The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-09-04
GOOD ROADS AND COUNTRY
CHURCH-GoING.
Paper Read Before the Road Conference
in Raleigh Last Week, by Prof J.
A HolmAs State SaoIOOist

northeastern New Jersey. And when
after breakfast the question of church
going was brought up, it was decided
that we go to a church in the country,
ten miles distant. My natural love for
the country made this prospect more
than agreeable to me, but I raised two
objections: that as much rain had
fallen during the past few days, the
roads would be quite muddy; and such
being the case, it would be long drive
for the pony which was to pull u
buggy. I'VE will see about that" re-
piled my friend, you are not in North
Carolina to-day"
The road had been re located, graded
and macadamiz9d three years before.
Its surface was as smooth as the shell
road at Wilmington or one of those
beautiful highways of Europe; and our
pony made the ten miles easily in an
hour. There was no mud and no mud
holes although there had been a heavy
rain the night b~efore,) no jolting, no
twisting of the buggy by cross bitches,
and the road had been 20 carefully laid
out that although we were travelling
through a billy country, there was
hardly a place where it was necessary
for the pony to slacken its speed. We
met a number of conveyances drawn
by single horses which trotted along
with loads varying from one to five
persons as though this were no load at
all. Every vehicle and every horse
looked as clean and fresh as the people
who rode behind them with their Sun
day clothes on. At the church, when
we arrived, were a number of similar
vehicles. which had come distances
varying from one to ten miles, and
there we're a number of bicycles which
had been ridden for even greater dis
tances.
ALI the principal roads in that region
had been macadamized during the past
ten years; and when I asked the ques-
ton whether any people in that neigh
borhood were eve kept away from
church by bad roads, the answer was
that ''such was often the case in years
gone by, but never now" Neither
rains, nor winds, nor sunshine affect
these roads; they are always the same
always good.
The average North Carolinians living
in the country are already too familiar
with conditions somewhat different
from those just described. Any of
them who may read these paragraphs,
and who recall the winter time or even
the summer time roads over which they
must pass when they go to church in
the country are ready to exclaim,
What a contrastI" But for the few
of my readers who live in towns and
cities and who walk short distances to
church over stone or brick pavements,
or ride to the door on an electric car, /
may add a paragraph or two.
While out on one of my recent ex-
cursions through the hill country ST
North Carolina, Saturday night found
me near the home of a minister who
preached at four widely-separated
country churches. accepted his kind
invitation to spend the Sabbath with
him, and also to accompany him to
one of his churches, a dozen miles away.
1t was in the early spring, and the
roads were in the condition into which
the rainy season of this tims of year
usually brings them-a condition which
the spring usually inheri5s from the
winter.
The minister's wife and daughter
wisely decided that it would not be
safe for them to try to go, and their
near neighbors reached a similar con-
clusion. The minister and myself had
gone but a short distance before we
realized the wisdom of their choice,
for Notwithstanding the fact that we
were driving a pair OF strong horses to
a strong buggy we were several hours
in making the journey. On the way
we met but a lone horseman; we passed
one broken and deserted wagon stuck
in the mud, and we overlook one
buggy pulled slowly by strong but
tired mules. It was mudhole after
mudhole, rock after rock, hill after
hill, ditch after ditch. And when at
last. despatched with mud, with weary
horses and fretted souls, we reached
the church we found there, out of a
summertime congregation of nearly
two hundred, less than a score of faith
fuls, nearly all men-all in the same
condition as ourselves, greatly in need
of, but in poor plight for religious duty.
Innid 70 O nood hrothon mhn stood near