The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1892-07-16


wear, and in lesser degree for the
other seven, half OF the people Of our
farming communities are imprisoned
aud impoverished heIplessly at home.
AS ono result tho people OF the whole
country pay, in an indirect road tax,
through annual sharp advances on all
food necessities OF life, all OF which the
farmers lose, 4 sum each year enormous
enough to maintain ny superb roads as
England anywhere possesses, around
every section OF cultivablo land in the
entire United States.
NOT A GOOD ARGUMENT.
But our wise American economist,
and our unwise and often suspicious
and shiftless farmers who, in tho fall,
winter aud carly spring months. prefer
To- resentfully brood over their filed and
ro,ting granarjes and build new politi-
cal parties rather than build good roads,
both rctort:
"Ah, but the grand English roads you
so gIibly write about have been cen
turtles in building. How eau We ac-
complisll, in year or generation, what
has required 1000 years labor for per-
lection .herc?"
This would be good argument were it
true. But it is not. There is not
British, or for that matter European,
stono road in existence that was not
originally Mt onco constructed 20 abso:-
Lutte completion, whoneyer begun and
however long it may have been main
tanned. And, with European govern
,nnnt,I and snrinl conditions inconceiY.
ably hard upon peasant populations
wherever those roads exist tho condl.
ton Of tho people is incomparabIy
more happy and prosperous than who're
they do not; while land values have IN
variably been incrsq4a tFSSR lOo to
NO Not SO So many many years S ago 4isSTtfbailt
nearly 1000 miles OF stone highway up
and down and from end to end OF Ga
licia, or Austrian Poland, Previous to
that time, materially no more
wrctched, God forsaken land existed of
the face Of the earth What was the re-
srlt? In less than ten years time these
roads did more for the G,O00,0 900 people
OF Austrian Poland in material and So
cial advancement than all the churches,
ali the books, all the newspapers, all
the battles, all the railways, and all tho
governments had ever accomplished for
them from the days OF Mieczyslaw and
Boleslas to tho day these roads we're
done.
Cannot some OF the expensive and
high art frills OF that great Columbian
exposition ut Chicago be trimmed z
little, aud thus make room for q road
exhibit-not in inaccessible dabI and
bits in dozen different departments.
but in one generous and comprehensive
department? Tho millions OF visitors,
including city and suburban folk every
where, whose health and pleasure
largely depend on good roads, as volt
as farmers, whose betterment and com.
fort would be incalculaby augmented
BY perfect roads, might THUS carry away
with them q knowledge and purpose
which would not only add billions to
our national wealth, but make, in good
time, our broad land bloom and blossom
fairer than the sweetest garden spots in
all this old and worn out Europe.
ANCIENT EXETER.
With such thoughts as these ] came.
with the carts and cartmen, along the
brow Of the hills skirting the noble val
ley OF the Exc, to ancient Exeter, which
looks away to the warm green sea that
boats upon the red cliffs OF Devon.
1t was in ancient days as old British
town, built long before Caesar and called
Caer Isc. or the city on the river. Anti
ouarians observe that, like most Celtic
trading towns, it was built for safety
some little distance from the sea, and
lust beyond where the river Exc ceases
10 be navigable. Discovered coins OF
the Greek dynasty in Syria and Egypt
prove that Ph9nician merchants must
have come hero many years before
Christ to trade for Cornish and Dart
moor tin. Then the Romans marched
in and made it great station. Lastly
the Saxons fortified the town on the
Exc, and traded here with the Cornish
Briions across the lamar.
The Exc was the frontier then for the
Damnonians, but Athelstan came and
drove them pellmell into Cornwall and
rebuilt the walls Of Exeter. The Corn
ish Britons cooped up among the rocks
OF Cornwall, soon had their avengers.
The Danes came crowding up the Exc
with their black sails and black ban
.ners ard wintcrcd in Exeter in SIG, re-
ioicins in Saxon beeves and ale. The
old red tower. still seen in the Rouge
mont ruins OF to-day. was always get
ting beaten about by stones from mill
tary cngine4 and Clipped by crossbow
bolts. William the Conqueror besieged
it. wiehing 10 seize Githa, mother OF
Harold, and her daughter, but they
escaped safely.to Bruges, while Perkin
Warbeck, as Richard w., when joined
by tho Cornishmeu Of Bodmin, be-
siegod tho place, but unsuccessively,
and was finally hanged ut Tyburn.
And so on and on runs the grim story
that has left just enough scar and
hardness on the lovely. leafy old city to
add mellow charm to all YOU may SEQ
and know. Fifty thousand folk do not
live together in more winsome spot In
England The cmbowered Devon hills
which surround it, tho glorious valleys
which rench their green's and blooms to
its very doors, the grand sweep Of the
Exc vale to the son, tho city's noble old
antiques, It's beautiful streets, half in
the shadows OF remote architectural
past and half in the sunshine OF mod
ern elegance and adornment, give eV-
cry thing upon which you look sweet
and winsome face.
1t oil blends in that fine sunset glow
Which some OF these old cathedral towns
takn OH SO iittingly. The leasant seem::
ing smiles back to you from polished
panes, from snow white old arches from
bright red roofs and brighter rod banks
OF roses, from marvelously clean stone