102 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
m 
% 
IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATIONS. 
Conducted by -^ 
Frances Copley Seavey. 
Leave the World a pleasanter place than you foutui it. 
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 
No line of work that can be appropriately under- 
taken by Improvement Associations is of greater 
immediate value to a town or to a village than 
cleaning, setting in order and planting its Railway 
station grounds, and the private premises and pub- 
lic ground fronting or, as is more 
frequent, backing on its railway 
rights of way. 
Rightly done, such work be- 
gins at once to sow seed if not, 
indeed, to bear fruit, for it is 
noticed by the passing traveler, 
and the visiting stranger; is 
spoken of far and wide by com- 
mercial travelers, and never fails 
to be remarked by trainmen. 
Villagers can not know what 
train carries men who are on the 
lookout for suitable sites to vvlvch 
to send their families for the 
summer or for new homes in 
which to locate, perhaps per- 
manently. It is a common thing 
for commercial travelers to make 
homes for their families in towns that are con- 
veniently placed for their business routes. The 
general appearance of a place is what these men 
note first, and their first impressions are gained by 
preliminary views obtained from the windows of a 
railway train and on alighting at a railway sta- 
tion. It is like entering the hall of a dwelling — 
one is either attracted or repelled by the first 
glimpse. This first impression is not readily over- 
come and if it is good, the greatest point is gained. 
In the matter of railway station grounds and rail- 
way rights of way, an agreeable impression is well 
nigh indelible because of its extreme rarity — the 
usual one being dust, dirt and din. In small pla- 
ces the din is comparatively slight so if the other 
senses are soothed by pleasant sights, sweet odors 
and grateful shade, the hearing may be lulled into 
forgetfulness or at least into inattention. 
Outside of the suburbs of large cities on a few 
roads and at summer resorts, the first view from 
trains of r.xilway towns in general is actually repul- 
sive. Has not every one noticed that as soon as a 
railway enters the corporation limits of towns and 
villages everything turns its back? The notion 
seems to prevail that anything in the way of fen- 
ces, buildings and gardens is good enough to front 
railroad land. Few recognize that this is really the 
most important highway, the main thoroughfare, 
the route by which not only one’s friends, but 
one’s enemies enter; that in these days the expected 
and the unexpected guest usually arrives by the all 
rail route. Besides the great majority of the pass- 
ing public must judge of the tastes, habits, man- 
ners, — in short of the civilization of the inhabi- 
tants, by what is seen from the car windows. 
That the traveling public does so pass judgment, 
is known to every traveler. Almost all passengers 
THE RAILWAY STATION GROUNDS AT VALENCIENNES, FRANCE, 
pay more or less attention during daylight to the 
country traversed, and every attractive place is re- 
membered the more so, as was before noted, because 
of their rarity. 
It is a fact that railway rights of way as they pass 
through the country are like flower brocaded rib- 
bons; it is only when the corporation limits are en- 
tered that disorder, squalor and all unsightliness 
gather around to offend the senses and the taste of 
the unwary passenger. The towns and villages 
that should be like gems set along this brocaded 
belt, are really its chief blots. 
Improvement Associations can use their influ- 
ence to induce railway officials to improve their sta- 
tion grounds, can ask their co operation in making 
such improvements, or can undertake the work 
themselves, and in either case they will find no line 
of eflort gives greater or quicker returns. 
The simplest, most effective and only appropri- 
ate style tor such planting consists of strictly hardy 
material that will practically take care of itself 
when once it is established, any thing else is too 
expensive to maintain as well as otherwise objec- 
