The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-07-15

it is a matter of course that all We
hicles carry lights. In Chicago only
the most innocent ones have to carry
them, because being a comparatively
new invention they have to submit to
many restraints which such institu-
tions as are backed by age and custom
need not suffer.
The blcyclIsts al over the country are
engaged in a movement in the interest
of good roads, which means good coun-
try roads chiefly. At first blush the in
terests of the cyclist and the farmer do
not appear to be closely related, yet in
this point they come together. There
can scarcely be any serious discussion
as to the advantages of having good
roads OF course the country road no
longer occupies that position which it
did before the advent of railroads, but
it still retains much Importance. The
claims that good roads will save time,
labor and material and cheaper prod
ucts. whereas bad roads impose a
perennial tax upon the entire people
can hardly be gainsaid.
The movement for good roads is be
coming quite general. A magazine
called Good Roads has been started.
An attempt was made some time ago
to secure a separate road exhibit at the
worlds fair, but failed for lack of space
and time.
The parties who started the good
roads movement are scattering litera-
ture broadcast over the country, evil
IDENTIFY with some effect, as there has
been considerable talk about the sub
ject lately. Some correspondence was
had with Director General Davis of the
worlds fair, and Chief Peabody OF
the department of liberal arts. 1t
was suggested to exhibit sections
of roads, together with road building
machinery, stone crushers, steam
rollers. street sweepers. watering carts,
etc Chicagoans are not particularly
anxious to see an exhibition of street
sweepers, however. They see them
twice a year regularly, at the spring
and fall elections, when they parade
the streets as tin-pail brigades shout
ing for the workingman'S friend what
ever his name may happen to be; or as
places voting for some one for alder
man or president, whoever he may be.
Between elections they are some
times driven by dire necessity to
work at their trade Of cleaning streets,
for their children cannot positively,
make quite enough, with bootblacliing
and singing and begging, to keep up
the requisite supply of food and intoxi-
cants, although the mother does whip
them every night they come home
without enough cash.
| met one of these children q few
evenings ago on Michigan avenue lean
ing against water plug and crying
loud enough to be heard for block
around. He said that some boys had
taken his ''shine-box" and seventy-fve
cents. and he did not dare go home, be-
cause his mother would whip him if he
came without enough money. | asked
him his name George Allegrettc,"
he said; his father was a street
sweeper. but couldn't get job
! thought that was spreading it on
a little thick. If he was bound to have
a name of technical musical terms Re
should have made it to fit his crying
capacity and said, as our modern ro-
mantle composers do when they want
you to exercise your muscle on the
piano 'tutta forze imaginavole- And
as for a street sweeper not being able
to get job in Chicago, you might as
well say hog would have no chance
to get killed at the stockvardS.
But speaking of good roads, there is
no doubt that our country roads are in
a deplorable condition, especially after
a season like the present one. Up in
Minnesota. not far from Duluth, see
by paper from that section, the roads
got so bad lately that saloonkeeper
who ran out of beer and saw no way
to get any by land ordered carload at
a place twenty-five miles above, dumped
the kegs in the river and hired a crew
of loggers to steer the novel raft down
stream to his place of business. Such
expedients may be all right at times,
but they do not argue in favor of leav-
ing roads in bad condition. | do not
think il is necessary to argue IN favor
of good roads, the matter seems so one
sided The question seems to be
whether with the development OF rail-
roads it will pay to make good roads,
for the original outlay will be enor-
nous. They will be used for local
traffic almost entirely. Can the nation
al government be interested? Can
even state governments be Interested?
Is it not purely a local affair?
Those are the first questions
to be met Comparison to the old
countries of Europe and the conclusion
that we are negligent because we have
no such system of perfect highways as
France and Germany is hardly fair.
Hundreds of years of development OF
roads when railways were unknown
have brought about those systems
which to-day involve only the cost Of
maintenance. The friends of the good
roads agitation should argue the mat
ter upon its merits in this country in
dependent of European precedents-
They will make better progress. AS
the country becomes more thickly pop
ulated good roads will be built Some
persons rail at the bad streets of Chi.
cago and compare them TO the streets
of other cities of equal size. But they
overlook the fact that in older places
the cost is almost entirely that
of maintaining that which is with
small fraction for extensions, where
as Chicago, with no greater municipal
resources, has to provide for a popula-