Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-03-20
A MODERN INSTANCE.
John Gilsner Speed Writes Of the Roads
of an Isolated Township.

A MODERN INSTANCE.
John Gilner Speed Writes Of the Roads
of an Isolated Township.
As age in America is reckoned, Mend
ham, N. j., is an old settlement. The
church which stands on the hilltop ans
isa landmark for miles around was estab
hshed in its present location 1872 years ago
In the churchyard there are tombstones
commemorating wcrthies who passe(
over to the great majority ten, twenty ani
thirty years earlier. Until after the wal
this, an exclusively agricultural section
was prosperous in a moderate and quie
way, though there has probably from tht
beginning never dwelt within the town
ship man who could really be called
rich. During all this time and up to The
present there has never been a mile o.
railroad in the township. and the farmer;
have been absolutely obliged to depend
on the highways and country roads te
get their surplus prodr.;ts to market. 4
is seven miles from here to the county
town, though only about four miles Of
this distance is within the township
This is the chief highway, and every MAI
IN the neighborhood is obliged to use this
highway more or less.
Upon inquiry [ found that the tota
mileage Of the township roads is thirty.
FIVE. If this total were divided into
three classes we should have five miles
in the first class, ten in the second and
twenty in the third. These three classes
/ should define about in this way:
LIST Class-The main highway over
some part Of which all the people Of the
township must drive in order to transact
business at the township village and
postoifice and the county seat.
ed Class-Roads over which. to reach
the main highway, the dwellers in GER
tain sections must go.
Sd Glass The roads subsidiary tc
those of the second class and necessary
to very few persons.
How any of these roads came to be
located as they are [ do not know. Ger
tainly they were not laid out with ref
erence to the topography Of the coun-
try. During the century and half
III which many of these roads have been
opened there has been first and last &
good deal Of stone put in the center of
tho roads, but it is true also that there
never has been a mile Of road constructed
in a method any engineer or skilled road
builder would commend. The worst
feature, however, is the method Of main
tanning these highways. For many
years past the tax levy for roads has been
81 800 per year. Such sum could not
be expected to go very far with thirty
five miles of road.
But, then, the one principal highway
across the township is only five miles
long, and upon it, think, fully one-half
of this sum should be expended, while
one-half of the other half should be ex-
pended on each Of the other classes. There
seems to be no system, however, regulat-
ing the expenditure Of this money, which,
by the way, is not money. But as to that
directly: The township committee appor-
tons the levy among the various dis
tricts, each in charge Of q road overseer.
In this, kissing goes very much by IA
vor, Notwithstanding the fact that every
man on the committee, and indeed every
man in the township, has direct personal
interest in lettering the condition of the
roads. But as they lack the knowledge
without which roads can neither be
built nor maintained does not make
much difference how they divide up the
spoil.
When the spring planting is over the
overseers summon the farmers to come
and help work the roads. They know
that all Of them mean to work out their
tax, and their labor is accounted for at
$3.50 per day, when the regular rate Of
hiring is only S1.25, No one pays his
road tax In money except those. who are
owners, and one or two
perhaps The overseers get thei1
men out, and then it is bad time for the
traveller. They don't work very hard,
fortunately, and the levy is soon ex-
hausted. Were it not for these two
merciful facts the roads would be i'm
passable nearly all the time. Their
method is simplicity itself. They pillow
up all the sod along the sides Of the road
and throw it into the center, together
with what mud they can find in the
bitches. All stones are carefully thrown
against the fences on either, side. This
method Of working the roads is in a sec
ton where nearly every field has on its
sulface an abundance Of loose stones,
which only need to be broken slightly to
make the best kind of road material.
Besides this there is an abundance OF
limestone easy of access and gravel as
we'll. i.
Who can compute the amount of loss
the various generations who have dwell
here in the last century and a half have
by reason Of these i'll con
stlucted and wretchedly maintained
highways. It would sicken me to go
into the computation.
Now as to what it would cost to thor
oughly equip this township with excel
ent roads, I estimate that $4,000 per
mile would build the roads of the first
class; $1,000 per mile those of the second
lass and $4,000 per mile those Of the
third. This wouldmal1e total OF $780,
100. That seems an enormous sum when
t is taken into consideration that the
assessor only found $3.50, 900 in the town
hip last year. But look at it in an
,ther way. This particular section is
admirably adapted for country homes
or city people. The lovely hills rise
and green one over the other
n groups and stretches, until one can
'asily imagine while here. that it is an
Italian sky above him and that he is
ojourning in picturesque Tuscany. If
he experience of Mr.. Nevin, of Summit,
,e of value, the assessor would find at
east 100000 worth Of property as
ooil as the roads had been built and
L, 100000 or may be more, as soon as
he world had learned that driving in
he roads hercabout was pleasure in
tead Of q pain.
This is, I fancy, picture of the con-
ition OF thousands of naighborhoods in |
he United States. and have only drawn
because While local it is also typical.
J,yo. GlLMER SPEED.