Ex-Governor Hubbard well says, "this work of Village Im- 

 provement* will not fail, I trust, to awaken public attention 

 and provoke imitation throughout our State, and excite and 

 even shame our own people into a larger public spirit and 

 better efforts to redeem from negligence our rural homes and 

 villages. Nearly all our towns are full of objects of natural 

 beauty easy of development, and very many of them rich in 

 legendary and historical associations. What is greatly wanted 

 is something more of rural art and adornment. Something 

 which shall beautify our country villages, educate public taste, 

 make the homes of the fathers dearer to their sons and the local 

 associations of childhood dearer to old age, and thus turn back, 

 in part at least, the tide of migration from the rural towns, and 

 make the city seek the country life and make it what it used 

 to be in our own State, and what it still is in the oldest and 

 most cultivated nations of the world." 



In our declining towns especially, local pride and public 

 spirit should be fostered. Discouragement, if not self-dis- 

 paragement, has been their danger and a source of increasing 

 weakness. Instead of the despair that says u it is of no use, 

 the fates are against us, we are doomed to decline more and 

 more," true courage and patriotism would face the facts, 

 inquire into their causes, and, if possible, find a remedy. The 

 lack of public spirit has contributed to the decline of many 

 towns. The evidence of this is sometimes seen in dilapidated 

 school-houses, poor roads, absence of sidewalks, and neglected 

 common, cemetery or church. Remembering that what any 

 people can be depends largely on what they have been, the his- 

 tory of our towns should kindle within us a just pride for the 

 past and a new inspiration for the future. To this end, each 

 town needs to be distinctly conscious of itself, jealous of its 

 good name, liberal in supporting its schools and churches, 

 adorning its park or "Tillage Green," cemetery and streets, 

 and in every practicable way guarding its honor, and ambi- 

 tious of its prosperity. 



In New England, the township is the unit, but in the Southern 

 and in many of the Western States the " parish" or the county 

 is the unit, while the township organization is wanting or is 



* Referring to the example set in Haddam. 



