Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-09-29
GOOD RoADs.-
Interesting Letter on Subject Read al State
Board Of Trade Convention.

The following able and timely letter, by
MIR. c. S. Hichborn of this city, was read
at the meeting of the State board of trade
in Lewiston, and was the subject of much
favorable comment:
Nr. A. S. Bangs, President of the Aaqusta
Board Of Trade,
My DEAR SIZE 81 regret, very much, that
illness Will prevent my attendance upon the
meeting OF the State board, today, as an
ticipsted.
These meetings are occasions of great
pleasure and should be productive of much
general good.
In the meeting today, emphasize the i'm
poTtdnce Of good roads. l doub. not the
matter will receive full discussion, but |
want to briefly call your attention to a point
that may not be raised.
The old reasons-such as waste of money
in construction, waste of time and ell
erey in driving, waste of all these and
of health besides, through injuries sus-
tained by reason of defective highways
l1ss none of their force with age; they are
Jood and sufficient reasons and they should
! be potent. The point to which desire to
call your attention simply intensifes these
calls it is this:
No observant man can have failed to
mark the marvellous increase ia the use of
the bicycle. As a means of travel, as an
incentive to out-of-door exercise and con-
| sequent promoter of health, the bicycle has
come to stay. Its riders count up into the
thousands in this State and number among
them some of our most enterprising and
progressive men.
But our rough and rocky roads offer a
serious impeachment to its use; they who
ride are subject to difficulty and danger.
1t IS no wonder that from all quarters of
the State comes up, from these people. the
dc mana for more intelligent road construc-
ton.
| know no reason why the claim of the
bicyclst for road suitable TO his carriage,
is not as valid as that of the driver of the
Bangor or the Goddard for his.
No man would think of constructing, for
use Of the latter, such roads as we are ia
miiar with in our forests, because buck
boards can drive over them.
But this is not all from the economic
standpoint there is yet another reason.
From personal contact with large num-
Der of them, l am convinced that in our
neighboring states are hundreds of wheel
men who are anxious to make a tour a.
wheel through this summer garden of
America, who are deferred, atone, by the
execrable condition of our roads. We are
deliberately turning aside this large stream
of revenue by neglect to comply with the
conditions which ordinary businessl ,cumen
would suggest, aye, demapd.
The time has come when the business
man, to be successful, must save and gather
from every hand the smallest fraction
of earning, increment no longer comes in
lump sum: it is only by closest figuring
and most careful saving that the balance
sheet makes favorable exhibit. For
what reason, then, shall we neglect to APP
ply the same methods in dealing with
affairs of common concern?
Every good citizen realizes the immense
revenue derived from our summer tourists
and our visiting sportsman and he hides,
his talent in a napkin who fails to do his
best towards bringing about such condi-
tons as shall not only invite these
good people to come, but shall contribute
towards making their stay pleasant for
so shall they be induced to come again and
bring others with them,---we know not how
vast the number. speak not from sem
timent standpoint; only as a business
msn and from business point of view.
would put our home into an orderly
and hospitable condition, and erect an arch
of Welcome over every highway to our
hearth stone; AMI I'd be frank enough 10
admit did it as matter of business. And
then III push it in that line. I'd furnish
the goo,s and il necessary pay the
freight"
have written at more length than in
tended; but the subject is so sugges-
tive of thoughts and the case so
aggravated one, that my pen has
taken the bits in its teeth, run away with
me, bounced me over dozers of logs lsi I
across the road hslf-bedded in the surface,
ratified me over stones of all sizes from
hens eggs to boulder, snatched me over a
cross-way (there happened to be one here)
laid at angles across the road AMI with its
covering plank projecting some three inches
above the surface, dropped my wheel into a
deep rut left after the frost came out last
sprirg, switched me around right angie
corner whose outer side was foot lower
than its inner, and pitched me, heels over
head, into lmitess space.
Fortunately for mo, | land in the lap OF
your kind indulg nee, and am, therefore,
thankfully yours,
| G. S. HIcHBoRN.
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