Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-04
DIXMONT'S NEW ROAD.
Squire Knoderer Fills Up a Mud
Hole and Makes q Driveway.
IT HAS NO EQUAL INTHE COUNTRY
Insane 10 the Work and It Helps Their
Condition Greatly.
SOME TIMELY TALKS on ROAD-MAKING

|
Wayne Railroad may see it The road
from Allegheny down the Ohio Valley used
to have DO deeper mud holes than were
found in the stretch below the Insane Asy-
lum. There were places in it where the
best vehicle for the traveller would have
been skiff, before Squire Willism Kno-
derer, the farmer at Dixmont, took q hand
in the game.
Squire Knoderer for over 30 years has
farmed the Asylum's collection of hills,
and has been the commissary general to the
small army of lunatics and their guardians
| at Dixmont. He has served two terms as
Road Supervisor, and he was delegate
from his district to the State road CONVEX
tion last year. The sight of mud dis
turbed Mr.. Knoderer, and he found
way by which things might be
bettered. Dixmont Asylum has not
superhuity of cash, and economy has to
be practiced in all it does To this end the
Board of Managers gave Mr.. Knoderer per-
mission to employ as many patients as were
willing and were needed to build a road
where mud had been king A little more
than year after the job was taken up q
good road has come to the surface, and one
that will be model when it is finished.
Mr.. Knoderer said to a reporter of The
DISPATCH yesterday.
The Experiment a Success.
The experiment has been q success. The
half mile could have been finished last
summer, but did not think it necessary to
push matters. The first thing done was to
drain the road; the center of the road was
raised, bitches were dug on either side, and
where necessary drain pipe or culvert
laid to carry the water off and under the
road. The material for making the road
we got from our own quarries-s blue
sandstone, which serves this purpose.
The stone is broken on the road
and when we're through there will be 18,
inches of it. With the help of the Fort
Wayne Railroad, which has always treated
us kindly, we will put on q top layer of
limestone. The limestone binds together
and forms a hard crust which wagon wheels
will not cut up. The trouble about the
sandstone is that it disintegrates easily and
makes mud. IF we cannot afford limestone
We'll fall back on river gravel. think in
the end We shall have a road that the
farmers OF the country may study with ad-
vantage"
Yesterday morning there were q score of
mildly insane patients nammering away at
the rocks spread over the road. They
worded in leisurely fashion, but evidently
enjoyed the employment. Three or four
keepers stood near, and half dozen paid
workmen were also at work upon the road.
DR.. Hutchinson, of Dixmont, thoroughly
approves of open employment for his pa
tients. He said to THE DISPATCH re-
porter yesterday:
The Work Entirely VoIuntarv.
'tNobody is forced to work out of doors
The patient does as he pleasea He is not
urged to work, either, but can rest as often
as he will. A great many ask to be given
something to do in the open air, and we
encourage them, because the effects are al
WAYS beneficial. We find that moderate
exercise in the open air gives appetite, pro-
notes sleep and is in fact positive medi-
cine of great value for mental diseasea
Since Mr.. Knoderer has found employment
tor so many in road-making and improving
the Dixmont property in various ways the
percentage of discharges from the hospital
has increased greatly. The number of pa
tients sent away cured in the last year has
been greater than ever before. So that aside
from the benefit of this institution of hav-
ing good approaches and a comely exterior,
the road-making and other out-of-door en-
ployments commend themselves to US as
medicinal agentsh
Mr. Knoderer was asked if in the
light of his experience with the insane as
road makers he thought the workhouse
prisoners might not be employed in SINH
lar work with good results
''Yes, I can see no reason why the work.
huose should not do what we are doing and
much MORE" was his reply "Fine roads
between Allegheny and Claremont might
be made with this species of labor.
What Ciaremont Could Do.
"For miles on either side of the work. |
house the roads could be improved, it seems |
to me, in the best possible way by the pris- |
oners. If competent guards were employed |
no prisoner would get away. My exEe eri- |
ence teaches me that prisoners or insane pa |
tients do not attempt to run away if their |
guards are watchfuL
81 hope the Legislature will take up the |
road question again this winter and pass a
good law. The system of working out road |
taxes must be wiped out first of all. Under
it we can never hope to get any better
roads. favor the appointment of road |
commission, board of three in each dis
trict, to serve without salary. Make their
positions honorary, as we have the school
directors, and the politicians won't care
about them. Then the commission should
appoint road supervisor to attend
to the practical bodybuilding. I would
have direct road taxes, payable only IN
money. Working-out taxes is another name |
for 1oaing, or discussing politics, religion
and the news Of the neighborhood.
His Solution of the Road Question.
II spent couple of days at Harrisburg
at the last session, talking up these ideas,
and represented this district at the Road
convention. I will do anything can to
get good roads, for 1 know how important
they are, especially to the very farmer who
is opposed to the only way by which they
can be obtained, namely, road taxes pay
able in money. I've learned as farmer for
this institution what good roads mean in
solid cash to the man whose land lies near
them. Say l send a load of hay to town to-
day. If the roads are good can send two
tons, if they are bad team can haul but
one ton. The first load sells at $38, the
second for $40. The cost Of hauling is the
same in each case"
County Engineer Charles Davis remarked
the other day that the piece of improved
road at DixmoAt was the best work of its
kind to be seen in this vicinity and as an
object lesson alone would be of great value.
1t happens, also, that in contrast to the
newly constructed section, the very next
stage between the new bridge over Toms
run to the town of Glenfeld itself, the sec
tion which lies south of the Fourth Wayne
tracks, is popularity considered the worst
string OF mud holes and morass in the
country, The farmers will have the best
possible chance to study the road question
by the light of these contiguous examples
If good and bad highwavs