Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-08-23
RoAp-MENDING IN FRANCE.


consigned TO the kindling wood heap.
RoAD-MENDING IN FRANCE.
Something That Is Good Deal Better
Done Abroad Than Here.
In Harper's Weekly Mr.. Joseph Pennel
has an account Of road making In France.
OF course American roads cannot bo fairly
compared with the great European high
ways used for so many centuries before
the days Of railroads and passing through
very thickly inhabited country, but there
may be some hints for our road-makers in
this description Of model road
" The roadway Is wide enough for two
OF three teams TO pass. Beyond Is a sweep
of beautifully kept grass, and beyond again
two great deep cutters, outside of which Is
a bank of earth higher than the fields which
IL bounds, keeping all the water back in the
fields and off the roads. Every hundred
feet or so cut in the grass by taking the
turf out, is small gutter, through which
any water which may fall in the road is
drained into the deeper gutter. As you
ride along you viii see that the road IS di-
vided by movable tin signs. Near these
signs, which are ususually about milo or
two apart, you will find man breaking
stones small enough TO go through two
and a-half-inch ring, piling the broken
stone up in symmetrical mass ike
house roof, which must exactly fit into
skeleton frame the cantonnier places over
summer and autumn. Other men Will be
picking up the droppings on the road put
ting them in a wbeelbaraow, in another
part of which Is fresh sand 10 sprinkle
over the place, and they carry rakes and
brooins 10 touch up any imperiections on
tho surface, for such things as loose stone
or a lump of dirt is almost unknown. Hav-
ing gathered up anything which may have
fallen from passing carts or wagons each
goes over the whole of his al otted space
OFF the sand, which is taken away and
stored for future use or sold. This is kept
up daily from April to October, and so
oroughly that, though i have traveller
over the roads of France In both the wettest
and driest summers and autumns, have
never found half an inch of dust or mud
on the Grandes Routes. The cantonniers,
when any distance from villages or towns,
have houses In which they 1.-Two, and they
20 to their work morning and evening be.
tween the magnificent avenues of poplars
i'll the north, of expresses In tho south, OF
sycamores, which line so many roads of
the Midi.
With the beginning of october and the
rainy season an inspector comes out
though for that matter he is almost always
travelling up and down-followed by a
large gang Of men, one or more steam
rollers, which, if the district is far from a
town, pull after them gypsy vans in which
the men live. The properly broken stone
Is then spread evenly over the road, the in-
terstices arc filled up with smaller stones
and pebbles. the refuse from the larger
| stuff over this is spread layer of chalky
| or clayey earth, which had been cafted and
| heapcd there in neat piles during the sum
MGR what we wonld call mush molly is
made out of the whole mass with water
from the. gutter, which the en-
! gino OF the roller pumps through
| hose the steam roller next paradcs up
! and down over tho surface for day or so,
| boards and guards are put up 10 keep the
! passers- by from driving ON the grass, and
! by the middle of winter the whole surface
| 4. perfect; so perfect Is it that In ride
| through the Nosges in the carly spring
| although there were high snowbanks on
both sides, the road having been cleared,
and although frost was coming up out oi
! tho ground, 1t was comparatively easy &c
ride on light bicycle, instead of being oh-
| liged to pull the machine through sea Of
N ,d This Is deso ription of the actual
way IN which French roads are kept IL
| repair by the department. of Points e'
Chaussee5, fh1 same system is more ol
less carried out in Germany and Italy.
The great militaryIroads of France ra-
| diate from the large cities like the spoke:
of u wheel. They are all marked wit
| kilometre stones, a kilomctre being abou
fiye-eighths Of "A mile. The stones arr
about two feet and half high, foot and |
half broad, and foot thick. AS yol
| hIHibdCH illt HISt SloiC YOU W.
notice on the side nearest you the name
of the next important town, with its dis
tance in kilometres and metres. On its
face, following the lines Of tho semi-cir.
cular top, you will read Graude Route
number so-and-so, and below the name
of tho great city from which ii starts and
the great city to which 1t goes, says Paris
and Marseilles, and the actual distance
TO each by this road. On the other side
Is the distance from the large town from
which you started. Every hundred metres
you viii see neat little white stone
with the number inscribed on it, As
thore are thousand metres in kilo
metre, there are ten of these stones
As you pass from one of the eighty six
departments of France into another, yor
will see large stone marking the boundary
line aud recording the distance to many
important points. Ii the gradient becomes
at all steep, the fact will be announced
somewhat az 1t is at the side Of railway
and there are several other marks used by
tho engineers. on the first house II
each village, approaching from either end
YOU Will find the name of that village
clearly written on a metal plate, the nam,
of the village you have inst left, with th'
distance, and the names of the neares
| large cities both ways. At all Cross-road
you will find the same information. Th
kilometre stones themselves are painted
white, and the numbers and names are cu
into the stone TO protect them from thu
rain, and painted black.