OUR VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY. 



BY EBEN E, REXFORD. 



A Hint for our Horticultural Societies. 



,UR village is pleasantly located. It 

 has river frontage and some very 

 fine trees and quite a number of at- 

 tractive residences. 

 It also has a two-acre lot which had long" 

 been known as " the park," because it was 

 public property. It was bought years ago, 

 when the town had a " boom," as a site for 

 a court house. But a rival town got the 

 court house, the boom collapsed and our 

 " park " became village cow pasture. 



Its fine elms made it a shady, pleasant 

 ■place, and many of us saw great possibilities 

 in it, if as we used to say to each other, 

 "the town ever improved any." But, like 

 the rest of the village, as a village, the two- 

 acre lot was neglected, we took no pride 

 in it, and the question of cutting it up for 

 residence purposes finally came before the 

 village Council. 



It was this suggestion on the part of some 

 members of the Council which gave birth to 

 our Village Improvement Society, for, when 

 the matter came up for serious considera- 

 tion, one Councilman opposed the measure 

 vigorously. In conversation with his 

 friends, outside the Council room, he had 

 some severe things to say about our lack of 

 public spirit, which he asserted had resulted 

 in the general air of " gone-to-seedness " 

 which characterized the place. 



" Why," said he, " we might have one of 

 the most charming little villages in this part 

 of the country if we had more pride and in- 

 terest in it. But we don't seem to have any. 

 Every season I hear people from the city re- 

 marking about our shiftlessness and neglect 

 of the place. ' It might be made delightful, 



if . ' And that 'if of theirs is equal to 



a volume in its unspoken criticism on our 



lack of enterprise and improvement. In my 

 opinion, it would be a shame to sell off the 

 park. We may not need it now, but if we 

 ever wake up and do something we'll see 

 the mistake we made, but we'll find it out 

 when it's too late to help matters, for there's 

 no chance to get another piece of land like 

 it. I wish I could stir up some enthusiasm 

 among the people, and get them to go in for 

 a reform all along the line. I read of Vil- 

 lage Improvement Societies in other places. 

 One would be a good thing for us, I think." 



"Why not have one then ? " suggested 

 one of the group. 



" Why not, indeed?" said another. " I'd 

 be glad to join such a society and do what 

 I could to help it along, and I think the rest 

 of our neighbors would. We all see the 

 need of improvement." 



So it came about that in less than an hour 

 the village improvement idea was enthusias- 

 tically received. It seemed as if it was just 

 what everybody had been waiting for. A 

 public meeting was decided on, and a notice 

 was posted up, asking all who were inter- 

 ested in the improvement of the village to 

 meet at one of the churches on Wednesday 

 evening. 



Wednesday evening came, and the church 

 was filled with men and women. The man 

 who had objected to selling off the park was 

 made chairman of the meeting, and he briefly 

 stated its object to the audience. Then two 

 or three of the leading citizens spoke heartily 

 in favor of the project, and an informal dis- 

 cussion ensued. The result was that we 

 liad no difficulty in effecting an organiza- 

 tion, and our Village Improvement Society 

 came into existence with a membership of 

 over fiftv. 



