San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-11-12
sHoE.T STOPS.
" hat the People are Saying.


There is a theory that the, city
engineer has charge Of all our
street work; that not only the
grades and levels are furnished by
the city engineers department,
but that the manner and method
OF doing street work is under the
eye and direction of the city en-
gineer; in fact, he is the boss OF
the public work.
Being the boss, we must hold the
city engineer responsible for the
character OF the work done.
soss'A.-ss-A-s-s-hAN
We have a number OF streets,
several miles, Ono one has ever yet
told us how many miles paved, or
macadamized. We have spent
hundreds of thousands, yes, mil.
lions OF dollars, on so called ma
cadamized streets.
The art of road building is not
new thing, MacAdam under
stood it a good many years
ago; it is practiced success.
fully all in countries: there are Ger.
tain plain rules pertaining to
the building Of gravel, or metal
surface road that every engineer
must understand; and yet these
plain and necessary requirements
have never been practiced by our
city engineers.
Metal or gravel roads are the
most expensive kind for the use of
a city, as they must be kept in re-
pair constantly, but as the first
cost is generally less than the sew.
ersl kinds of paving, the so-called
macadam plan is adopted.
San Antonio has never yet had
genuine macadam street. The pro-
cess Of hauling in loads of dirt and
gravel and piling it upon the
streets, then rolling it and calling
1t a pavement, is simply ridicu-
lous.
The dirt is necessary to make the
so.called gravel bind-the gravel
sizes all the way from the size of
pecan to an alderman's head.
AS soon as the streets are left
for while after being treated to
covering OF dirt and stones, and a
rolling the boulders work out and
roll about the street and many OF
our neglected streets that have
cost thousands OF dollars, resem-
BILE the pathway Of some prime.
val upheaval, instead of a city
street that has been improved I'M
der the eye Of a modern engineer.
The city administration made
an attempt to do some real macad-
am work-the splendid flint gravel
within our limits was to be prop
erly crushed for top dressing,
ETC., but the crusher is silent; a
bed of "yaller" clay, mixed with
gravel, was discovered.
The present kind of street work
is the heirloom OF past city admin
istrations for the last twenty-five
years; there has not been a parti-
Gle of improvement.
The city engineer is supposed to
be at the head of our street work.
Let him take a drive up North
Flores street, for instance, before
the puddles dry up; look down
Belvin street; cast his eye along
the profile of these streets, which
might be drained Of the surface
water, at least; let him, in fact,
travel all over our million dollar
macadam streets, and SEQ what is
the matter with them.
Let us hear through the council
Just how much paved street we
have-how much they have cost
original and repairs; how our sys-
tenn of road building differs from
the recognized standards and the
points of it's superiority, etc.
By all means let us hear from the
engineers office, the head OF our
street work.
Quaker City Opera.
PHILADELPHIA, Nov. l2.-The
Quaker City, tired of the inferior