Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-01-27
THE ROADS OF CHINA.
NOTABLE BY THEIR ABSENCE, LIKE
THE SNfKES OF ICELAND.

No Attempts to Establish Good Means o.
Communication For Five Hundred Years.
BIoodless Though Annoying Contests BE
tween Land Owners and Transfers.
An interesting chapter on the topic OF
public roads is afforded in the results not
sd by the Shanghai branch of the Asiatlc
,ociety of some extensive Investigations
made by its agents as to the condition ana
maintenance of roads in China. 1t IS DOT,
aowever, a chapter on good roads. Indeed
it is much like the famous chapter on the
snakes in Iceland, for there seem to be nc
roads in China worthy the name. Instead
of the farmers being interested in the max
ing and maintenance of good roads, as is
the case here, the Chinese farmer inter
ests himself largely in the destruction OF
such roads as may chance to be made. lie
does not travel himself and is against any
one else doing so, ut least over his lard.
There are no public highways made and
maintained by law. Travellers may drive
where they please-so far as the owner OF
the land may please-and there is constant
warfare between the two classes, so that
all there is of roads through the country is
lust what the one may suffer or the other
Wrest.
The Asiatic society concludes that "prob-
ably no country in the world-certalnly
none aiming at civilization even OF the
most rudimentary nature-has pad 50 ut
tie attention to roads and means OF com
munication as the Chinese empire. The
only roads that exist are simple paths from
one town or village to another. They fol-
low all the natural Irregularities OF the
country, are never macadamized, rarely
drained and on level plains are often en-
tirely underlined wandering from side to
side to avoid natural puddles or artificial
pitfalls, the latter dug by the farmer in
order to drive the travellers onto his neigh
boris land.
In tho northern provinces war for the
possession of the land is waged every
spring between the farmer and the team
ster. The latter has full right to drive
his wagons over the country i'll any direc-
ton that may suit his convenience or fan
cy. The former has an equal right to pillow
ND any road running over his land, and
generally he exercises it. When Il team
ster finds an accustomed path plowed over,
he takes another route over the adjoining
land. Then the owner of that land digs
pitfalls along the routes in order to save
his crops and drive the teamsters over to
his neighbor's property. His neighbor
does the same But the farmers cannot
continue this indefinitely without doing
more injury to their land and crops than
the recognition of a regular road would
do, SO that compromise is gradually ar
rived at Thus the tracks usually follow
much the same lines from year to year,
but there is sure always to be some little
war about right of way somewhere on
much freuuented route between two vii
lagos.
In the eastern provinces the roads, or
the tracks that pass for roads, are usually
sunk much below the level of the sur
rounding country, not infrequently as
much as 80 to 80 feet. The soil is very
sandy, the constant passage of carts keeps
it stirred up and soft, and the wind takes
up and carries over the country the sand
thus loosened so that there is a conse-
uuent continual tendency of the tracks to
sink A peculiar result of this is that the
few bridges, which in some spasm of pub
lie spirit bave been constructed over rivers
in various places, are usually utterly i'm
passa bic for wheeled traffic, the abutments
being many feet above the sunken road
level. The roads through villages in these
regions are invariably sunk below the gen
eral level of the country.
There have been at far distant and long
separated periods empcrors who have made
attempts at establishing good means of
communication between the principal
towns and villages, but the last of these
efforts was as far back as 1899. Vehicles
came into somewhat general use at these
periods and remained in use while the eff
fects of the reforms lasted. But in the
Yangste delta and the southern provinces
generally carts or wagons have long been
obsolete. because their use became impos
sble. The only wheeled vehicle now used
is one wheeled handbarrow with the
wheel in the center. The main roads are
generally paved in the middle to a width
of from a foot to two feet with rough
granite stones to accommodate this one
wheel.
While there are no good roads in China
nowadays there are one or two interesting
relics of what were, in and for their day,
most excellent roads. The first emperor
of the Mings some time during his reign Of
from 1865 to 1890 made road from the
bank of the Gangste, opposite Marking,
to his birth place in Auhui. The levels
were carefully graded and the road car
ried across river valleys on well built arch
ed viaducts 1t remains today simply
remarkable specimen of early engineering.
The road from Picking to Tungchow, built
by the emperors Of the Yuan dynasty
away back in the dim ages, remains as
vast effort of inutility." 1t was paved
with great blocks of granite, averaging so
to so feet of square surface each, all close
ly jointed. Today it is worn into ruts
foot deep and is almost impossible With
the exception of these two roads no at
tempt of any note has been made to facili-
tate land communication throughout the
empire. The stone bridges at Fukien and
| elsewhere, often instanced as remarkable,
are notably only as instances of the abili-
ty the Chinese display in moving huge
masses of stone by manual labor. For
practical purposes they are of little use,
and, says the report, ''as feats of engineer
ing are contemplate" Students of the
art of making good roads do not appear to
have much to learn from China.-New
| York Sun.
She Demanded n Receipt.
and so you gave my new overcoat to
stranger" said an angry man to his
4 r.. -.