The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1903-08-06

4 e" + has a fine quay, not unlike
1Ro< the Promenade des Ang-
lais at Nice. but smaller. Owing to
the way the mountains curve around
| the town it is said to have the mildest
| climate on the Riviera. Here we take
the lower Corniche Road to return to
| Nice by way of Monte Carlo and Mo-
naco. This road is livelier than the
upper road, being much ire
ouented. American farmers n other
road users will smile to know that this
magnificent highway runs for 4 couple
of hundred miles along the coast; that
il is guarded with stone parapets prac-
| tically all the way; that in particularly
bad places the parapets are crowned
| with iron fences about three feet high;
that it Is carried over gullies ana
streams on magnificent stone bridges
as good as those of the railways in our
country; that at times 1t pierces he
spurs Of the mountains with long ana
lofty tunnels; incredible as it may
seem. they have bored tunnels through
| the solid rock for a wagon road; as II
to fout the practical American they
have sometimes cut the rocky portal
of the tunnel into ornamental shapes.
Fancy spending such an amount or
money on a mere wagon road. Fancy
boring tunnels for it to run through
| solid rock. Above all, fancy making
ornamental doors to the tunnel!
There are other things about the Cor
niche Road that excite the contempt OF
the practical American mind. AS q
national highway it Is under the Min
lister of Roads and Bridges. n of the
French Cabinet officers. Like all the
national highways. it is divided into
sections Of a few hundred Kilometres.
Each section is in charge of a section
man, who spends his entire time patrol
ing the road and mending it as soon as
a break appears. He has all the neces-
sary tools, while along the roadside are
little piles of broken rock. pulverlzed
to different degrees Of %fneness, with
which to repair breaks at once. He Is
like a street sweeper on a city Dlock,
and on the block beyond him there is a
man to attend to the next section. AS
I saw these poor purblind Frenchmen
carefully mending little holes IN the
road - holes which we would leave
alone until they developed Into gullies
and then mend them next winter
could not but feel proud Of the supe-
rior methods Of my country.
Another piece Of French folly was
this: Every half-mile we would encoun-
ter a small two-wheeled sprinkiins
cart about the size Of n barrel, drawn
by a lad. This at once provokes Amer
leans to roars Of laughter; it Is such
small business and so ridiculous. don't
YOU know, to sprinkle a road zoo miles
long with q sprinkler the size OF a bar
rel. True, this barrel was stamped
"Villefranche," which is a little town,
and further back there was one
stamped "Mentone," which Is else MOI
q large place. All along the road there
are many barrels. But We do better IN
our country. When the roads near a
small town need sprinkling. the super
visors try to raise the money-and rail-.
They try to buy 4 big sprinkling. cart
which, with the horses and all, costs
about S2OOO-and fail. Then the 'ltl'
zens try to raise the money by SUD-
scription-and fail. Then the county
papers take it up and try to raise the
money-and fail. Then all hands be-
moan the lack Of public spirit. and go
to work to get the sprinkling Garland
fail. Here the small towns get sprink'
ling carts and do it by hand. IT'S true
! the operator Is only an e~ighteen-year-
old boy, but in many Of the small
towns of our country the same boy
would be loaing round the corner gro
Gerry chewing tobacco. However a
two-horse sprinkling cart Is a more
imposing sight; perhaps the American
way is the better way.-The Argonau1'