OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES 



hedges, and plants his arbors, and gravels 

 his walks, so as to impress favorably the new 

 passers-by of the rail; but for one who shows 

 this solicitude respecting the new public, a 

 dozen keep to a stolid indifference, and living 

 with their faces the other way, leave the pigs 

 and a mangy dog to squeal and bark a recep- 

 tion to the world of the railway. 



I cannot quite explain this. Most of us love 

 to carry a name for respectability and good 

 order and decency, and do not like to be dis- 

 covered kicking the cat or indulging in any 

 similar personal gratifications or wants. It 

 is true we do not know one in a thousand of 

 the ten thousand who hurtle past our home- 

 stead; but how many of those who make up 

 the body of that public opinion, in the eye of 

 which we wish to live with decency and order, 

 do we know ? 



What all this may have to do with the topic 

 of Village Greens, may be not quite clear to 

 the reader, but I will try and develop its bear- 

 ings. All the lesser towns through which or 

 near to which a railway passes, have virtually 

 changed face; they confront the outside world 

 no longer upon their embowered street or 

 quiet common, but at the "station." There 

 lies the point of contact, and there it must re- 



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