The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-12-25
THE ROAD MEDAL.

THE ROAD MEDAL
foot of Busbee mountain, between MY
shooting box on the French Broad ant
George Vanderbilt's place. The exhibit
was about the consistency Of mayonnaist
dressing or R. r. mustard and of vel
lowish red. You could see that the foo
of the mountain had been bathed in il
for centuries without changing the wa
ter.
Western North Carolina is very noun
famous and therefore a beautiful coun
try, with the soft cline of the south, but
the bracing air of the mountains along
with it. The soil on the uplands is of a
CHEEKY red, such as one sees on a cook
stove that has been exposed for couple
Of years and got tanned good deal.
These vermilion roads wrap their
long coils about the mountains Of Bun.
combe county and hang like angleworms
over the precipices. They are festooned
over the brows of the Blue Ridge OF
pour in venetian red cascades over the
corrugated hog backs of Catawba county.
Many of these roads iquefy and run
like scared jack rabbit over the farms
or slip down into the fields during a
shower and remain there while you
wait. I have two stray roads still on my
estate which lodged there after q long
wet spell.
speak thus freely of these roads be-
cause see in the nigh future the dawn
Of better day. Already 80 or 40 long
time convicts are working on the road
from Asheville out toward where George
and live We have the labor problem
reduced to a science here Our motto is:
"Make the criminal classes do the
work and convict as many of the colored
people as possible.
This places the degrading process Of
labor where it belongs by birth and nat
ural selection. So the colored convict is
now at work on our roads
The methods of building and repair
ing the roads are to be changed. For
merly the plan adopted along the banks
Of Lake Victoria Nyanza, where the peo-
pie live anonymously in trees, has been
adopted. When the roads were too aque-
GUS, irregular stones, ranging in size
from that of Daniel Webster's head to
the peewee egg, are plunked into this
mud, where they disappear, yet they
may be discovered by riding over them
as you hold on to the seat with one hand
and your nose with the other, apologize
ing meantime to the buzzards for scar
ing them away from their dejeuner OF
dead horse. 1 have even seen dead mules
along these roads, though it is said that
the mule, the jackass and the Office
holder do not die.
Each year heretofore the adult males
have been called together by the road
master for the purpose of sampling each
others tobacco and making mud pies
along the highway at 81 per day. The
bed of the road is generally sunken sew
eral feet below the level of the sea and
then plowed up and made mellow, like
an onion bed.
Where it IS desired to defect a stream
of rain across the roadbed on 8 side hill,
instead of building culvert. the Tar
Heel civil engineer and scientist con-
structs soft, wet diagonal ridge or cof-
fer dam of red mud, which resembles the
grave of a postmaster; yet,
alas, it is not!
The loss on rolling stock here is east
" 1914 per cent, for have kept an ac-
curate account of it for three years, dur
ing which time my wagons, etc, have
been entirely renewed.
Landaus and victorias are not used
much here, but hickory crotch like
an enlarged wishbone is attacked to an
axletree and mounted on pair Of cast
off wheels from the wreck of a four
wheel wagon, which completes the trap
unless one should be high spirited and
want a box, in which case common
quail trap is nailed on the axle.
Naturally the pathmaster here is con-
tent with things as he finds them-or
as they find MIN. He does not murmur
or repine. especially during hot weather.
If you expect him TO repine. you will
have 10 administer stimulants-
II u WOOQ tlCk Of W. ~ - ut3 stlOUlu
attack him, he would heave sigh as
the flea fed. Mayhap be would scratch
the place and say 90 the insect:
We'll, now | hope you're satisfied. Z"
1t is the same with the roads II a
chuckhole gets formed in the highway
and squisss gallon Of yellow ocher into
his minister's, he does not blaspheme-
He sees that the Bud matches his whis-
zers, and then he lets 1t dry. The wind
hoes the rest
The corduroy also originated here
After goo years Of corduroy road some
If our physicians discovered that there
we're no kidue: diseases in this country,
and so many have core here 70 recover
rom kidney troubles. but last year the
post Uortem on several old settlers who
nave used the corduroy roads q good
aeal showed that they have 10 kidneys