Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-05-10

4
and put its hand on ones shoulder and
make one feel like taking off his coat on
warm day and sitting out on the piazza.
The New York Central says in effect, II
lead blameless life, and of course like
my friends, but | do not care to extend
my acquaintance very generally"
The Illinois Central is a sort of an in
corporated hoodlum. 1t does not care
for God or man. 1t was given so much
valuable land for building its road that
its head Immediately swelled, and ever
| since then the poor farmers along its line
have had no rights
The New England road is very gentle
manly, and even its railroad hands, they
tell me, are manicured every day. Yet
it is not so cordial as some roads. |
came nearer freezing to death last winter
on the New England road than | ever
did in snow blockade on the Union
| Pacific.
| The study of the personal peculiarities
of railroads in the United States is a
very interesting one indeed to me- |
have been thrown among all kinds of
railroads this season, but never so hard
as was by the Baltimore and Ohio.
1t was on the Baltimore and Ohio
that | passed very restless night once
in lower eleven. Upper eleven was
occupied by boy who was car sick. OF
course The rough road was to blame
mostly for it, but the things he had eaten
would disturb anybody's digestion a
little, think. He did not try to conceal
anything from me. He was perfectly
frank with me regarding the matter.
| am glad to notice in the matter of
highways that country roads are attract
ing good deal of interest. Two great
magazines have recently printed excel
lent articles on the subject, and the
whole country is waking up to the fact
that millions of dollars annually go
toward bodybuilding that might as well
go to the bottom of Lake Victoria Ny
ANA.
Our wa gon roads throughout the coun-
try are generally disgrace to civiliza-
ton, and before we undertake to supply
Jaeger underwear and sealskin covered
Bibles with flexible backs to the African,
it might be well to put few dollars into
the relief of CALLED and broken down
|
miserable highways.
| The country system, as / recall it, was
in my boy hood about as poor and insult
fcient as It could well be- Each town
ship was divided up into road districts,
and each road district was presided over
by an overseer of highways, whose duty
it was to collect so many days work or so
many dollars from each taxpayer in the
district. Of course no taxpayer would
pay dollar when he could come and
make mud pies on the road all day and
visit and gossip with the neighbors and
save his dollar too. The result seemed
| to be that the work done was misdirected
and generally an injury to the road.
With all due respect to the farmer,
viii state right here that he does not
know how to make roads. An all wise
Providence never intended that he should
know. The professional roadbuilder,
with the money used by ignorant sap
heads and self made road architects,
would in few years make roads in the
United States over which two or three
times the present sized load could be
easily drawn, and the dumb beasts of
the republic would rise up and call US
blessed for doing it.
But things are looking brighter all the
time. Even North Carolina is beginning
to wake up. Asheville has sold her
street bonds, and Buncombe county
fully realizes that good highways will
make it paradise, while poor ones will
scare away everything but the buzzards.
The other day we ran across young
man who was formerly caterer for
big Broadway restaurant. Now he is
running thriving hotel out west He
is a cordial and bright young German.
and in the &C urse of an evening told us a
good deal about the New York waiter
and caterer.
There is regular system" he said,
governing walters in New York, and
the man who is not in it gets left away
behind. Waters do not of course de-
pend upon their salaries, and not entirely