San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-05-10

PaVements--A Clean Saving
of 90 Per Cent.
The following letters and papers
speak for themselves and will deeply
interest our readers and all our citi-
Zens who concern themselves about
the paving contracts of the city and
the cost of street improvements. The
Hon. D. H. Newton referred to in the
letter of DR.. Taylor, is one of the
gentleman interested in the property
at the head of the river and he would
put good money into improvement is
in this city if he had chance:
Daily LIGHT;
enclose you the following CORES
pondence from the Hon. D. H. New
ton, of Holyoke, Mass, in relation to
brick pavements for heavy traffic. My
own observations are entirely in con-
scnance with his, and 1 can speak
from personal knowledge of the supe-
riOrity of brick over any other mate
rial for paving purposes. Yours,
NJ. X. TAYLOR.
The letter from Mr.. Newton bears
date from the general managers office
of the Des Moines and Kansas City
Railway company, and is as follows:
DEs MONIES, April s, 1889.
NJ. K. Taylor, NJ. D.:
My DEAR SIR:-I forward a slip
from paper, and thoroughly endorse
YOUR idea of "brick pavements" and
hope San Antonio will adopt them.
You will need tough brick, and the
clay aud sand must be right. II may
be necessary to bring the sand from
the sea shore, but this will not add
greatly to the cost. These brick must
be hard burned, harder than is usual
with you. Then let the work be done
by contract in three parts
LIST. To excavate the given depth.
End. To put in the superstructure
(sand bed
3rd. To lay the paving brick on
edge.
The city government that will
adopt brick and secure contracts at a
fair prica, will be entitled to- and will
receive the lasting obligations Of all.
hope to get line from you in re-
ply. Yours,
D. H. NEWTON.
The slip referred to in the first line
of the above letter is a newspaper
clipping from the Des Moines, Iowa,
Register, of July, 1888, showing the ac-
ton of the Des Moines city council on
the brick paving project. The slip
will best interpret itself. 1t is as fol-
lows:
The city council in regular month
ly session yesterday morning, was
called to order by the president, AL
derman Macy, and Aldermen Bolton,
brady, Weltz, Sheldon, King, Egau,
Baker and Morris present. The may or
afterward came in while Clerk Ham
mer was reading the record. When
the record was finished the report of
the committee which went east to in
vestigate brick paving was read. The
committee consisted Of Messrs. Weltz,
Morris and brady, and on their trip
visited the cities of Wheeling, Column
bus, Cincinnati, Gales burg, Blooming
ton, Pittsburg and others. The COM
mittee reports details at length, the
various kinds of brick pavement
which they saw, some of it in con-
struction, and some old and long used
but still in good repair. The cOnclu'
sion of the report is as follows:
"The oldest brick pavement thai
we saw had been down about six
years with a constant travel OH it with
very heavy transfer wagons hauling
iron, steel and nails, with four large
horses and tremendous loads, anC
those who live there and know say
they do not know if there was eve
any repairs made on the street or not
So you can see that the brick pave
ment is able to stand the wear anC
tear of heavy traffic, and to our eye!
the pavement looks as we'll today al
if it was just laid. Where the stree
car rails are laid the pavement ha!
not-worn down Is inch, ana the pave
ment is level with the top of the rails
So it will be seen the pave
ment stands as well the constant trav