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Show o SPRING IMPROVEMENTS. Spring is a time when the desire for improvements is felt by self-respecting people. There are too many persons, per-sons, however, who demand public improvements at municipal mu-nicipal cost, and who complain bitterly if the heavy tax payers do not provide them. Meanwhile they refuse to take the first step to improve their own places. A man who owns a house need never think the thing is finished merely because he has paid and discharged the carpenters, masons, and plumbers. There are always things wearing out, and these tend to make the place look unkept and run down. Standards of living grow higher as time goes on, and to keep up with the procession people must expect to spend a little money from time to time. It is a poor investment for people to put money into a house unless they are willing to spend a little from year to year to keep the thing up. Before they know it the property will look seedy and its selling value falls. It gets a reputation as a place not well maintained, and if they wanted to dispose of it, they would find this out. One of the most attractive things about a place is a good system of walks from doors to the street. The man who maintains a rough walk built of cinders or mere earth would find that a good cement walk would add morehan double its cost to the appearance of his real estate. Then there are people who put in some form of a paved walk, but allow it to become broken, in which case it looks worse than no pavement at all. Improvements along these lines help in the general appearance of a neighborhood and a town. Nomatter how much money is spent on street and parks and sidewalks, side-walks, if houses are allowed to go unpainted, without proper walks, with tumble down sheds and fences in the rear, and without an attractive adornment of shrubbery, the town will look decadent and all real estate will suffer. |