Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1899-01-26
TROLL y Lines for Staunton and Augusta

TroIIey Lines for Stanton and Augusta.
The Lynchburg News has been
somewhat appalled, in looking over
the quag mires, sloughs, swamps, boys
and quicksands, which from time to |
time have developed in and almost to |
the exclusion of the public highways
of Campbell and other counties ada
cent Oh near Lynchburg. 1t knows the
impossiEility of the average Tuckahoe
team being able to pull mere than an
empty wagon to town at this season of
the year, and therefore sees the utter
and absolute folly of farmers, under
taking to deliver their products to the
market when the market justifies.
Everybody at certain seasons can
reach the market of course, but when
the market is most inviting few can
get there on stills. No sooner does the
bog period set in, when the red trace
over the country, called the highway,
puts On its winter habiliments of mud
and CRIME, and the bottom settles
down some fifteen feet below the sur
face, than all communication between
some of the outlaying districts and the
| city ceases as permanently and effec-
tually as if river of molten lava lay
between. This has saddened the heart
of that progressive journal. 1t, how
ever, has no hope of awakening the
slumbering farmer to realization of
the situation, it has tried that in vain.
The more it has written, the more it
has tried to convince that gentleman
that good road is the first thing he
should strive for, the more cotton lie
has stuffed in his ears. the more dis
gusted he has seemed to grow with the
opinions of the News, and the more he
has seemed delighted at the increase in
the number, and breadth and depth of
the mud holes in his own particular
thoroughfare. The News says in part:
The people of half the counties of
| Virginia are in a state of barbarism on
| uAO 4oCob1Oh VI SOOu liz WAGON
roads of Campbell county are worse
tor travel today than were the buffalo
paths before Columbus discovered
America, and yet we have the farce of
two tOllgates on the suburbs of Lynch
burg at which the public must stand
and deliver for the benefit of a few
stockholders-toll to pass over roads
to travel which in the winter months
| WnnId icon of
out of heaven The county cheerfully
voted away $1OO, 600 to build railroad
through it's length; but the only mon
ey that 1t spends on its wagon roads is
that which it pays out to have a few
bitches cut and little dirt flung up in
the middle, the whole of which washes
away at the very next rainfall. Bad
roads, vile roads, are more responsible
than anything else for the impoverish-
ed condition of our country people.
Ihey not only keep good immigrants
away from Virginia, but cause some
enterp'lslng farmers to leave. Not
many months ago one of the hardest
working and most successful farmers
in Campbell county sold out to strang-
ers because he did not care to cope
longer with the curse of bad roads.
fortunately Tor the county, the trans
action was proyidentially INTERRUPTED
before the sale was completed, and the
county will not, for the present. lose
one OF its best citizens. Bad politics
and bad roads are the twin evils that
beset Virginia and they must be cured,
if cured at all, in the order named.
They will never be cured until a con-
stltut1onal convention shall eliminate
corruption and extravaganza and pro-
vide methods of honesty and ECONOMY.
The Richmond Times sees solution
OF the problem in trolley lines, and on
that subject has the following to saw:
We have hopes, however, that the
trolley lines will help to solve the prob
lem. The country will soon be thread
ed with them and then the farmer will
not have to make such long hauls in
order to get his stuff to market. More
over. it will not be necessary then to
build long stretches of macadamized
roads, but only short branches from
given points to the trolley lines. This
is our greatest hope. AS public senti
ment now is, Virginians will not tax
themselves to build wagon roads.
uio 10 lHo otGbIeIleAG CT Une cues
ton for Augusta, and it is the plan
which will regain for Staunton much
of the trade which the Shenandoah
Valley and the G. Il w. Railways have
taken from her. 1t will tend to cen.
tralize traffic at this point, and greatly
advantage our wholesale and retail
merchants. 1t will afford an easy.
cheap and safe mode of reaching the
town from the points traversed by the
trolley, it will enable the people of the |
county to order by phone any article |
they desire and probably have it de-
llvered at their door within an hour.
it would afford them an opportunity
without material loss of time to market
every possible farm product by deliv
erlng 1t to the trolley, and no matter
whether the roads were impossible, or
the weather stormy the business would
go On uninterrupted. This is a prob
lem which Staunton and Augusta
county should solve, and solve quickly.
it is the salvation of our CITY.
Gold Cannot Be Used as Currency.