ON THE OPEN COUNTRY 



some way of getting into it. I know a 

 New England town of rare delights,— one 

 of the most beautiful in America, — ^which 

 is almost unknown to the world because 

 it is so hard to get there. It'' is truly harder 

 to reach than the drawing-room of the 

 most select house on Beacori Street, and 

 fewer there be that find it. The town has 

 no trolley and no railway, and the three 

 wagon roads are so steep and 'had that 

 automobiles and loads of wood, prefer to 

 go somewhere else. It has been Understood 

 for years that this town needs connection 

 with the outside world, but the citizens are 

 poor and discouraged and the improvement 

 has not come. 



Every country district, of course, needs 

 good roads. The foundation of every 

 improvement is economic; and good roads 

 are the foundation of every economic ad- 

 vance. The value of good roads is so 

 manifest and so universally accepted that 

 it is not denied even by the professional 

 watchdog in town meetings. The man 

 who annually opposes the voting of money 

 for schools and libraries, says nothing 

 against the improvement of roads. What 

 rural improvement must aim at, then, is 



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