Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1879-09-04
For the Advertiser.
LET US AWAKE TO THE SUBJECT
OF ROAD-WORKING.

Editors of the Edgefeld Advertiser:
AS you are interested in the public
roads, and travel over them occasionally
in picnic season. perhaps you might like
to hear the condition they are in, which
I tell you is a very bad one. A reliable
gentleman who lives q few miles South
of Ninety-Six, said to me it would not
hurta buggy any worse to run itdown the
steps of a house, than it would to run it
over some places in the roads. I have
also heard bad reports as to how the
roads have been worked in the Noun
tain Creek section of County. The Com
missioners ordered all overseers to warn
out their hands and put the public roads
in good fix, if it took the full number OF
days required by law to work them.
Have the overseers obeyed the order as
to working the roads we'll? No, not n
in ten The Commissioners ought to
make overseers know what it is to obey
orders, and overseers ought TO maxi
road hands know what orders really
mean. If overseers fail to obey orders,
the Commissioners ought to, without
fear, favor or affection, report them, and
nave them fined according to Law. And
just such Commissioners is what Edge
fold County ought to have. And then
we would begin to have better roads
and when Commissioners or any other
officers fail to do their duty, then it's the
people duty to turn them out, and PVT
new one in their places. There is a
great complaint about not having picks
and shovels to work the roads with.
which I think is a just one. Why don't
the Commissi oners furnish these; why
not levy 8 tax sufficient to get such tools?
Five or ten cents from each taxpayer in
the County, 1 think, would certainly
pay for them, and nobody would be
hurt. The most of the overseers and
hands, 1 think, have come to the conolu-
sion that it does no matter much wheth-
er they work the roads or not. If they
only walk over the road, brush it a little,
and fling a little dirt in the worst places,
it's all right. What is the matter with
the people of Edgetield; have they lost
all their public spirit and enterprise?
There is u song a great many overseers
and their hands have been singing for
the last ten years. 1t runs pretty much
thus: The overseers, when they meet to
work in the spring say, men, it's too
busy a time to do much to the road now;
w have too much blowing to do at
home; corn and cotton don't grow in the
big roads; but when we lay by our
crops, we'll meet again in August, and
then we will fix the roads all right"
And when they meet to give the road
that good August working, they have
another song to sing which is ''men, the
protracted meetings m on Sat
urday. and it will take a day or two 10
fix for them, and when they are over, we
will nave fodder to pull. so we'll have to
give the road a light brushing over
again" And oh ! how heartily the hands
sing this song, and clap theii hands for
joy, and say, Twelve got mighty god
overseers; what a parcel of clever fcs-
lows they are!" And the Commission
ers to whom we look to have the roads
worked, it seems, have been sitting un
der the sound of those sweet songs until
they nave fallen into the sames~ strain, all
agreeing and getting a long together
well.
Our Democratic Commissioners de-
serve credit for the economy they have
used in building bridges and taking cal e
of the peoples money; but what credit
they deserve for having the public high
ways worked, 1 leave for the people who
travel over the roads to judge.
OBSERVER