Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-11-21
The BEAUTIFUL ROADS
OF FAIRFIELDS.
TContinued from heretofore. I

be searching amid the ruins of an
almost forgotten civilization, and
will wonder at the irregular lines of
narrow ridges traversing the mighty
forests that have obliterated nearly
every other sign of a people who
once dwelt in these regions of Fair
fields. Countless theories will be
advanced to explain the existence of
these peculiar ridges, and specula-
ton will be rife as to what was the
possible use of such narrow systems
extending through apparently prime
val forests. Just so the people of
the present age wonder and wonder
what was the intention of the lost
people who built the numberless
mounds throughout the Mississippi
Valley. Their object may forever
remain a mystery unless some scien-
tific society of research into antiqui-
ties should happen to light on some
clue while excavating some of the
mounds.
In following these erratic ridges
the antiquarian of ten thousand
years hence will find large depres-
sions, partly filled with decayed
rubbish. Among this decadent mass
he will probably discover remains of
human beings mingled with those
of quadrupeds. The kindly forces of
Nature may even preserve relics of
various vehicles, and from these
relics be will try to reconstruct
something that will tell him what
use such contrivances OF wood and
iron were put to-
The average arch@ologist will
probably conclude that some mighty
upheaval OF Natures forces had
engulfed in one common destruction
all of the anima! life then existent
on the earth. Others may with
equal logic point out that these
sunken spots of debris were evil
IDENTIFY the craters of volcanoes and
that the narrow ridges connecting
them we're doubtless the paths the
seething lava took as it flowed in
lesistless torrents from crater after
crater, as the surface of the earth
rose and fell in mighty convulsion,
like the bosom of old ocean in a
tempest, or a feather bed under the
lusty blows of Aunt Dinah's broom
stick.
Perchance some lucky man will
find complete machine, the use of
which he will not understand. AS
he views its ponderous wheels and
immense knife he will speculate as
to its possible use in the distant
past, and may conclude that it was
some sort of plow used by the abo-
rigines of those days to scratch the
ground for his scanty crops.
All mel if some scrap of the liter
ature of the present day could be
found in the midst of the other
relics how easy it would be for the
future antiquarian to truthfully
demonstrate the absurdities of the
present age.
For instance, he would know that
the curious and cumbrous machine
he had found had been used to
make those narrow ridges. He would
see that the deluded people had al
lowed the user of that machine to
commence on the outer edge and
each time to make the ridge mar
rover and narrower, until there was
no space left but narrow ridge in
the centre, or thereabouts. The an
tiquarian would know that the
queer shaped ridges had been sup
posed to be roads made under con-
tract, instead of being, as he evi.
IDENTIFY would otherwise think, that
if not made by molten rocks they
must have been rows for some sort
of vegetables--probably potatoes.
He would know that those sunken
places, with their miscellaneous col.
lection of remains, were nothing
more than ordinary mud holes, in.
stead of craters of volcanoes. He
would see that the mud had beer
allowed to get SO deep that men ant
teams and vehicles had all beer
swallowed up in it as they trav
elled along the so-called roads, unit
finally all the people and teams were
utterly destroyed, leaving the smil
ing fields to grow up into wilder
ness. He would observe that as the
road-ridge became narrower that tn,
people were compelled to use small
boats instead Of wheels on the axle
of the various kinds of vehicles
there being no place on the ridg
for anything except a horse, ant
therefore boats that could float il
the water and mud had to be uset
as time rolled by.
Some parts Of the roads in Fair
fields have been put in good order
and many parts have not beer
touched under the present contract
Whenever this writer goes on tn,
road he is compelled to pass through