218 ASSOCIATIONS FOR RUEAL IMPROVEMENT. 



ual taste, but upon a prevailing sense of culture and refinement among 

 the citizens, which finds expression in the acts of their public officers, 

 who are chosen to represent their taste in the execution of ornamental 

 improvements, as well as to discharge the common duties of their office. 

 Among the old towns and villages of New England, there are many 

 that are conspicuous on account of the splendid avenues of trees that 

 line their streets and shade ancestral homes. One of these places is 

 Stockbridge, Mass., which owes its beauty to the " Laurel Hill Asso- 

 ciation," formed long ago for improving a village park, and from this, 

 the cemetery, public streets, and neighborhood generally. The citizens 

 living along the streets improved, were encouraged to put their premises 

 in tasteful condition, and in keeping them so. The progress of the 

 work is pleasantly described by the Eev. N. P. Eggleston, in a paper 

 written for the New York Tribune : 



Next followed the planting of trees by the roadside wherever trees were Licking. 

 The children, sometimes disclosed in their thoughtlessness to treat young trees too 

 rudely, were brought in as helpers of the association, while at the same time put 

 under a beneficial cuitoi-e for themselves. Any boy who would undertake to watch 

 and care for a particular tree for two years, was rewarded by having the tree called by 

 his name. Other children were paid for all the loose papers aud other unsightly 

 tilings which they would pick up aud remove from the streets. Gradually the work 

 of the association extended. It soon took in hand the streets connected with the 

 main street. Year by year it pushed out walks from the center of the village toward 

 its outer borders ; year by year it extended its line of trees in the same manner; aud 

 year by year there has been a marked improvement in the aspect of the village. Little 

 by little, and in many nameless ways, the houses and lawns, the door-yards and farms 

 have come to wear a look of neatness and intelligent, tasteful care that make the 

 Stockbridge of to-day quite a dilfereut place from what it was twenty years ago. 

 Travelers passing through it are apt to speak of it with admiration as a fiuished place, 

 and, compared with even most of our New Englaud villages, it has such a look ; 

 but the Laurel Hill Association does not consider its home finished nor its own work 

 completed. Committees are even now conning plans for further improvements. By 

 itself, or by suggestions and stimulations ofiered to others, the association is aiming at 

 the culture of the village people through other agencies than those of outward and 

 physical adornment. It fosters libraries, reading-rooms, and other places of resort, 

 where innocent and healthful games, music, aud conversation, -will tend to iiromote 

 the social feeling, and lessen vice by removing some of its causes. 



In no way can village improvement be so effectually secured as by 

 association, affording a ready means for concert of action and unity of 

 effect. The following form has been suggested as proper for this ob- 

 ject,^ aud it is here given with the remark that it might be modified in 

 some cases to meet the wants of local circumstances, and extended to 

 meet other requirements of public utility as might be found proper in 

 certain cases. 



Form of Constitution for a Village Imj)rovement Association, 



Article I. This association shall be called " The Village Improvement Association 



of 



Akt. II. The object of this association shall be to improve and ornament the streets 

 and public grounds of the village by planting and cultivating trees ; establishing aud 

 maintaining walks ; gradiug and draining roadways ; establibhing and protecting good 

 grass plots and borders in the streets and public squares; securing a jiroper public 

 supply of water, establishing and maintaining such sewerage as shall bo needed for 

 the best sanitary condition of the village ; providing public fountains and drinking- 

 troughs ; breaking out paths through the snow ; lighting the streets ; encouraging 

 the formation of a library and reading-room ; and generally doing whatever may tend 

 to the improvement of the village as a place of residence. 



Aht. III. The ofBcers of this association shall be a president, two vice-presidents, a 

 secretary, and a treasurer, who shall constitute the executive committee. These ofiS- 



' This form is copied from an article by George E. Waring, jr., of Providence, R. I., 

 published in Scribncr's Monthly for May, 1877, upon the subject of Village Improve- 

 ment Associations. 



