OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES 



come the outside world with indications of or- 

 derly thrift, blooming and carrying greeting 

 to the very threshold of the place? 



First impressions count for a great deal — 

 whether in our meeting with a woman, or with 

 a village. Slipshoddiness is a bad economy in 

 towns, as in people. Every season there is a 

 whirl of citizens, tired of city heats and costs, 

 traversing the country in half hope of being 

 wooed to some summer home, where the trees 

 and the order invite tranquillity and promise 

 enjoyment. A captivating air about a village 

 station will count for very much in the de- 

 cision. There will be growth, to be sure, in 

 favored localities, in spite of disorder. I could 

 name a score of little towns along the line of 

 the New Jersey and Erie and Hudson Rail- 

 ways, with their charming suburban retreats 

 near by, to which the occupant must wade his 

 way through all manner of filthiness and dis- 

 orderly debris, making his landing, as it were, 

 in the very dust-heap of the place, and smack- 

 ing with a relish, it would seem, these prefa- 

 tory incidents of his country home. 



Is there no mending this? Will town or 

 borough officials always remain insensible 

 to the good influences of an inviting and de- 

 corous approach to the territory which is sub- 



i6o 



