IMPROVEMENT SOCIETIES 



a healthy tone which makes the stranger feel 

 quite sure that the place must be a pleasant one 

 to live in. 



The object of this paper has been to show 

 some of the benefits brought about by local 

 improvement societies and the means by which 

 they can be realized. I hope that what has been 

 said will interest those who recognize the need 

 of improvement in their respective communi- 

 ties and lead to the formation of societies, 

 whose benefits will not be fully realized until 

 they have worked that transformation which 

 kindred societies have brought to many places 

 I have had the pleasure of visiting. Our edu- 

 cational and reform societies are doing an 

 unlimited amount of good, and the local im- 

 provement society is capable of doing equally 

 useful work. The development of the com- 

 munal interests of a neighborhood should go 

 hand in hand with the training of its intellect. 

 The local improvement society should teach 

 the gospel of beauty and set good taste and 

 orderliness in opposition to the degrading in- 

 fluence of neglect and indifference as to en- 

 vironment. It will surely make better men 

 and women of us by so doing. 



