Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-30
ROADS OF EMPIRE.
letters on Savage Land as in Days o:
the Romans.
From the London Spectator.

From the London Spectator.
They are still In their places. many OF
them, those mighty rivets that the Ro-
mans drove aforetime wherewith TO hold to-
gether the greatest empire that the world
had then seen. They are wonderful things
10 look and tread upon: wonderful also II
only as indications of the logged strength
of the race that builded them, that pio%ed,
straight as a dart. across ytllainous coun-
Try, 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 toled upon the
outskirts in the new raw lands II is ever
fascinating task to picture Britain-today
the eye the soul of Europe" the center OF
"a mighty civilization, the heart of vast
empire-as it was long ago when the Ro-
mans suffered exile there with little glad.
ness cursing the awful climate, yet finding
solace for all their privations and their
griefs in the extraordinary 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
which the Romans sought to open up the
jungles of Britain. to spread their influ-
ence. to render ubiquitous the tiny forces
of the conQuerors, was the same as that
which we employ for like ends today-roads,
the first letters which civilization imposes
upon the unrestricted freedom of a savage
land.
And. indeed. II the British domination
were to vanish as completely as that of the
Romans has done. the roads which We have
driven through countless wildernesSes
across wastes of forests. up and down the
slopes of mountain ranges which h-ve stood
as barriers between man and man since
the beginning OF things. would still remain
to tell the younger nations what manner or
men were these English who ruled Sd large
a fragment Of the earth. For just as the
dominion which We exercise over the sub
ject peoples Is wiser. more subtle. more
scientific than was that Of the Roma ms /;
just as 1t 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 keensr intelii-
genee. a deeper knowledge and higher
skill than ever the Romans possessed. For
with the old world-conQuerors 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 memory
many an aching recollection of tramps un-
dertaken along the footpaths traced
through the wilderness by the natives who
dwell therein. One such march glands ont
pre-eminent--a march from the lower to the
upper valley OF the Palagan river IN north
ern 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 n stretch
/ there was no drop of water to ass,lase our
raging thirst; amid that huddles o: grass-
clad Mills no single tree arose to give MS the
protection OF even n few square Inches Of
shade and at the emu Of an nnso 4taijie
days travel 1t was calculated thar W. had
climbed up and down more than J0p feet
OF vertical height, taCu,5J re.-;T al AIRY ere