OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES 



town pride? What if care of all grounds ad- 

 joining the station should be subject to some 

 custodian, bound to control them after some 

 simple prescribed rules of order, whose ful- 

 filment would work an economy to the com- 

 pany, and add a grace to that portion of the 

 village ? 



I cannot help recalling to mind here some 

 of those charming way-side stations upon the 

 Continent — in France, Germany, and Switzer- 

 land — where the station-master is also manager 

 of a blooming garden (the property of the com- 

 pany), which he manages with such tender care 

 that the blush of the roses and the muffled 

 scent of the heliotropes come to me again as 

 I read the name of the station upon the Guide 

 Book. And yet those French, those German, 

 those Swiss corporators, who encourage their 

 station-masters to such handicraft, are shrewd 

 money men. They find their account in all 

 this; they like to make their roads attractive; 

 the way-side villagers encourage them in it to 

 the full bent of their capacity. 



In one quarter (among those stations of 

 which I speak, but I cannot now just say 

 where) I was provoked into special inquiries: 

 "This nice treatment involved a great bill of 

 expense doubtless?" 



164 



