The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1889-04-26
miscellaneous.
The County-seat Mending Her Ways
to sThe Public BuiId-
ings," &c.
by GEORGE W. ARCHER

While the facts which am about 10 pre-
sent, derived almost entirely from the HAYS
papers and ledgers, are in themselves some
what valuable and interesting, they are rem
dcred much more so by the probability that
there is no other record of them in existence
except, perhaps, n fragment here and there.
Although the $4,000 worth of paving which
was done in the county seat some forty years
ago can hardly be called a"public building"
it was certainly, in view of the previous con-
dilion of The streets, a public blessing, and
not very trivial one. | may, therefore, with
propreiy treat of it in supplement to what
have said about the public buildings.
Prior to this brick pavement era of Bel Air
cart-oGds of "nigger head" stones, so COM
mon in the vicinity of the town, had been,
from time to time, dumped upon the side
walks and after being leveed down, the mis-
cradle abortion, without any regard at all to
the propriely of language, WAS called n
pavement" 1t made, nj least in one sense of
the word, knobby walking, even for the mes,
to say nothing of the ladies, with their wafer
solcs To be sure, in course of time, sufficient
soil accumulated around and between the
projecting heads of these rocks, to fill up
pretty well the intersties but this only made
matters worse, if possible, for after every
shower these spaces became SO many little
holes, upon which pedestrians had 10 keep
their eyes constantly fixed when in motion,
and could not even look up to greet each
other when they met on the street, without
danger of getting over shOe-tOp by a misstep
II they wished to converse for a few minutes,
ench one planted his feet upon two adjacent
bOulders, straddling the intervening space
there to remain immovaby fixed in most
unbecoming posture until the interview end
ed, when they would go each on his way,
clearing the unequal intervals with a jcrky,
zigzag sort OF gait, as they stepped from top
to top of the bouders. And indeed some
of the old Bel Airians, II you will observe,
retain to the present day this irregular stride
and straddle kind of gait, relic OF the 6older
era of the county-seat.
Shows, droughts and hard freezes were
welcomed as godsends; rains and thaws, as
trst-Class Affections. In these latter cases,
to be sure, thick-bo men, as already
shown, could venture out though, it is to be
feared in too many cases, muttering profanity
over the sticky soil, as they went; but the
ladies (gum shoes not having yet appeared)
were completely home bound as long as ma
ture was in the weeping or melting mood,
and they had to wait, with what patience
they could, until the ducks ate all the mud
up, contenting themselves by gossipping
meanwhile with their nelghbOrs on the next
porch or with those across the street, through
open windows, in sort Of scmi-public COL
loquy.
The momentous question of paving the
streets was agitated for long time before
the good work WAS actually begun. So that,
during this whole interval the town, like u
certain Ia very certaiu) other locality may be
said to have been "paved with good inten-
tons" 1t was a sort of transition stage of
the county-seat in the matter of mending her
ways.
Under an act of Legislature which autho-
rized The raising by lottery of $4,000 for
paving the streets OF Bel Air." Thomas A.
Hays, William B. Bond and Harry ID. Cough
were appointed commissioners for that pur-
pose, and when they organized, Mr.. Hays
was made Treasurer and Mr.. Bond Sscre-
tary. The sums received by them from the
State Lottery Commissioners at various times
during fourteen years, beginning in 1874, as
shown by loose paper were rs follows: