rading, nor any
obviously costly improvements. They are, rather, cosiness, neatness,
simplicity, and that homely air that grows from these and from the
presence of a home-loving people.

To state the case tersely, the shiftless village is a hideous village,
while the charm which we often realize without analyzing it comes of
affectionate care and attention.

There are villages in New England, in Western New York, and all over the
West, even to the far side of Arkansas, which impress the visitor at
once as being homelike and full of sociability and kindliness; which
delight him, and lead him almost to wish that his own lot had been cast
within their shades. These are chiefly villages where the evidences of
public and private care predominate, or are at least conspicuous. A
critical examination would, in almost every case, develop very serious
evidence of neglect, unwholesomeness, and bad neighborhood.

Within a few years, beginning, I believe, in Massachusetts, the more
thoughtful of those whose affections are centred in their village homes
have united in organized efforts to make their villages more tidy, to
interest all classes of society in attention to those little details the
neglect of which is fatal, and to make the village, what it certainly
should be, an expression of the interest of its people in their homes
and in the surroundings of their daily life.

The first of these associations of which I have any knowledge (though,
as such work is unobtrusive, there may have been many before it) was the
"Laurel Hill Association" of Stockbridge, Mass. It takes its name from a
wooded knoll in the centre of the village, which had been dedicated to
public use. The first object of the association was to convert this
knoll into a village park. Then they took in hand the village
burial-ground, which was put in proper condition and suitably surrounded
with hedge and railing. Then the broad village street was properly
graded and drained, and agreeable walks were made at its sides.
Incidentally to this, the people living along both sides of the streets
were encouraged to do what they could to give it an appropriate setting
by putting their own premises into tasteful condition and maintaining
them so. The organization worked well, and accomplished good results.
The Rev. N. P. Eggleston, formerly of Stockbridge, in a paper on village
improvements written for the "New York Tribune," thus describes the
collateral work and influen