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What the Small Town may 
 do for Itself 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES KNOWLES BOLTON 
 
 (Gopsrigbt) 
 
 Reprinted from the 
 
 iRew England Machine •; 
 
 March, 1896 
 
r :•/: 
 
WHAT THE SMALL TOWN MAY DO FOR ITSELF. 
 
 By C Italics Knowles Holt on. 
 
 AS we drive through our beautiful 
 New England towns which lie 
 among the hills and along the 
 wooded streams, it is difficult to be- 
 lieve that these peaceful homes pro- 
 duce more murderers in proportion to 
 the number of inhabitants than our 
 largest cities. Yet this is the case. 
 Where an angry word is the chief 
 event of a month, it assumes a magni- 
 tude it could never have in the life of a 
 man surrounded by his fellows. Soli- 
 tude gives too much occasion for self- 
 analysis and for brooding over one's 
 misfortunes and one's grievances. 
 Robinson Crusoe's safety lay in his 
 mental activity; and it is his example 
 in this that is needed in our country 
 towns. One hundred years ago the 
 isolated farmer spent his winters as a 
 cordwainer, a broom-maker, or a 
 cooper. But the cities have absorbed 
 these industries and the farmer too 
 often passes the long months almost 
 in idleness. 
 
 The most important step in behalf 
 of the country town is perhaps the 
 establishment of the public library. 
 There are now very few Massachu- 
 setts towns without public libraries. 
 New Hampshire makes it compulsory 
 for her towns to establish libraries; 
 and other states will not be far behind 
 her. Where there is a state board of 
 library commissioners with power to 
 direct and aid in establishing town 
 libraries, there certainly should be 
 some one in a place public-spirited 
 enough to claim this assistance. The 
 library — no longer a retreat for de- 
 generates — will then become the intel- 
 lectual and social centre of the village. 
 It should have books for serious study 
 and for light reading: it should have 
 a room for exhibitions, lectures and 
 .concerts, and another for children. 
 More than all. it should have a con- 
 
 versation room with an open fireplace. 
 It is a rare New England town which 
 is not the birthplace of some man 
 wealthy enough and willing (if prop- 
 erly approached) to give such a 
 library building. 
 
 ■nt From the library the young people 
 will draw material for a live debating 
 society, the older people material for 
 literary and art clubs. There is noth- 
 ing discussed in Paris, London, New 
 York or Boston which the smallest 
 public library may not know about in 
 £t fortnight. 
 
 The public schools are now foster- 
 ing a method of study popularly 
 known as coordination. The history, 
 the political science, the art, the poetry 
 of a country grow side by side ; more 
 than that, they are interdependent for 
 this growth, and in studying these 
 subjects at the same time children are 
 unravelling the strands of a natl 
 fabric. The vitalizing ; 
 method is, in part, the interest which 
 is awakened in local co-n 
 When a lady offered a pi E 
 best essays on the first soldier of Brook- 
 line, Mass., killed in the Revolution, it 
 seemed hardly possible that Irish boys 
 of twelve could grasp the subject. 
 One of the most creditable efforts, 
 however, was a composition written 
 and illustrated by an Irish boy. For 
 the early traits of his hero the boy 
 drew upon the story of Washington, 
 and for his illustration of the soldier 
 drilling before the old orthodox 
 church Hong ago torn down) he 
 sketched his own familiar Catholic 
 church. He had the right idea; and 
 the Revolution will always remain as- 
 sociated in his mind with his own 
 town. 
 
 In the high school a study of 
 national and municipal needs widens 
 and intensifies the interests of every 
 
scholar. The master of the school 
 discusses each local problem as it 
 arises, and takes both boys and girls 
 to the town meetings, that they may 
 see the same problems argued and 
 voted upon for the final good or hurt 
 of the town itself. In preparing for 
 this, the previous development and 
 cost of maintenance of the various de- 
 partments of schools, police, lighting, 
 street cleaning and watering, etc., are 
 tabulated by the students, who then 
 attempt to explain the fluctuations 
 which appear on these graphic charts. 
 In their debating society, an evening 
 in each year is given to a mock session 
 of some representative body, the city 
 council, the state senate, or the na- 
 tional upper house. These are an 
 educational force as well as a source of 
 entertainment to the whole com- 
 munity. 
 
 From this same progressive spirit 
 has grown the high school paper, 
 which has printed not only the essays 
 and verses of the students, but also a 
 series of papers by a well known grad- 
 uate, an historical sketch of the school 
 alumni by a former master, 
 it cresting local diary, edited 
 with explanatory notes. 
 
 As dn outcome of this fostering of 
 local interest two prizes for original 
 investigation in local history are now 
 offered each year by a citizen to the 
 senior class in the high school. It 
 has been a surprise to see how much 
 that is new and permanent in value 
 may be gathered together by young 
 people who have had no special train- 
 ing but are spurred on by the novelty 
 of a fresh task. The last year has wit- 
 nessed the rescue from oblivion of a 
 number of quaint anecdotes of the 
 Revolutionary period. And the store 
 of data gathered from rare and un- 
 familiar books or papers seems un- 
 ending. For example, the career of a 
 Continental soldier who was a credit 
 to the town has been thoroughly 
 brought to light, even to the details of 
 his daily habits, in the face of the state- 
 ment ^ade by a local historian that 
 "nothing- could be found about him." 
 
 This year the stories of our men in the 
 Civil War will be collected. 
 
 Some of us wondered how these 
 essays could be printed, both for safe 
 keeping and for the benefit of other 
 towns. An historical society often 
 does little more than print addresses 
 of the presidents and obituaries of the 
 members. In such a company the 
 essays would have been lost sight of, 
 or would have been sent down to pos- 
 terity burdened with emendations by 
 the members. 
 
 At last the following prospectus was 
 drawn up and printed : 
 
 " The Brookline Historical Publication 
 Society. 
 
 " The Brookline Historical Publication 
 Society is organized to collect and print in a 
 uniform series such manuscripts and mate- 
 rial not readily accessible as shall seem 
 worthy of permanent preservation. 
 
 "There shall be a Publication Committee 
 of three to decide upon all matters suggested 
 by the aims of the Society. 
 
 " The object of membership is to provide 
 funds to carry on the work of the Society, 
 and each subscriber of the annual fee of one 
 dollar ($1.00) will receive free all publications 
 of the Society. 
 
 MISS 
 
 Treas. 
 
 Standing Publication Committee. 
 
 " N. B. Subscriptions may be sent at 
 
 once to the Treasurer at the Public Library." 
 
 It may be noted that there are no 
 officers, no elections, no meetings and 
 no rules. What has been the result? 
 Subscriptions have come in so rapidly 
 that we shall print during the first 
 year four "publications" besides the 
 prize essay which alone it was our first 
 intention to issue. Those already 
 printed are: A letter written in 1810 
 by Rebecca Boylston to her uncle, tell- 
 ing of changes in the town, and of her 
 engagement; the Sharp family papers; 
 and Brookline in the Revolution. The 
 church records, the graveyard inscrip- 
 tions and collections of wills, deeds, 
 etc., will follow. 
 
 Every town has its letters and its 
 diaries which should be preserved. 
 One lady whom I approached for 
 papers declared that she had nothing 
 
 / 
 
of value. After some patient ques- 
 tioning I secured a package of deeds 
 ana wills; of these thirteen were dated 
 prior to the year 1700, one of them 
 only thirty years after the coming of 
 the "Mayflower." The autographs of 
 Governors Shirley, Bellingham and 
 Dudley gave them the dignity of 
 history. 
 
 Our society was started with an 
 outlay of about six dollars for circu- 
 lars and envelopes, besides six hundred 
 one-cent stamps. Each publication 
 of eight pages costs ten dollars for 
 three hundred copies, and a dollar 
 for each one hundred copies extra. 
 A bookseller assures us that when 
 we have enough numbers to make a 
 volume, with title-page and index, he 
 will be able to add to our treasury by 
 further sales. 
 
 In looking about for support it 
 should be kept in mind that "new- 
 comers" are as ready to aid such an 
 enterprise as the members of old fam- 
 ilies. The dollar, like the prey of the 
 hunter, often lurks in unexpected 
 places. 
 
 The result, and to some extent the 
 aim, of intensifying the interest of 
 young people through giving their 
 work a local application, has been an 
 awakening of parents. To secure 
 their more active cooperation with 
 teachers, and to unite every interest 
 which could increase the intellectual 
 activity of the community, the super- 
 intendent of schools initiated the 
 movement which has resulted in the 
 formation of the Brookline Educa- 
 tion Societv, with its five hundred 
 
 members. Already the possibility 
 of a common meeting ground has 
 been found of immense advantage for 
 a better understanding of aims and 
 standards, as well as for the discussion 
 of such questions as proper hygienic 
 conditions, recreation and sleep, with 
 the parents themselves. A closer and 
 better relation between parents and 
 teachers has followed the growing 
 affection and respect between teachers 
 and scholars. 
 
 During the present winter a course 
 of afternoon historical lectures is be- 
 ing delivered at the high school, open 
 not only to the high school pupils, but 
 to those of the upper grades of the 
 grammar schools. Local history and 
 the Civil War furnish the themes. 
 
 All these efforts, it will be noticed, 
 have more or less directly served to 
 bind together an increasing number 
 of people, through appealing to their 
 local and social interests. And any 
 methods which do this successfully, 
 especially in our smaller towns, help 
 to produce a healthier and happier 
 community. Brookline is, of con 
 a peculiarly circumstanced t< " 
 there are few where these thii 
 could have been started so ea 
 But, the way once p< 
 there are not many important towns 
 where work like this cannot be done; 
 and there is no town so small or 
 poor that it could not undertake 
 modest things in such directions. 
 Could anything be better to help 
 our country towns to a serious, 
 worthy and entertaining intellectual 
 life? 
 
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 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 077 289 6 
 
 Hollinger 
 
 pH 8.5 
 
 Mill Run FOS-2193