Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-05-24
in lieu of the road tax if he should so elect
THE GOLD DOMINION'' EXHORTS.

THE GOLD DoMINIoN' EXHoRTs.
A few weeks ago, says the Industrial
Soulh, of Richmond, Va, we wrote para
graph or two under the head of Country
Roads, Sin which we called the attention
of. our country readers to the condition of
their county roads, and advised them to
make miGwinter memorandum of the fact
with view to repairing the roads as soon
as the weather will permit. We were graf
ided ID to see the article copied by many of
our most enterprising and publlc-splrlted
contemporaries, as we were thussled to be-
! lieve that the farmers and others most i'm
mediately interested in the matter, will be
awakened to the Importance of so improving
their roads as to guarantee against the re-
currence of their almost impossible condl-
ton when the next winter shall have set in.
"People in the country may, without due
reflection, say they cannot afford to make
their roads good; the truth is they cannot
afford not to do it. To say nothing of all
the other considerations that spring up
spontaneously in every mans mind in this
connection, if a farmer should want to sell
his farm there is nothing that commends it
more than q good road leading toit."
THE SUPREME COURT OE LOUISIANA.
A parish, or county, in Louisiana enforced
certain local provisions for improving the
public roads in front Of a certain mans
property, he having refused to do the work.
|, An appeal was taken to the Supreme Court,
which has decided that the parish ordinan-
ces do not conflict with the State road laws,
and that communicate has right TO enforce
it's claims upon delinquents for the proper
repair and improvements of the public
roads, and that without conflict with State
road laws. The decision, among other
things says:
"a careful reading of the various sections
of the Revised Statutes of 1870, on the sub
iect of roads, satisfies our mind that the
effect of all that legislation is to relegate to
the police juries the full and exclusive pow
ers to establish such system OF road laws as
to them may appear necessary or more con-
venient, and that the object of section 1878
was to specially regulate the powers OF such
system, and to give them ample power to
enforce their systems by fines.
"Such was the conclusion reached by our
immediate predecessors, who held that
section 1854 of the Revised Statutes incor-
porating the provisions of the legislation
of 1858 under which police juries were
clothed with plenary powers in the prem
ises, was the law of the State regulating the
subject matter of public roads. 30 A. 1902,
st. Martin VS. DelahOussaye.
Gin the case Of st. Landry VS.. Stout, 81
A. 1878, the present court recognized the
power Of police juries to enact and enforce
ordinances touching the manner of making
and repairing public roads.
We are, therefore, clear in our conclusion
that under the laws of the State of Louis
lana, police juries are clothed with full
plenary and exclusive powers to regulate by
ordinance the manner of making and re-
! pairing public roads in their respective par
ishes, and that the ordinances of the police
inry of the parish of Terrebonne, on this
, subject, are legal and binding.
9. the argument that the police jury
having exhausted it's taxing power, the
constitutional Limitation, is inhibited from
imposing the additional burden of road
: repairing is evidently not serious, and i
) refuted by q mere statement Of the pro-
f position.
2 s'The taxing power of a municipal corpo
ration is as distinct from it's power to regu
, late the manner of making and repairing
public roads, and to enforce its ordinances
by fine and Imprisonment as it is distinct
from the power of such corporations to en-
r force any police regulations. A fine tol
L. dereliction of duty is not more tax than
an imprisonment, for the violation OF
police regulation"
COUNTRY ROADS UNDER COVER.
Covered bridges are very common thing
but covered roadways have not yet ever
become matter for general discussion
the matter to the public in the following
, article, which may prove interesting i1
this connection:
sTo large extent in the South and South
{ west the highways are OF two dlstlnc
s sorts-in the local parlance, tnnpikes ano
mud roads.
! sThe former title covers the main State
| roads, often constructed with great care anC
e cost and usually macadamized. The latter
l includes the great majority of the country
roads and for nine months or more OF ev
very year, the name is exactly descriptive
of their character. They are emphaticallJ
}, mud roads, and the mud is deep and tena
: cious.
+ Plank roads are sometimes tried where
: lumber is cheap; but they rest under the
: disadvantage Of being expensive and they
: are neither durable nor easily kept nrepair
5 Accordingly mud roads predominate anC
communities possessing them are little Civ
en- to social or commercial intercourse witt
their neighbors, save during the brief pc
S riods when the mud is dry and the wheel
r ing passable good.
y An exception to this rule appears in Bo
e sier parish, Louisiana, where an attempt
r has been made to keep an important earth
> road dry and usable by the novel device
, of roofing it, so as to keep off the rain
t The first stretch of covered road on this
3 plan runs from Red Chute Bridge, Louisi
' ana. four miles across Red River bottom
3 near Shreveport. The idea originated witt
, Judge j. D. Watkins of Shreveport, and
as Is the usual fate of new ideas, it aroused
? no little ridicule. Judge Watkins was not
= man to be laughed down. Obtaining a
: State charter for his enterprise he began tC
: build the road. His opponents compliance
2 that he was obstructing the parish road
$ and attempted to stop the work. but am
ple and lawful room having been given fOl
the parish road their opposition came tC
2 nothing. 1t is now four years since the
, work was begun, and Mr.. John S. Williams
l of Shreveport who has been connected with
: the enterprise from the beginning, informs
2 lis that the road is complete success. Al
f the time of his writing, while the uncover
ed roads were axle deep in some places with
, stiff mud, the shed road was firm and dry
"In building the road, the bed, IS feet
r wide, was thrown up just enough to keeI
out the surface water, and over it was a roo
of plank tive-eighths inch thich, the plank
, being twelve inches wide and twenty feet
. long. Cypress from the neighborlng swamp
, is used for posts, and roughly sawed timber
for frame work. BY means ofan ingenious
, platform mounted on a common tWO-hOrse
y wagon and supporting a light frame work
! four men easily put up twenty sections OF
;. twenty feet each, a day.
, "The cost of the road was about $3,3OO q
mile, with lumber at 81 a hundred feet, Ia
Dor ST a day, posts 124 cents each, earthwork
, 20centsa cubic yardand nails centsa pound
The advantages of the road arise from its
> cheanness. as cOmpared with any other style