Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1857-01-23
Correspondence.
For the Standard
Highway Etiquette.
4" Sic as ye gle, sic aOiH ye get. "

Win us appropriate ldoOI anu GA -
hard fatiguing work in the cold and wet,
and we hail it unfinchingly and manful-
ly. 1t comes, perhaps, with its hardships
and privations and suferings, and we
meet it with pious resolution and forti-
tude.
But does not the merry single jingle
Jingle" of the sleigh bells remind us Of the
big drifts of last winter +? How they did
pile up! like our own beautiful noun
tains. Some of them broad depressed
cones, like Ball Mountain in the distant |
view, clad in its flowing mantle, the ever
green forest. Some of them rough and |
dragged and obtrusive, like Mount Nor
ris and Owls Head. Some with one
side gradually sloping, and the other bluff
perpendicular or jutting, like Mount
Pisgah, which some choose to call Mount
Annance, looming up two thousand feet
high from the shore of Willoughby Lake.
And some, like the towering angular and
conspicuous Jay Peak, with an audacious
and defiant air, cooked upon their heads
the sacerdotal and military three-corner-
ed cooked hat of the Revolution. And
how we had to dig through them, and
wallow in them, and drive over them, or
90 round them. Andhow hard it was, in
sparsely populated places, for neighbors
to keep up intercourse with each other,
or to get to the schools, or keep the roads
open for public travel.
Funny times we had with our snow
drifts. Funny and fatiguing having to
tread the path anew nearly every week,
and sometimes daily, for about half
year. And nobody on Uncle Sans
broad domain, has more to do in COM
batting the doings of old Boreas than the
inhabitants of Northern Vermont. And
how veritable fact it is, that one half of
the world does not know how the other
half lives. a Southerner who does not
travel, can have no just conception of our
snow scenes. Like some other grave
matters, he can no more comprehend
and appreciate them than he can under
stand how it is that a Northerner believes
that one person is not the master and
owner of another person But let US
= come back from the latitude of orange
/ blossoms to the regions ofsnow-drifts.
: The plan has been sometimes sugges-
: ted, but perhaps not fully tested, that, foI
Y places that usually drift badly, persons
e familiar with the locality, or those upon
a whom it legally deYolves to keep the
e roads passable, should at the proper time
t set up poles or bushes of suitable height
! insthe middle of the road and at con-
i, venient places and distances for turning
Y out, and all who pass should 90 to the
n right of them.
: But the object of the writer, although
ID what precedes may seem quite irrele
want, is, to invite public attention to 4;
- practice prevailing amongst US, touching
II road etiquette, and the right of way, as II
y our winter roads, which seems to impera
:, lively require amelioration the practic,
~ when we ride, of trespassing upon tn,
e rights Of those who walk. There ar
many persons who, when driving on tn
winter road, not only give walkers room
{ to pass, but have pleasure in doing ii
But this is the exception to the rule. Tn
v rule Is, with both double and single teams
r. to usurp all the path. And judging from
tn the insult and abuse that walkers some
* times meet, there are unquestionably som
II. drivers who think they have legal RICH
Us to all the path when passing those VIII
are walking. Such would do well f
ic peruse the law ; and not be wholly re
nd CARELESS of the law of common sense. an,
e. ofcommon ciyility. For there are per
Y. sons, who are determined to find redres
in before the proper legal tribunal if commo
as courtesy will not give them safety upo
i'd the highways.
ed There may be some cause of vexatio
even to wel[disposed drivers, in til
in laundering awkwardness of some pede:
ho TRANS they meet. All persons shout
lie know, and school children should b
ST, specially taught, that, when they meet
10 team they should keep the right han
Cd path and when team overtakes the,
a they should keep the left hand path.
e. they do not choose, as an act of civiltv. I
d, give the whole. In difficult places or eli
i'm cumstances common convenience may +,
an quire that the walkers should yield the
lat right. And when circumstances indicat
in that this is the best way for mutual col
Vemence, no welldisposed and reasonab
ry person would refuse to do it. But IL
We fact should never be disregarded, tn.
old persons, whether walking, riding {