SHADE-TREES.—One of the first things that will require your action is,
the planting of _shade-trees_. Get your neighbors to join with you.
Agree to do four times as much as your share, and you will, perhaps,
then obtain some help. Try to get some more to do the same in each
street of your village or town.
_Locusts_, of course you will set for immediate shade. They will in
three years afford you a delightful verdant umbrella as long as the
street. But _maples_ form a charming row, and the autumnal tints of
their leaves and the spring flowers add to their beauty. They grow
quite rapidly, and in six years, if the soil is good and the trees
properly set, they will begin to cast a decided shadow. Elms are, by
far, the noblest tree that can be set, but they will have their own
time to grow. It is best then to set them in a row of other trees, at
about fifty or a hundred feet apart, the intervening space to be
occupied with quicker-growing varieties.
The beech, buckeye, horse-chesnut, sycamore, chestnut, and many others
may be employed with advantage. Now, do not let your court-house
square look any longer so barren.
_Avenues_ may be lined with rows of trees, but squares and open spaces
should have them grouped or scattered in small knots and parcels in a
more natural manner.
MAY-WEED.—There was never a better time to exterminate this
villainous, stinking weed than summer-time will be. Just as soon as
the first blossoms show, “up and at it.” Club together in your streets
and agree to spend one day _a-mowing_. Keep it down thoroughly for one
season and it will no longer bedrabble your wife’s and daughter’s
dresses, nor fill the air with its pungent stench, or weary the eye
with its everlasting white and yellow.
SIDE-WALKS. What if your neighbors are lazy; what if they do not care?
Some one ought to see that there are good gravel walks in each
village. You can have them in this way: Take your horse and cart and
make them before your own grounds, and then go on no matter who owns,
and when your neighbors see that _you_ have public spirit, they will,
by and by, be ready to help you. But the grand way to do nothing, is,
not to lift a finger yourself, and then to rail at your
fellow-citizens as selfish and devoid of all public spirit.
PROTECT PUBLIC PROPERTY.—What if it does concern everybody else as
much as it does you? Some one ought to see that the fences about every
square are kept in repair. Some one ought to save the trees from
cattle; some one ought to have things in such trim as that the
inhabitants can be proud of their own town. Pride is not decent when
there is nothing to be proud of; but when things are worthy of it, no
man can be decent who is devoid of a proper pride. The church, the
schoolhouse, fences, trees, bridges, roads, public squares, sidewalks,
these are things which tell tales about people. A stranger, seeking a
location, can hardly think well of a place, in which the distinction
between the house and stye are not obvious; in which every one is lazy
when greediness does not excite him, and where general indolence
leaves no time to think of the public good.
When politicians are on the point of dissolving in the very fervent
heat of their love for the public, it would recall the fainting soul
quicker than hartshorn or vinegar to ask them—Did you ever set out a
shade-tree in the street? Did you ever take an hour’s pains about your
own village? Have you secured it a lyceum? Have you watched over its
schools? Have you aided in any arrangements for the relief of the
poor? Have you shown any _practical_ zeal for good roads, good
bridges, good sidewalks, good schoolhouses, good churches? Have the
young men in your place a public library?
If the question were put to many distinguished village patriots, What
have you done for the public good?—the answer would be: “Why, I’ve
talked till I’m hoarse, and an ungrateful public refuse me any office
by which I may show my love of public affairs in a more practical
manner.”