Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1884-05-23
The Public Roads.

The petition to the County Commits
sioners, asking the appointment of gen.
era' superintendent of the public road ser
vice, which had been signed by the lead
, ing tax payers of the county was presented
| on Tuesday by the committee appointed
for the purpose. The Commissioners re-
celved the paper courteously and gave
the committee an attentive hearing. They
} rendered no decision, but are holding the
matter under advisement The impress
sion prevails that the petition will receive
a favorable consideration. When it is
considered that all the large tax payers of
the county, including the most prominent
Republicans, have joined together in ask
ing this action upon purely local econ
omise measure which can work no inius-
tice to anyone, it is not reasonable to sup
pose that it will be refused by the Com
missioners.
There is no appreciable opposition to
the measure among the tax payers of the
county and no serious opposition from any
source that We have heard of. Some one
has made the suggestion that as no level
ing with instruments will be required on
the roads, the services of civil engineer
will not be necessary. In point of fact
there are frequent cases where difficult
draining is required, when even the prac-
ticed eye of skiIltull engineer will not
properly determine the most economical
and effective way of proceeding, and when
the use of instruments will be required
But people who understand the scope
of civil engineers education are aware
of the fact that the use of levels &C., is
among the Iudimentary elements of his
learning. An understanding of the nature
and peculiar characteristics of timber and
soils and the physical laws affecting the
same, the proper constructors of bridges,
causeways, culverts and other incidents
to public roads, the method of discovering
gravel beds convenient to the places where
they are wanted and other branches of use
tul knowledge appertaining to the science
of physics are among the qualifications of a
civil engineer.
Cases have come uuder the writer's per-
sonal observation, and he has heard OF
many others in the public road work of
this county, in which the great need of
such knowledge on the part of those who
direct the work was forcibly shown.
1t has been frequently seen that after cut.
ting parallel bitches on each side of the
road for the purpose of draining. . GU
bert was Inserted at such "a point as not
to draw the water from The bitches at all |
thereby rendering all the work valueless,
while the men have been often seen haul |
ing gravel on the two slow mules a dis |
lance OF over a mile, with The whole corps |
waiting upon the operation, when knowl- |
edge of engineering would have pointed |
out gravel within hundred yards of the
work. No blame can properly be attach
ed to the supervisors, because they prob
ably did the best they knew but it is TO
the interest of them who bear the expense |
that no high price labor should be thrown
away upon the roads, and all the wei dis /
posed supervisors would, we are sure. be
glad to have someone to point out to them
a way of accomplishing permanent results
with less labor. J
In the matter af- hrida.s- Wa sre>~
one forcible instance which came under !
our personal observation. The county
used to incur an expense of probably $500
nearly every year for repairing the lower
bridge, on The road to ely
mont, which used TO be washed away in
nearly every spring freshet, to the great
obstruction Of travel. The reason was
that the brush and other debris from the
hedges which were placed in the swamp
for fishing purposes used to come down
and lodge against the pier which stood in
the middle of the stream, thereby carrying
away the bridge Those who formerly
constructed the bridge deemed this pier
to be essential to the construction OF
bridge fsuch length. 1t was not until
Captain Page got charge of the roads in
1868 that this evil was remedied. He
dispensed with the necessity OF a pier in
the stream and constructed a suspended
bridge, which has since withstood all the
fresheis and been no source of expense TO
the county or inconvenience to the public.
Instances of this kind might be multi
piled, but the necessity of having some
brains and skill al the head of a branch |
of service which cos's so much ought to
be too manifest to need any demonstration.
The proposition ofplacing skilled person
at the head of the public road service has
been adopted in several counties of the
State and is being now agitated in Others
besides Charles. The B iltimore Sun, which |
manifests most commendable interest 10 |
the internal Improvement and prosper
fly of the counties of the State, in an
editorial in Tuesdays issue, which we
reprint elsewhere, fully commends such a
measure, referring to our county among |
those of the State that are contemplating
such improvements. 1t is believed that
the commissioners will not see fit to refuse |
this most reasonable and very important
request of the taxpayers of the county.
The Warehouse Case.
The LEGAL confest for the posaession of