co-operation, then let us by all means 

 co-operate. 



This is just what we are trying to do in Linden Hills. There 

 are in this Inter-Lachen region about 2,500 people, and all the class- 

 es of which I have spoken are represented among them. The 

 Creator has done much for this locality. It is unquestionably the 

 most beautiful suburb of this city so far as natural beauty is con- 

 cerned. But while Nature did much and did it well, inartistic man 

 has also done much to neutralize her good work. The desire 

 to counteract the destruction of this natural beauty and to save such 

 as is left to us has been a large factor in the formation of the 

 Linden Hills Improvement Association. At its inception the ef- 

 forts of the association were largely directed toward the securing 

 of street improvement's, such as gas, sidewalks, new bridges and 

 the like. But during the past season they have gone farther. Popu- 

 lation from without has been moving in rapidly ; houses of all sorts 

 and sizes have been springing up like mushrooms ; and for some 

 reason — perhaps because of the notion tliat a suburb is a place in 

 which one may live as he chooses or because of the rawness of our 



