148 OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES. 



forlorn condition, giving refuge, may be, to con- 

 demned sleepers or wreck of wheels possibly ten- 

 anted by some burly night porter, who thrusts his 

 stove-pipe through the roof of a dismantled car 

 showing just that disarray, in short, which declares 

 no pride or proof of ownership. If there chance to 

 be any half-filled pits upon the premises, enterprising 

 Celtic citizens of the neighborhood count them good 

 spots into which to shoot their garbarge. All this 

 the town authorities regard as a matter which con- 

 cerns only the distinguished corporation of the road. 

 Thus, between them, the most unkempt and noisome 

 wilderness about the half of such of our country 

 towns as are pierced by railways is apt to lie in the 

 purlieus of the station. Yet railway directors are, 

 some of them, professing Christians, and so are town 

 authorities at times. What now if these good peo- 

 ple (hcec verbi magnificentia /) would lay their heads 

 together to compass what might prove a gain to the 

 town thrift, and so indirectly to the road, without 

 positive loss to either ? What if the town were to 

 extend the area of the corporation lands at its own 

 cost, so far as to establish a little bowling green, that 

 should give piquant welcome to every stranger, and 

 grow to be an object of town pride ? What if care 

 of all grounds adjoining the station should be subject 

 to some custodian, bound to control them after some 



