The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-05-25
SOME OLD AMERICAN HIGHWAYS
The Magnificent Roads of the An
cient lncaS We're UNSURPASSED.

The Magnificent Roads of the An
cient Incas We're Unsurpassed.
A hardy race once dwelt in Il high
valley shut in by snowy mountains.
Cold rains often drenched the un-
friendly soil. In this its native
home the potato was dwarfed and
bitter, maize Was stunted, the hardy
barley would seldom ripen, and no
other cereals afforded food for man.
Bearing the hard burdens of their
rugged life made the people brave
and strong. In conqnering many
difficulties they became cunning,
patient and persistent. Having
grown numerous and powerful, they
seized another and fertile valley
and established there their central
stronghold. They developed agrl-
culture and the arts and taught u
tolerant religion. BY persuasion
when they could, by force when
they must, thew allied with them
selves many other people and so be-
came strong above all other nations
on the continent on which they
dwelt.
They climbed the barriers that
hemmed their mountain home and
cultivated all the valleys that ran
from them down to the sea. Their
gardens terraced every mountain
side. They tunneled the living
rocks and led their waters far oyer
sandy plains scorching under rain
less skies They made the barren
deserts bloom and compelled the
wastes to give to man abundant
food. They moved whole commun-
tiles to conquered provinces, to
make their new homes, to minglc
with the subdued race and thus to
continue the work of subjugation
and of assimilation.
To hold fast all so gained they es-
tablished arsenals and magazines at
short distances. They realized, as
our own nation has not, that with
out food at command the largest
army is weaker than the smallest,
therefore stored abundant supplies
along the lines of march. And
from post to post, from colony to
colony. from city to city, they made
roads, broad, smoothly paved and
walled by stone, shaded by fruit
trees and by flowers.
Of such roads they had nearly a
score. They stretched hundreds of
miles across plains of shifting sands
and through fruitful valleys. They
afforded solid paths through deep
morasses, spanned dizzy gorges by
suspension bridges or on masses of
solid masonry, scaled the faces of
preclpices and tunneled the eternal
hills. They led through regions of
deep SHOWS and across wide wastes
where no drop of rain ever blessed
the parched ground. They equaled
the best roads of the old world in
magnitude and workmanship and
were four centuries ago the best
and greatest highways ever vet
known in the western world. The
great Humboldt pronounced them
the most useful and stupendous
works ever made by man.
The way from savagery to that
high state of living, of government
and of art doubtless extended
through scores of centuries. The
destruction of those magnificent
works began with the Spanish in
vasion of Peru. Since that i'll
omened time no approach has been
made on the American continents
to the excellence of the roadmaking
of that ancient race. Yet they had
comparatively little bulky com
merce to move long distances and
possessed no knowledge of the
mighty power Of steam, nor had
they explosives nor ever a tool of
iron to aid them IN their gigantic
work.
1t has been said that the road is
that physical symbol by which one
will understand any age or people.
If they have no roads, they are
savages, for the road is a type of
civilized society. A leader in the
cause of improvement of our public
roads recently said that Columbus
discovered America in vain if after
400 years we are still behind those
ancient Americans and are not
ashamed of it.