Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-11-08
ROADS OF EMPIRE.
Fettcrs on Savage Land as in Days Of
the Romans, a

\ They are still in their places, many of
them. those mighty rivets that the Ro-
mans drove afOretime wherwith to hold
together the greatest empire that the
world had then seen. They are Won
derful things to look and tread upon;
wonderful, also, if only as indications
of the logged strength of the race that
builded them, that ploughed, straight
as dart. across villainous country, to
bring up at last at the desired goal,
defiant of obstacles: wonderful, too, in
the power which they have to kindle
even the most sluggish imagination.
For men who have themselves lived
and toiled upon the outskirts in the
new raw lands it is ever a fascinating
task to picture Britain-today the '.eye,
the soul of Europe" the centre of a
mighty civilization, the heart of a vast
empire-as it was long ago when the
Romans suffered exile there with little
gladness, cursing the awful climate,
yet finding solace for all their priva-
tions and their griefs in the extraor-
binary interest of the work which lay
to their hands-just as do the banished
|civil servants of our own time. And
the principal instrument by means of
WIlCIl tit IAoiflduS SOuSul " OpCH UP
the jungles of Britain. to spread their
influence, to render ubiquitous the tiny
forces of the cOnquerors, was the same
as that which VIC employ for like ends
today-roads, the first letters which
civ lization imposes upon the unre-
stricted freedom of savage land.
And. indeed, if the British domination
were to vanish as completely as that of
the Romans has done, the roads which
we have driven through countless will
dernesses across wastes of forests, up
and down the slopes of mountain
ranges, which have stood as barriers
between man and man since the begin
ming of things, would still remain to tell
THE younger nations what manner of
men were these English who ruled so
large a fragment of the earth. For
just as the dominion which we exercise
over the subject peoples is wiser. more
subtle, more scientific than was that Of
the Romans: just as it was our object
to circumvent, rather than to break
ruthlessly through. the obstacles that
stay us, so the roads we build bear the
imprint of a kecner intelligence. a
deeper Knowledge and n higher skill
than ever the Romans possessed. For
with the Old World conquerors the
primitive instinct still held it's force
the instinct that sends men who de-
sire to make their way from point to
point. to the top of every hill and to
the foot of every decline that they
chance upon on their journey.
The present writer holds in his mem
ory many an aching recollection of
tramps undertaken along the footpaths
traced through the wilderness by the
natives who dwell therein. One such
march stands out preeminent-a march
from the lower to the upper valley of
the Palagan river. in northern Rorneo.
on every side wastes of rank lalang
grass spread away to the spurs of the
foothills refracting and multiplying
the merciless heat. For ten miles at
a stretch there was no drop OF water
to ass,Iage our raging thirst; amid
that hubble of grass clad hills no sin
gle tree arose to give us the protection
Of even a few square inches of shade.
and at the end of an unspeakable days
travel it was calculated that we had
climbed up and down more than five
thousand feet of vertical height. though
never at any one time had we reached
an elevation of more than five hundred
feet above the level of the valley. A
modern engineer would have found lit
tie difficulty in worming his way al
most on the dead level amid those
countless hills, but primitive men are
content to expend upon the exertion
of climbing much of that energy which
were better employed in evading UNI
necessary ascents- And the Roman
who. in spite of all his attachments.
was still. at the beginning of things.
was in this respect not greatly the SUI
perior of the savage of Borneo. He
drove his roads straight; he built them
with solidity; but he put the most ell
ementary rules Of roadmaking at de-
6.nce and he set in England an infa-
, mons example.-London Spectator.