44 



of their railway gardening and sometimes find their gain 

 from the sale of bouquets to passengers. In striking contrast 

 with these adornments is the slatternliness disfiguring our de- 

 pots, as well described by D. Or. Mitchell. " There are many 

 charming suburban retreats near New York city, to which the 

 occupant must wade his way through all manner of filthiness 

 and disorderly debris, making his landing as it were in the 

 very dung- heap of the place. Is there no remedy for this ? 

 Must we always confront the town with its worst side fore- 

 most? To make a township attractive, the approach to it 

 must be attractive. Every village station wants its little out- 

 lying Green to give character and dignity to the new approach. 

 In nine out of ten of way-side towns, such space could be 

 easily secured, easily held in reserve, easily made attractive ; 

 and if there was no room for a broad expanse of sward, at 

 least there might be planted some attractive copse of evergreens 

 or shrubbery, to declare by graceful type the rural pride of the 

 place. First impressions count for a great deal whether in 

 our meeting with a woman or with a village. Slipshoddiness 

 is 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 decision." 



16. Among the minor aims of Eural Improvement Associa- 

 tions, are the providing of rustic seats under the shades for the 

 comfort of pedestrians, pleasantly suggesting neighborly kind- 

 ness and courtesy ; setting up watering troughs for horses at 

 convenient points where from adjacent hillsides never failing 

 springs invite and facilitate this improvement ; furnishing plans 

 for rural architecture, and for gates and fences, or securing 

 hedge-rows in room of fences, or, better still, in many villages 

 combining to remove all fences and visibly dividing lines, so 

 that the private grounds seem to unite with the way-side in one 

 large lawn; the suggestion of the neutral tints for dwellings 

 and outhouses in place of the glaring white hitherto so com- 

 mon ; arrest of stray cattle, for strolling cattle usually are and 

 always ought to be outlawed ; preventing nuisances, one of these 



