Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-01-18
RELIEF REMEDIES.
shch As are Suggested by a Careful Study Of the
s Ohio and Colorado ~systenis.
ANCIENT ROADS.

II ANCIENT ROADS.
The HERALD has given to its readers
several articles on the road question,
regarding il, as 1t properly does. as
a very important question. The COM
munication of M. on roads and agricul-
tural topics, the views of Mack, and
others are calculated to stir up thought
and arouse people TO action on this
subject.
Nearly 1000 years ago, the Romans
built roads, in Britain which, in places,
have not yet entirely disappeared. The
lneas of Peru have left to other races
their imperishable work on highways
through the Andes. Yet the people of
Grant county, with all their boosted
civilization, have not a single mile of
road to leave as a tablet on which future
generations can write their epitaph,
Oh! this never ending road work which
comes as regular as seed time and har-
vest. 1t reminds me Of the old story of
~Sisyphus at his eternal task-we heap
up the dirt and the elements replace IT.
Year after year the task is repeated.
WE GO FORTH,
old men and young men, boys and hired
hands, armed with hoes, picks, shovels
and various other weapons of defence.
At 8 o'clock the neighborhood is assem-
bled; each man bears some implement
with which to while away the time.
One man holds aplow and another holds
the lines; two men hold a scraper while
another has to drive the balky team.
They talk some, work some and at five
o'clock they all go home with $3.50
added to the credit side of their road
account while, at the same time, if they
had put in the same hours and worked
harder, on their n~eighbor's farms, they
would have received but half that
amount.
Here is the secret of the honest farmer
working out his tax instead of paying
in coin of the realm. Nevertheless the
old system is better than none, and we
should not say away with it until we
are pretty sure of a better. The HERALD
says, down with the hitehing rail around
the public square, but it has never told
us where we may hitch our horses while
we stand on the sidewalks and talk
politics.
Hoary old servant! venerable relic of
the youthful days of Lancaster! Time,
fractions horses and the ~irreverent
HERALD are corlbined against thee.
Soon thou wilt be no more.
GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN,
for the enterprising citizen will rear to
thee memorial stables where the horses
Of the meek yoemanry can SILVER at
25c, a head. No, not forgotten, for in
this most BETTING manner shall we pay
to thee a perpetual tribute. Thy broken
rails, thy lettering posts, dumb with the
e%loquenee of decay, invoke our sym
pathies. We say for thee ReSurgam.
We pass.
Your scribe has given this subject a
great deal of thought. You have seen
at the beginning that ancient history
has been studied on the road question.
1t is impossible, however, to dispose of
the question of good roads in one short
article. AT present we wish THE
HERALD to consider us one of the pre-
liminary agitators. Your correspond
ents will discuss different plans, con
denim this or that, as the feelings of
the different writer's may dictate, and
ultimately out of the seeming chaos
probably leave a better system, and bet
ter roads than now mark the fair face
of Giant County.
A few years since the Chicago Trib-
une had the question of roads very much
at heart. Its editor sought to Introduce
an innovation by advocating the use of
EXTREMELY WIDE-TIRED FARM WAGONS,
which would pack instead of cut up the
roads. The idea was incomplete, and
failed for various reasons. In advocat-
ing the use of four-inch tire for the wag-
ons, he should have advised the use of
sixteen4inch feet for the horses. 1t was
an outrage on the overseer, for it made
the roads so compact it was almost i'm
possible to loosen them up again, and
a.
it took away his opportunity for in
%creasing. his fame by bossing the road
work himself. IL was an outrage on the
farmer, for under the pretext of hauling
his grain to market he was compelled
TO work on the roads, and there was
danger Of bis losing the opportunity to
enjoy himself at that occupation as he
had hitherto done. Besides the majority
Of farmers do not keep teams enough to
haul anything of aload to market, when
compelled to haul it on a road roller.
For nay part | have always looked on it
as a scheme of Joe Medill's, to throw
the burden of the work on the rural pop
u%lation.
The HERALD has already given its
readers the Ohio system of making
roads. NJ, some weeks ago, told US
WHAT HE KNEW
about farming, but not what he knew
about roads. NJ has been in Colorado,
and with his ~tircless disposition for ac-
quiring knowledge, / feel assured he
did not miss the opportunity of learning
the road system Of that State. Col
orado, in general, has good roads,
which are in the care of active officials
called "'Road Agents" Whence comes
their authority to act, | do not know.
M, with his knowledge of laws and con
, s%titutions, both ancient and modern.
might explain it. The difficulty is not
. so much in maintaining good roads as
collecting the tax.
, There is this novel feature-which
comes. perhaps, of t%hesgeneral advance
, ment of ideas, of the progressive West
over the effete East-the tax instead of
, being collected OF the permanent resi-.
t dents, is gathered from the trarclers