Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-11-02
ROADS ABOUT WASHINGTON.
George Alfred Townsend Proposes That
the Government Build Turnpikes.

| The important subject of opening winter
roadways north and west of Washington city,
which is now agitating many minds. caused a
STAR writer to see Mr.. George Alfred Town
send, who has been active in the concerns and
growth of this capital and region for twenty
years and who has written several literary
works, such s''Tales of the Chesapeake" Katy
of Catoctin, 1.-The Entailed Hat" and wash
( mgton Outside and inside to extend the pub
lies acquaintance with the Maryland section
| beyond the District of Columbia
| Mr.. Townsend is nearly forty-nine years of
age and has been thirty-three years connected
with affairs, literature and the press. lie
weighs 205 pounds, rides horseback and drives
long distances and has his principal enemy in
/ the govt, winch does not affect the flow of in
formation. suggestion and depletion IN his
work. Last summer he travelled from the
| mouth of the Loire. in France, to Stockholm
| and st. Petersburg and has been, since his re-
turn, looking at Washington with the fresh
eyes of one who took up its battles nearly alone
| OF newspaper correspondents when it started
| out OF the slough of deSpond seventeen years
ago.
| THE UPPER MARYLAND COUNTRY.
He was asked the following pertinent ques-
! ton:
DO you see as much reason to expect I'M
provement in the upper Maryland country as
you claimed would be the improvement of this
| capital city when you formerly lived here p
More reason. The artificial obstacles which
embarrassed the growth of Washington no
| longer exist. The chief of these were complete
| indifference to the capital by the nation or
| hostility to any congressional expenditure here
| and the want Of metropolitan population to
| replace the old southern society. The whole
| nfryy
capital and turning toward it with the instinct
| OF nation. No Senator. Representative or
President Will now get any support at home BY
| depressing Washington. None of the local
nolders-back OF its destiny can ever again have
| the momentary Importance they assumed
| when 1T was striving like LAGOON to escape
| from Its coils. The treatment of Washington
was long like that Of the son of Louis XVI
by the inhuman Jacobins: because he was the
| only heir by law they Knocked him in his
mothers name and apprenticed him to a cob
| bier to be starved, but his sorrows made more
| friends than If he had reigned. / saw in
Europe this summer the principal stirrer-up
OF the sensation against Westinghouse sad.
! wandering quantity. | saw last summer Mr.
| Hugh j. Jewett, who presided over the last
| OF the three Investigations of the District of
oolumbla, riding IN his carriage through the
| highland parts of Maryland, where he has come
to make his only home. l also saw in Europe
Mr.. John G. Moore, the surviving partner of
\ "OnH ". LNdIS, VINO WAS the cnlet quantity at
| lacked In 1873, become now leader in the New
! YORK exchange and finance and prosperous
| everywhere. Men who live by pulling others
| down must, of course, fall underneath. The
three old opponents of Washington were envy,
blackmall and sensation. Every honest jury
man now sees that its plan of improvement
| was the best, because it is now the most beau
| tlful OF our cities and the most relatively at
! tractlve. But it is not finished because it is
not yet connected with that great and pros
! porous free section which defended it in war
| ana subsequently adopted it in fond faith. 1t
| has no winter access to the nearest turnpike or
macadam roads which commence in the lime
| stone region of Frederick and Washington
counties. Maryland 1t is still liable to military
ISOLATION as 1t was in 1914 and 1861. Only a
single track of railroad connects it with the
| west and no railroad whatever with the north.
The other two railroads lines run east"
| How can the common road connection be
obtained?"
by help of Congress- as matter of mill
| tary sense, expediency and foresight, lust as
Congress subscribed for the United States to
| the Chesapeake and Ohio canal now DESTROYED,
| or passes bills to build stone roads to so many
| of the national cemeteries"
| "How many of such bills have been passed?''
"Iwenty-six have been introduced and a
number passed. Every state in the south has
asked for them, and California. The reason for
| building them Is as cogent in the case of
a military road from Washington to Gettys-
burg and to Antietam. The old roads were i'm
passable to get to the cemeteries"
! ANTIETAM MILITARY ROAD.
| "Has there not been a national piece of road
put down this year to Antietam cemetery"
| Eyes, the finest three miles of road in all
Maryland, sixty feet wide, with double side
walks, the whole graded and filled with broken
stone. 1t will last forever with small repair.
| think too much money was probably appro-
4 fn6f ha-a n
| figure asked for at most of the cemeteries
| STILL as the government went to the expense of
| carefully collecting and burying these dead il
was improvident not to furnish passable way
to the grave yards The old lane from Antietam
station to Antietam cemetery, about three
| miles, became dangerous for wheel and beast
| on Decoration and Memorial days. The mill
| tary road now reaches to within three miles OF
| the Potomac at Shepherdstown and it has sup
piled the suggestion for a national pike from
| Washington to Antietam and Gettysburp"
| "In what way?"
| "The abundant Shenandoah or Virginia val
ley, with good system of piked roads, heads
| up at Shepherdstown. From Sharpsburg on
Antietam field, are good pixies to Hagerstown
! and Boonsborough, the latter ON the old
National pike, which proceeds from Baltimore
to Cumberland. A military road from Wash
| lngton to Antietam would loop on to both those
| systems and connect this capital with the mar.
ket garden, granary and commissary supply OF
| the whole mighty valley between the South
| and the North mountains, a valley which fed
the revolutionary army at Newburgh and the
| rebel army in the war till Sheridan DESTROYED
Its mills and barns. During the rebellion two
good marching roads, open all winter, would
| have saved this government immense railway
| bills for keeping the roundabout railway to the
| Relay house and Point of Rocks OPEN All re-
| member the slow and difficult marches from
| Washington to engage the enemy at Antletam
| Gettysburg, South Mountain, Balls Bluff and
| Monocacy. Had the government ever been
beaten in front or flank of Washington in that
northwest direction only could it have re-
| treated, and in that direction also fed Presi-
nent Madison and the government after
the foreign enemy burnt the capital in
1914. The future requires provision as
well as the past. A capital city
| ike TINS Is liable many time again to be sur
| prlsed and cut off. But for the purposes of
peace such a military road would also CONT
nentalize this insulated capital, give its impris-
oned teams and equipages outlet to agreeable
landscapes and multiply its market supplies
| We have no Appian road; we are the only ruling
| city in the world perfectly winter bound to
| Carriages, equestrians, herds of animals and
vegetable and hay supplies. If this government
| by any CONFUSION should disappear anti
| quarlans would wonder if its inhabitants did
not enter and leave it by tunnels or balloons,
for they would see no vestiges of wagon roads. u
THE SITUATION IN MARYLAND.
"1s the Maryland district adjacent to WASH
| too poor to make turnpikes?"
l md Iatb IA