Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-01
WAYSIDE THOUGHTS,
Arising From Series Of Drives Over
the Township Roads.
ALLEGHENY COUNTY'S DISGRACE.
Effect Of Mixing Rocks and Clay Generally
in Road Making.
Observation-Disclosures

N. W. Shafer, Esq, has been driving ex-
tensively lately over the liner regulators
which County Supervisors call roads, and
which swallow yearly more filing without
effect than the famous Slough of Despond
which came so near miring John Bunyan's
hero, and Mr.. Shafer's disgust is several
times skin deep. 1t is enough to stir fever
In the blood OF either saint or sinner of any
age to drive out ten miles from the city on
almost any road, and at the same time stir
up his breakfast and give him sensation of
seasickness, and on some of these ground
troughs he will be chargedl and when he
reflects that over So, 900, 900 have been spent
In these alleged highways, spent within this
county and outside of cities and boroughs,
he is able to appreciate any honest effort made
to give us a State law that will remedy the
matter. 1t might pay to Wnship to. send its
supervisors to travel over the younger sister,
Ohio. and study her system of road-makiDg,
as cities send junketing commissions to
study municipal work in other cities.
Mr.. Shafer being asked for his opinion,
indited the following:
BONE BREAKING EXPERIENCE.
"My recent trip through the neighborirg
populous townships of this county invites
more than passing remark upon the condi-
tion of the kings highways The sum-
mer has been more showery than former sea-
sons, and the result is that the roads are
guttered and cut into ridges and so rough
ened by exposed rocks and stones as to be
passable only with great difficulty and no
pleasure. The condition in which these
highways are nearly always found is any
thing but complimentary to the officers who
have the roads in charge. There seems to
be no system in regard to laying out of
drains, nor any regard paid to the natural
laws or SURFACE drainage, matter so i'm
portant in a country where the highways
run at an elevation of 13 and even more de-
grees. By judicious system of turning
accumulated surface drainage off the high
way at frequent intervals the injury from
washoQts can be wholly avoided, and until
this is taken in hand by skilled road makers
the country districts will suffer from the
want of good, smooth roads.
i"There is no excuse for the roads of the
county to be guttered and uneven, and
covered with great stones against which a
Light vehicle fairly shivers in its course.
must be studied and the |
sooner our supervisors make it study, the |
sooner will they invite the tourist and |
stranger to take a drive over them and note |
the prosperous farms and villages that |
would everywhere spring up as incident to
and consequent upon the improvement of |
highways. The ancients were far in ad- |
vance OF us in the art of road-making we |
are informed that the Appian Way was so
we'll made that for hundreds Of years it was
known as the
QUEEN OF HIGHWAYS
'"Its history is closely associated with
that of Rome, and in the classic writers of
.he time frequent reference was made to the
Appian Way. Modern travellers tell of the
remains of this way. 1t was only from Is
10 % feet wide and while at first was only
125 miles long, it was subsequently carried
rom Capua to Brundusium, distance of
over 800 miles from Rome. 1t was built of
stone by Appius (whose name if commemo-
'ates) brought from a long distance. The
'tones were cut smooth and squared and
itted together closely without any iron or
ther substance and it is said they adhered
o firmly to each other that they appear to
AVE been thus formed by nature and not
emented by art.
This great and ancient way ought to
erve as an example to our local road build
rs everywhere. One mile of good road en-
uringly constructed is better than hun
red miles worked over only to be washed
way by the next shower. The country
bounds in the choicest road-making ma
erial in cheap and inexpensive form. A
cry good road observed by the writer be.
,re the war, and which yet exists, is the
,ouisville and Nashville pike, constructed
black limestone laid on the smoothed
nd leveled surface about II feet wide. This
'ay was
MARVEL OF CHEAPNESS,
nd was always easily kept up. Its 1ati
lde, however, exempted it from the severe
'sts of frost which it would have to en-
,unter in higher latitude. There is no
ecessity of country road being kept in
bod condition over Is feet in width. This
ould enable the Supervisors to concen-
ate their efforts to have drive of suffi-
ent width and sufficiently hard and
nooth to enable teams and carriages to pass
yer without the snap and jars to which they
'e now subjected. 4
1T will not do to leave this matter of
ad making in the hands of men who are
III of other business. It must be in the
,nds of men who are charged solely with ,
e duty of making the highways of the
from the Ohio to the Della
are as smooth and passable by degrees as
e Appian Way.
But it will never come to pass that we
I've such highways in the rural districts so
ng as the owners of the soil remain in
ferent to their interests. 1t must be
ken in hand as the one thing needful. As 8
e country develops and
THE USES OF ROADS n
e enlarged, the necessity of every citizen
teresting himself becomes more apparent 1
ngines and boilers and heavy timbers and
avy pipes are to be hauled in all direc- 4
ms, and in the spring season a two-horse
ad on good roads requires from four to six
rses, and even then the strain and break U
e render travel Of any kind impractic- 6
lie. 1t will not do to say that u
llwsys supply roads, for the rail- n
~ does not supply the want
the good, well kept county road; it never pt
n and never will. To give point to these O.
marks on the road question, let me sug- D p
st to you to go out into the country =
ne of these bright mornings and drive =
er any township road and see the rough
mes that obstruct the wheels; the deep n
tiers that strain your springs and the III
guarded precipices which endanger life.
en- join with me in my effort to get the II
lnty folks one and all to unite In q for II
i declaration that we must have a road
item that will beget better-permanently
ter-roads throughout not only our y
lnty but every county in this Common
alth." 4
G. COHEN, diamond expert and jew
r, 533 Smithfield street.