The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1892-05-12
A Maine Essay on Good Roads.

The following is one of the competition
essays written for bicycle, offered as a
prize by the Pope Manufacturing Co.:
Maine has many natural advantages for
making her 1.-THE great summer garden OF
the country a position to which she is
fast attaining in spite OF the impeachment
offered by her bad roads. What if she
were famous for good roads as she is for
prohibition! Would they not add great
ly to her natural attractions? The vicinity
of Portland is noted for its beautiful drives.
Drives? The scenery is grand, but the
d,'iees are anything but beautiful. Per-
haps some of us do not really know what
the condition of most OF the highways in
Maine is. Let us look at one of them
Here we see a street, which should be the
main artery of traffic between three cities,
Portland Deering and Westbrook. little
used in the best OF weather, and in the
spring OF fall almost entirely deserted be-
cause of the mud, which varies IN depth
from one to eight inches. At one place,
a few days ago, light express team sank
in the mud until the hubs of the wheels
actually dragged in the dirt. At another
place the earth is i'll such Il state that 1t
shakes and quivers beneath a passing team,
reminding one OF the quick sands. On a
road like this a single team with load OF
800 lbs. requires great effort on the part OF
the horse to haul it through the mud and,
With the frequent breathing spells prog
ress OF about mile and a half an hour is
made 1t has been shown that on good
road this same team could easily carry a
load OF ! 800 lbs. at the rate OF three miles
an hour. thus doing sir times rs HNch moTh
in the same number Of houls just cast
up in your mind and see what that means
in dollars and cents. Is not the amount of
money saved each year by the loaded
teams alone that pass over this road
enough to macadamize good many miles
of it9 Then add in the cost of the frequent
painting and repairing of carriages, wag-
ons, etc, which is made necessary by bad
roads, and you will get some idea of what
good roads mean to our pocket books.
But the foregoing are minor points of
consideration when we consider the rise
in land value that they will cause. Why.
they tell us that in places where good
roads have been established farms which
previous to their building could not be
sold for SO an acre cannot now be bought
for 500 per acre.
Another road, the principal resident
street of one city. and thorougiitare lead
ing from it to the metropolis of Maine, has
i'll the past twenty years cost over 500
600 to keep in repairs, OF rather, as it has
been truly said, the money was sunk in
the mud of the road along with layer
after layer of sand, crushed rock, clam
shells. etc, and now it is no better than
it ever was. On the contrary. an old in
habitant of that district says that it WAS
better 20 years ago than it is now, and
that ii the $50, 600 had been scientifically
expended on this street. the city would
now be $40 600 richer in real estate.
Strange as ii may seem, this Is the kind
OF repairing that was done on this road.
W hen hole on a ditch i'll it got so bad as
to be actually dangerous, then Il load Of
it didn seem to matter W hat-waS dump
ed AT the spot so as to temporarily bridge
over the danger, but without the least re
gard for the road making qualities OF the
material used. Why. on another road in
this same city | saw. a short TIME ago,
within a space less than two rods square,
three depreSsions in the surface tilled one
With sand. one with round stones and the
third with crushed rock, and there still
remained two holes small. but deep
enough to break a horse leg What d
picture, y 8ltdi many people. 10 INC
certain knowledge OF a resident, have
been detained, from erecting valuable
buildings IN this city for no other reason
than the condition OF her roads.
How many business men would be clad
to have residences in the country il it We're
not for the rivers OF mud. chaos OF holes
and hummockS. not to mention dust.
which make up the greater part OF the
country roads in Maine. and etfcctually
cut them off from their places of business.
ignorance in regard to making good
roads AND keeping them i'll repair can no
longer be pleaded as AN excuse for allow
ing this state of things to 90 ON. The
literature OF the day is full of the subject.
There are few people to-day. think. who
do not believe i'll the paying advantage
OF good roads but it appears with most
to be a passive conviction. We are not
awake to the fact that we are losing money
every day that we endure poor roads.
Let us have better roads than can be
made by piling a lot of dirt in the middle
of Il street each spring. only to have it
washed back during the summer. Let us
have cutters that will carry off water not
simply bitches for colectin. it and under
mining the road.
When the proper authorities see that
this is done, the old Pine Tree State will
show the world that she can .'hold her
pace in other ways than with her cele-
brated trotters.