Brenham weekly banner. [volume] (Brenham, Tex.) 1877-1907, 1882-02-02

uary we have had wet weather,
the rains have not been particu-
Iarly heavy but continuous and
penetrating; the ground is
thoroughly saturated with mois-
ture and the county roads in
many places have literally no
bottom that can be reached by
ordinary wagon wheels. All
the wagons in use in this coun-
try have very narrow tires, two
inches being the average width.
These narrow tires cut the soft
roads very much and in addi-
ton there are many Doggy
places that are literally impassa-
BILE. This condition of the
roads is of annual recurrance ;
the roads get bad as regularly
as the winter rains set in, and
with equal regularity the peo-
ple-in county and city alike
complain.
What to do with the roads is
a problem that is rather hard to
solve; in dry weather the roads
are in good condition and then
no thought ofthe future is given.
There is a disposition in some
quarters to blame the county
commissioners; they really are
not to blame; they, as required
by our road law, divide the
county into districts and APP
point road overseers the road
distictricts are numerous, so are
the overseers, each ,overseer is
assigned only the hands in his
particular district, and it fire.
quently happens that a district
having a very bad piece of bot
tom or Doggy land has very
few hands, too, few to do the
amount of work requireds
The road overseer gets no pay
for his work and his neighbor'
who are subject to road duty,
take occasion to get mad at
him when he asks them out to
work. In repairing the roads
little or no attention is paid to
drainage and this is the one
great secret of the bad condi-
ton of many of our county
roads; they should be thrown
up, ditched on each side and
culverts put in where necessary;
the Doggy places usually have
no drainage and they are the
chief cause OF the roads being
impossible. AT this season of
the year, when an empty wag-
on can not be hauled, it is
useless to talk about road-work,
dry weather will accomplish it,
but while people are in....the no.
ton of doing something, ar
engagements might be made for
repairing the roads when the
weather. gets dry.
The real difficulty lies not so
much with the road overseers
and road hands as it does with
the road law, which to say the
least is unjust. Under the law
every man between the ages Of
Is and IS years is subject to
work on the roads ten days
each year. Suppose a land
owner has fifty tenants on his
land that are subject to road
duty, they are liable to ten
days road service each year,
which is equivalent to 500 days
labor, or $500 contributed by
tenants, who are paying rent to
the landlord, while he himself
pays no road tax other than the
ten days work, if he be under
IS years of age, otherwise he
pays nothing. This is certainly
unequal taxation, and if un-
equal unjust. The land owners
as a matter of course favor the
present road law, but the ex-
istlng condition of the roads
and bridges show it to be a
failure. The road question
should be thoroughly discussed
by. farmers and town people
and the next legislature should
be called upon to amend the
law and devise some means by
which the roads can be kept in
some sort of repair at all sea-
seasons Of the year.