45 



is the tearing up the turf fronting a dwelling house by incon- 

 siderate road-menders. There is ample room for the needful 

 work of the scraper and the hoe without making unsightly cuts 

 and gutters in front of residences. Painting advertisements on 

 the rocks by the myriad nostrum makers is a nuisance that 

 should be prohibited by law. The same may be said of the 

 encroachments made upon the highway every time the stone- 

 wall or fence boundary is rebuilt. The whole town should 

 show an interest in preventing such curtailment of its road- 

 ways. A Kural Improvement Association can develop a pub- 

 lic sentiment which will of itself correct these evils without 

 occasioning any neighborhood strifes or alienations. In this 

 matter the interest of one is the interest of all. The motto of 

 the Swiss Confederacy, " One for all and all for one," is the 

 true motto for the several districts and for all the people of a 

 town. Hence the term Rural is preferable to that of Village 

 Improvement, for not the village only but all parts of a town 

 should be included in the plans and benefits of this movement. 

 17. An important work of rural improvement in many 

 towns would be the betterment of the surroundings of their 

 factories. Too frequently these grounds are disfigured with 

 rubbish and made unsightly by neglect. Keep a man in a 

 pig-sty and he would become swinish in his habits, but reverse 

 the conditions and you reverse the results. The influence of 

 flowers, shrubbery, or neat and cultivated grounds upon 

 operatives in refining their taste and promoting their happi- 

 ness and content is too often ignored. ' There is, however, a 

 goodly number of our manufacturers who show their interest 

 in their hands by making their factory buildings and tenement 

 houses inviting, comfortable and healthful, and adorning the 

 surrounding grounds. A description of the two model manu- 

 facturing villages of America and so far as I can judge, of the 

 world, will show the desirableness and results of better pro- 

 visions for the taste and comfort of operatives. I do not assume 

 that all factories can fully adopt the standard of these establish- 

 ments, which are in many particulars exceptional in their oppor- 

 tunities. There are serious embarrassments in large and crowded 

 manufacturing towns, especially where the factories are con- 

 trolled by non-resident owners, more anxious for dividends 



