Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-05

| delays in travelling in this country may be
obtained when it is known that to cover 6
distance some 200 miles less than from New
York to Chicago, it takes 80 days-days Of
discomfort not only in the actual travelling,
but also in eating, drinking and sleeping.
Primitive Highways in Venezuela
With one exception there are no roads in
Venezuela. This exception is mere dirt
road kept up in primitive way, and runs
| over the mountains from La Gusyra to
| Caracas. The old Spanish road between the
two cities, now long abandoned, is q curious
and interesting relic Of the old colonial
times. and suggests the idea that perhaps
the aborigines of this country had in the
Spaniards quite as severe task makers as
those that weighed the straw and tailed the
brick for the oppressed Hebrew. All of
this wide highway was well paved with
stones set on edge and much of it is still in
good state. The scenery along the line Of
tins old way is exceptionally fine, and the
Spanish cavalier upon arriving at the top of
the mountain e., 600 feet) and viewing the
beautiful valley and city of Caracas at
his feet, must have felt quite as contented
as the famous Hebrew who gazed westward
across the Jordan upon the country re-
served for his people.
In the British West Indies macadamized
roads are found. Thus, in Antigua there
are 40 miles of well constructed roads.
The stones used are mainly hard crystalline
limestone, flint and obsidian, to which may
be added trap rock. The stone for the road
bed is broken up very fine and mixed up
with grit. In constructing these roads all
the surface mold is torn of, no matter how
deep it may go. Then the bed is made of
the broken stone, care being taken to see
that there are no pieces larger than two
inches In diameter. After this is COM
pleted the road is ''metaled" to uniform
depth of six inches, and this final stratum
of stone is covered with grit, sand and
gravel as a binder. Once the roadway is
finally completed its endurance is yery
dry weather or muddy in wet. As an in
stance showing the saving in cost through
good roads the simple fact that whereas be-
fore the roads here were made, sugar was
worth S45 hogshead, it is now sold at $40,
speaks for itself:
Women Employed in Making Roads.
In Jamaica the macadam system of road
building is used altogether, and the stage
by the peasantrv to an unusual degree, are
in many places quite equal to many of the
trotting tracks in the United States All
the stone used, which is broken to about
the standard size of "small stove" coal in
the United States, is so reduced bv women,
who break it piece by piece with steel
hammer, sitting with pile of powders in
front of them, and often working for hours
without moving from one spot. This ma
terial is then taken, usually in trays carried
on the heads of women and girls, to the road
and placed wherever the overseer directs.
Some OF these women become SO expert that
they can be left for several days to go on
with the work undirected. In this way the
Jamaicans have built over 500 miles of
road, circumscribing and intersecting the
island and affording an ease of travel equal
to that in Pullman cars in the United
States.
If examples are to be taken from the
roads of the present century, then the best
are to be found in Europe, where many
years ago it was demonstrated that economy
was as necessary through good highways to
the markets as it was in the improved
methods of farming. In France, tor in
stance, when the people turned to agricul-
tural pursuits in earnest, they built roads
which are to-day competitors of the rail-
ways, owing to their availability in any
and all kinds of weather. In that country,
when the outline of the road is fixed upon,
the profile of the length is exactly smarked
so as to evaluate the earthworks and the
works of art. The transverse profile of
road generally affects the following form: