324 



Hon NOT TO DO IT. 



places, has been done by the present generation, it 

 is deplorable to see the indifference with which they 

 treat their beautiful inheritance. Crowded trees 

 are allowed to remain, broken branches are not re- 

 moved, but often a huge limb is hacked off to per- 

 mit a view of what is passing in the street, leaving, 

 in defiance of all principles of correct tree pruning, 

 an ugly stump, the decay of which often causes the 

 death of the tree. The bean-pole seems to have 

 been the ideal sought by the average tree butcher. 

 It is too much to expect that every one will have a 

 just idea of the worth of trees, but not too much 

 to expect that a people claiming to be civilized 

 should show that they possess some notion of their 

 value. 



A good but ill-advised lady, desiring to benefit her 

 towns-people by giving them a building for a public 

 library, having a large and beautiful lot, affording 

 ample room for the seclusion and quiet so appropri- 

 ate to studious uses, erected the building so nearly 

 on the street line that too little room was left for 

 travel on the sidewalk between the structure and 

 the huge trunks of two noble elms that had shaded 

 the people for generations ; so the trees were ruth- 

 lessly destroyed, and to gratify an unrefined taste 

 one of the town's most beautiful landmarks was 

 obliterated forever. But the culminatian of barba- 

 rism was a recent organized attack on the ancestral 

 trees by direction of the town council, in the interest 

 of an electric light company and against the rights 

 of property owners. This venal body decreed that 

 the trees should be robbed of all but their topmost 

 branches to allow the inefficient lights to be seen, 

 and in place of verdure and grace, hacked trees and 

 ugly shapes remain to excite among visitors ridicule, 

 pity and contempt. While other town^ are burying 

 the dangerous wires and getting rid of the unsightly 

 poles that render them unattractive to people who 

 can choose their own homes, this backward place 

 sacrifices its renowned trees for the benefit of a 

 company of speculators who care nothing for beautj' 

 or the preservation of rare traditions or the adorn- 

 ment of other people's homes. It is no wonder 

 people no longer seek to make their homes in this 

 once admired place. 



It is not, however, to trees alone that Boltonians 

 have devoted their destructive energies ; the prin- 

 cipal road in the southern part of the town skirts 

 a beautiful bay, whose shores were once lined with 

 picturesque rocks that gave an interest to ever)- 

 part of its graceful curves. "More money than 

 brains " has been spent in destroying these beautiful 

 formations and forming them into long walls and 

 hideous lines. The encroaching waters have in 



some places rendered protection necessary to the 

 banks, but a rough "rip-rap" wall would have been 

 more effectual than the heavy masonry that has 

 been put up. Part of this is finished by an ugly 

 cement- coated wall, shutting off the view of the 

 harbor and preventing the escape of water after 

 rain. A light iron fence would have afforded the 

 protection required without being a blemish on the 

 shore. Why certain individuals have built heavy, 

 expensive stone walls along the high-water mark, 

 where no one ever crosses, " passeth all under- 

 standing," unless it was done for the benefit of the 

 small boys who amuse themselves by running along 

 the tops. In some places the owners have destroyed 

 the green strips of grass between their sidewalks 

 and the road and covered the space with coal-ashes 

 or tar walks, and wonder why everybody does not 

 admire their handiwork as much as they do. The 

 beautiful old houses look weary in their incongruous 

 settings, as if the time had come for them to aban- 

 don the vulgarity of their surroundings. The most 

 conspicuous of these, from its size and position in 

 the center of the town, is one of those beautiful 

 creations of our early architects — adaptations of 

 the French renaissance — that are admired by the 

 ignorant and cultivated alike. Built before beauty 

 of proportion was ignored, the elaborate details are 

 all so subordinated to the general effect as to pre- 

 sent a scene of classic beauty. Finely situated 

 upon gently rising ground, the surroundings are dis- 

 figured by neglected bedding plants in the worst 

 style of the modern florist. Beauty of form and 

 plant life are unknown. Monstrosities in the form 

 of rustic baskets obtrude themselves before Cor- 

 inthian columns, and the attempt in other ways to 

 combine rustic grace with classic beauty and sim- 

 plicity is an utter failure. The delicate fence that 

 guards the place from encroachment on the front 

 affords one of the best examples of old wrought- 

 iron work to be found in the country ; yet the latest 

 addition to the grounds is a heavy stone wall, built 

 with an affected roughness, showing the broken stone 

 and lines of mortar, and two circular piers that are 

 barbarous compared with the delicate finish of the 

 older stone work. The impression is one of cost 

 and pretension. Vulgarity is stamped upon all that 

 is modern, refinement upon the work of the past, 

 despite the vaunted progress of the century. The 

 two latest additions to the expensive houses are not 

 lacking in pretensions, but those in the line of hor- 

 ticulture are absurd. The fine trees on the road in 

 front of them have been hacked to permit a view of 

 the buildings, and the lives of the elms have been 

 shortened by scars that invite decay. Shrubs, dis- 



