Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1874-10-23

Mr.. Editor The time has arrived when
every inhabitant Of this village should give
thoughtful consideration to this subject.
Public facilities and accommodations which
Guf1ced for population OF two thousand
or twenty-five hundred are found quite in
adequate to the requirements OF FIVE thou
sand people and the manner Of providing
and administering these accommodations,
such as they are, has como to be quite as
defective and inefficient as the accommo-
dations themselves. The whole subject,
therefore, needs careful revision.
or the FIVE thousand people, more or less,
who reside in this village, subject to the
public system Of taxation, probably not one
hundred own horses and drive in their car
Tiages. The other four thousand and nine
hundred walk and most of them from ne
eessity, very few OF the whole number be-
Ing able to indulge in any other mode of
travel. And yet, beyond providing curb
stones in certain cases, where the owners
OF AUDITING property have offered to build
sidewalks at their own private expense,
and supplying an occasional load OF gravel
here and there, not a dollar OF all the mon
sy raised by public tax is expended for the
direct benefit and accommodation of pedes-
TRANS. The money is nearly all spent in
providing fine rosdways for horses and 9TH
or brutes while men, women and children
are len to pick their way through mud and
Nth as best they may. Citizens OF this viii
lage, who are heavily taxed for all public
purposes, including expensive horseways
aalhnIn rfn al
told, in response to petitions for better side
walks, that the public authorities do not
feel at liberty to spend the public money
for that purpose, and that any one who de-
sires improvements of this kind has per-
fsot right to make them at his own expense.
That IL to say the public money raised by
general tax, may be, and Is, lawfully ex-
pended for the direct benefit of the one
hundred who are 80 fortunate as to be able
10 own horses and carriages, but 1t is not
lawful to spend any considerable portion of
this money for the direct benefit OF the I'M
fortunates who can only use the means of
locomotion which nature gave them
say direct benefit" for indirectly and
more or less remotely, good roadways, as
we'll az good sidewalks, benefit all. 1t has
frequently been the practice, too, of the Sc
lOetmen, am informed, while leaving our
sidewalks almost entirely uncared for, TO
divert large portions OF the highway tax
money paid by residents of this village, to
The use Of other highway districts In remote
parts OF the town. This practice should be
abandoned forthwith, and every dollar
raised here should be faithfully expended
here, at least until both streets and side
walks are put In most thorough repair. In
the mean time would by no means advise
that highways in other parts OF the town
should be neglected. Let the deficiency in
any district be supplied from the town
treasury, as has been sometimes done here
tofore, and no taX-paying citizen OF this
village will complain Of the burden. But
don't rob the village OF dollar OF the high
way money paid within Its limits so long
~ our streets, and especially our sidewalks
remain In their present deplorable condi-
tion.
Now, Mr.. Editor, do not say that the
Selsctmen and other officials, having our
streets and highways in charge, are placing
q wrong construction upon the law but
do say, II their construction is right the
Jaw ITSELF Is radically wrong. l hold, and