Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1894-04-25

were III not lOr tne fatal interference
OF the regnant Democracy.
a TRITE SUBJECT-OUR PUBLIC
ROADS.
Unless the next General Assembly of
Tennessee has a greater amount of
moral courage, a far more conscient-
ious and intelligent appreciation of It's
duties and the comforts and enterprises
of civilized life, and a far deeper insight
into the fact that our material interests
must languish and suffer as long as
proscriptive and repressive measures
absorb our legislative calendar than
have characterized any of its predeces-
sors, it is o useless tax on any mans
mental to formulate any adj
vanced ideas or discover any feasible
plans looking to a betterment of our
public road system.
When we assert that the number of
u roads is maximum. and their con-
dition minimum, and that that con-
dition il the most execrable that
could be conceived of, we state a fact
known to every one who is at all &C.
quainted with this country, and with
other localities whose people are pro-
gressive and prosperous, take a pride
and an abiding interest in facilities for
easy and cheap transportation and un:
grudingly spend time, labor and money
in providing them.
There is not a highway in Washing
ton County-not ever those diverging
from Jonesf orc, its capitol, which all
the people must trustworthy of the
name. For a few months in the year
after the summer sun has baked the
earth into a granolithic pavement they
are passable for a sure footed horse
and an OK wagon. For the remainder
of the year, they are an unbroken con
tinuity of mud. heaps, slosh pools,
tortuous ruts and bottomless chug
holes. And this in the oldest county
the womb of the great State of Tennes-
see.
The stranger, who knows by exper-
fence the value and economy of good
roads and their enormous contribution
to the wealth of a country, comes
among us in quest of a home. He is
charmed by our healthful climate,
Italian skies and the dreams of beauty
that melt to song the inspirations of
the poets soul. But when he is drag
ged through the miry boys and wei
the jagged tumuli of our country roads,
disgust follows disenchantment, and
he readily concludes to seek some other
locality where he can go somewhere
and get back when he goes, without
imminent peril to life and limb. He
departs with the impression that this
region was primarily intended for a
garden Of the Gods, but it has been so
cursed by the thriftlessness and mutt
lated by the primitive methods of man,
that it will require the full play of the
forces of a superior civilization to COM
pass the original intent of its creation.
= This is not a Mulhattan exaggera-
ton of a hostile critic, but the actual
observation of n who loves this coun.
try with all the ardor of flial affection.
The road law, as time has amply dem
onstrated, is wholly inadequate to ac-
complish the end in view. As far as
practical results go, it is a mere tumble
OF inanities couched in the frigid dig
nifty of legal phrases. There is little
or nc responsibility anywhere, no pay
is provided for capable and trustworthy
men to direct road improvements. The
meagre p~ittance of taxes spent is vir.
tually thrown away. The average
%roathand, who thinks he is robbed of
the reward of just 10 much labor, who
has neither wagon, carriage nor sled
and no nag a v shank's mare, laws
awake of nights devising plans ITO
beat" the overseer. The men work the
most who use the road the least. and
vice versa. This is a seeming injustice
and makes the labor unreliable.
The intolerable condition of the pub
lie roads speaks for itself. The defects
and %vacuities of the road law, at some
of which we have vaguely limited, must
be patent to all, and he who can remedy
the one and supply the others deserves
a proud name in the pantheon of i'm
mortal fame.
De Witt Clinton projected and con-
structed the Erie Canal and the history
of this mighty undertaking is the rich
eat treasure in the archines of the EN-.
pire State. And he, who devises such
a system. and the means to execute it,
as will belt and checker this State with
splendid highways, will gain a glory
that will not pale its fires in the splend-
ors of Tennessee's most illustrious and
honored names.
OUR imagination may be running
riot, but we are ane enough to know