Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1903-01-15
A TUNNEL FOR SALE.
Being No Longer Needed, the Town
Council Tried to Sell 1t for
Post Holes.

The opposition of some of the al
dermen to the franchise sought by
the Pennsylvania Railroad company
for a tunnel across Manhattan kim
died the recollection of a man who
many years ago was city father in
his old town, says the New York Sun.
1.-THE town was finished long time
ago." he said. "but when 1 was a
member of its city council we ex-
pected it would attain the altitude
of metropolis. The population was
about 5000 and it is now less than
that by nearly one-half. 1t lost its
opportunity to become railway ter
minal when it refused to vote bonds
to the first railroad built west of the
Mississippi river.
"a sluggish stream flowed through
the center of the place and lost it.
self in the Big Muddy. This stream
had to be crossed in going to and in
coming from the steamboat landing,
and as steamboating was our only
means of transportation everybody
went to the river when a boat ar
rived.
Many a team got stuck in the mud
of the banks of that creek. 1t was
the one thing which the taxpayers
were willing to put up money to rem
edy. A council was elected pledged
20 hrid0a the creek
"After an appropriation had been
voted to employ an engineer from
another city, he planned what was
known as a brick culvert. 1t cost
about $4,000.
about the time it was completed
a drouth struck the country and the
creek ran dry. If my recollection is
not out of plumb, the bed OF that
creek has remained dry ever since.
This condition made the culvert val
ueless.
"Then the citizens of the town used
to take days off to cuss the council
that had this work constructed.
When the time came to elect another
council every member of the culvert
council was relegated to private life.
"Then the question came up in the
new board as to what could be done
with the culvert. The question was
debated for months.
'Finally one of the MEMBERSHIP
was afterward elected to congress
from the district-submitted a plan
to get rid of the $4,000 work. He
was a good deal of a wit, but his
humor was so dry that you never
could tell whether he was in earnest
or trying to do something funny.
"He made a speech one night on
the proposition to get rid of the cul-
vert, in which he said that he had
recently visited an Indian tribe in
the northwest which had shown a
disposition to engage in agriculture.
He said the Indians had decided to
build fences around their tepees, but
they did not know how to dig post
poles for fence posts.
"They had appealed to him to en-
llRhbCn AlO PAOPOoC0 W
sell them a lot of post holes made
to order. He therefore offered res
olution to the council to sell the cul-
vert to the Indians.
"'They have money he said, in
support of his resolution, and they
will buy the culvert and move it to
their reservation if you will name a
amount. I move he>ad- !
ded, that a committee be appointed
to fix the sum for which the culvert J
may be sold to these Indians. They |
want post holes ready made, and this
is the quickest way o1t to get rid of
this incumbrance and eyesore.'
"He was so earnest in his manner
that the council actually named a
to arrange for the sale, |
and the ludicrous in the proposition
did not dawn upon the council until
the committee had wrestled with the
question for several weeks. Then
the council passed resolution de-
claring that the proposition was flu
tile The question of disposing of
the culvert was never brought up
again."