The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1888-08-09

at this juncture of the affair is that the
present board of county commissioners
are the proper ones to make the appro-
priation. It should not be left by them
! 10 their successors. Who knows what the
future holds:
They have taken this responsibility of
| expanding large amount of the county's
money for the exclusive benefit of part
only of the cousty. Equity and fairness
demands that they take the further re-
sponsibility in providing, in so far as they
mPy be able, for some road improve
ments in the northern part of the
| county. l have been informed that
the court, while considering the
bridge question, gave Informal pledges
to that effect. Also, that gentlem en- who
so ably argued the propriety of that step
before the court, as to carry it to sue
cess, also pledged themselves to aid meas
ures for our improvement, to equallze the
sections in benefits conferred.
Respectfully, c. A. GRAVES.
In this connection the STATESMAN, sew
eral days ago, interviewed a well known
engineer on the subject of pixies, and
during the conversation he made few
figures.
The official report of the workhOuse in
st. Louis shows that woman in day
breaks fifty cubic feet Of stone, two
| inches in size, and man seventy feet.
This is the task which they are compelled
to perform, but the report shows that the
average of all the convicts is about
seventy feet.
The engineer referred to took this as
basis in his calculation and estimated
that with an average of twenty county
convicts and the county teams turnpikes
can be built anywhere in this county
twelve to fifteen feet wide with an average
thickness of macadam OF nine inches for
not exceeding $500 a mile, ard from the
| figures given by Mr.. Graves pixies in Ken
tucky do not cost that much. The price,
81 400, mentioned by him, Indicates this,fo
| IL includes all bridges, and
they are numerous in kentucky, and COM
Portable toll houses and other improve
ments every five miles along the line. 1t
also includes the value of the land for the
right of way purchased by the companies
building the roads.
In Travis no right of way will have to
be purchased, and very few bridges will
have to be built, and if the county owns
the roads no toll keeper houses will have
| 10 be erected.
The subject of pixies is worthy of most
earnest attention, and it is a matter that
the county commissioners should give
their prompt and undivided attention.
The material is just as good and just
as convenient as it is in either Kentucky
or Tennessee, and the topography of the
county for building pixies is much more
| favorable.
With 100 miles of pike radiating
from Austin, property values in
the county would more than double, and
this number of miles can be easily CON
structed within five years and the tax
payers not have dollar to pay in excess
of what they now give up for road pur-
poses.
Again, turnpike when constructed re
quires very little labor and expense to
keep it in order.
In Kentucky and Tennessee,
during the war, the turnpikes,
without a lick of work being done on
them, withstood the heavy additional
travel of immense army trains and great
batteries of heavy, numbering, crushing
artillery, without any bad effect whatever.
1t is this popularity of the macadam
lied roads, when constructed of broken
stone not exceeding two inches in size,
that made the name of McAdam, their
originator, worldwide famous. The roads
take their name from him.