The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-02-16
THE QUESTION OF BETTER
ROADS.
A Timely and Interesting Letter
on the Subject Of Improved
Public Highways.
HENDERSON. N. c.. Feb, 10, ;!

EDITOR GOLD LEAF:-I have Just been
informed that you are to have county
meeting tomorrow to consider the
county road improvement scheme. l
would certainly like to be one of the aud
fence az this special movement interests
ME very much simply from scientific
point of view. Raised as l was in a cOun-
try where good roads were the rule and
bad ones the exception, it affords me
peculiar pleasure to see the good people
Of this county taking hold of what |
consider to be the greatest and the first
reform that the agriculturists OF the Old
North State should take in haul and
do it thoroughly. Knowing full we,irom
our short acquaintance your thurS igh
going prOgressiveness, take the liberty
OF suggesting few ideas reaped from my
own personal experience 1t has always
been an accepted fact that before you
could connect any two commercial cen
tres by railroad, it was necessary to find
= true profile of the country you were to
pass through. claim when such is the
case is it not equally as necessary to
have the same if not more of the prelim-
mary caution exercised in a county or
turnpike road? The traffic over a rail-
road is entirely of one nature, whereas
the traffic over country road is very
diversified. 1t is well known that the
roads in this great country as they
exist at present, were originally formed
by the Indian following his beaten path
through the primeval forest to satisfy
his thirst for the white mans blood or
to depredate on his copper skinned neigh
boris preserves. On one of his exped-
lions he encountered a white face who
had located a log cabin and had trans
formed one of his old paths into a lane
or woods track. AS the original son OF
the soil was driven out and the Anglo
Saxon took his place their old paths
have been formed into what we now call
roads, and to-day you will find that there
is not a single through turnpike that
has been planned or carried out On a sci
entific basis. would like very much in
deed to see from the report of your meet
ing that Vance county in taking up this
question will recognize the great impOr-
lance that this question presents and
will lead the van in making a real prog
ress IN this matter. From the news
papers gather that the prevailing opin-
ion is to do the work by convict labor.
am opposed to this for simply one rea-
son: That if county take in hand to
ouAA GIA0 OcbIu us IOCtuS dill OppOI-
tunity is presented for giving to that
county's surplus honest labor a chance
OF keeping starvation from it's door. |
recognize full we'll that to some people it
seems very tempting to carry out this
important work by the service of the in
mates of the penitentiary, but Question
land feel that [ can dOit conscientiously)
whether the latter method would not be
much more costly than by employing
voluntary service. 1 feel safe to say from
my own experience that q thoroughly
competent road foreman, not an ordi-
nary road supervisor, with twelve good
honest men, paid at the rate of Is cents
per day, would carry out more genuine
work for your county than 80 convicts
would do in three times the length of
time with the necessary guards placed
over them.
do not know whether it is necessary
at the present time to enter into the diff
ferent formations of roads, but | might
pass hint on what has struck me re-
garding this special part of the country.
There are two ways of forming the mod
ern road, either on the basis of Telford
or McAdam. The latter is very costly
and entirely unnecessary in this neigh
borhood, therefore l should recommend
the former which consists in laying bed
OF 6 or inches of hand set chips and
OVERLAPPING that with inch stone crush
ed in with heavy roller. l understand
that the town of Henderson supplied it.
self with a road pillow some months since
tan implement which is of little service
without a roller, and now if Vance
county could see it's way to buy a roller,
couldn't the town and county work to
their mutual advantage by exchanging
these implements at nominal rate per
day? The pillow would be in great de-
mand on the county roads and the roller
could be used with much advantage in
town. With regard to all minor details
it is premature for me to write at pres
ent, but if this matter is taken up in the
spirit it ought to be it will always afford
me great pleasure to assist your author
tiles in any way can. hope, sir, YOU
will do all you can and further the move
ment.
With best regards and wishing YOU
much prosperity, am,
Yours very sincerely,
CT.