The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1902-12-12
ROADS OF EMPIRE.
E'etters on Savage Land Vow, as in
Days of Roman Empire, hut More
scientifically Built.

scientifically Built.
They are still in their places, many
OF them, those mighty rivets that the
Romans drove aforetime wherewith to
hold together the greatest empire
that the world had then seen. They are
wonderful things to tread upon; won
derful also if only as indications of the
dogged strength of the race that
builded them, that plowed, straight as
a dart, across the villainous country,
to bring up at last at the desired goal
defiant of obstacles; wonderful, too,
in the power which they have o kindle
even the most sluggish Imagination.
For men who have themselves lived
and toiied upon the outskirts in the
new raw lands it is ever a fascinating
task to picture Britain-to-day the
"eye, the soul of Europe" the center of
a mighty civilization, the heart of
vast empire-as it was long ago when
the Romans suffered exile there with
little gladness, cursing the awful eli
mate, yet finding solace for all their
privations and their griefs in the ex-
traordinary interest of the work which
lay to their hands-just as do the ban
ished civil servants of our own time.
And the principal instrument by means
of which the Romans sought to open
up the jungles of Britain, to spread
their influence, to render ubiquitous
the tiny forces of the conquerors, was
the same as that which we employ for
like ends to-day-roads, the first fet-
ters which civilization imposes upon
the unrestricted freedom of a savage
land, says the London Spectator.
And, indeed, if the British domina-
tion were to vanish as completely as
that of the Romans has, done, the roads
which we have driven through count
less wildernesses, across wastes of for
ests, up and down the slopes of noun
tain ranges which have stood as barri-
ers between man and man since the
beginning of things, would still remain
to tell the younger nations what man.
ner of men were these English who
ruled SO large fragment of the earth.
For just as the dominion which we ex-
ercise 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 obsta-
cles that stay us, so the roads we build
bear the imprint of keener intelli-
gence, a deeper knowledge, and
higher skill than ever Romans pos
sessed. For with the old-world con-
querors the primitive instinct still held
its force-the instinct that sends men
who desire 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 foot
paths traced through the wilderness
by natives who dwell therein. One such
march stands out preeminent, a march
from the lower to the upper valley of
the Pagalan river in northern Borneo.
On every side wastes of rank lalang
grass spread away to the spurs of the
foothills, the dry, crudely tinted blades
receiving, refracting, and multiplying
the merciless heat. For ten miles at
a stretch there was no drop of water
to assuage our raging thirst; amid the
huddle of grass-clad hills no single
tree arose to give us the protection Of
even 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 5000
feet of vertical height, though never at
any one time had we reached an eleva-
tion of more than 500 feet above the
level of the valley! A modern engineer
would have found little difficulty in
worming his way almost on the dead
level amid these countless hills, but
primitive men are content to expend
upon the exertion of climbing much
of that energy which were better eu-
ployed in evading unnecessary as
cents. And the Roman who. in spite Of
all his attainments, was still at the be-
ginning of things, was in this respect
not greatly the superior of the savages
of Borneo. He drove his roads
straight; he built them with immense
solidity; but he put the most elemen-
tary rules of road-making at defiance.
and he set in England an infamous ex-