The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1904-10-28

er's hair and asked him if he would
like to have it. Edwin Booth replied
at once that he would prize the lock
of hair above all things, and asked of
the members of the Garrett family
would kindly inform him of anything
of interest connected with his brothers
death. Thereupon long correspond
ence ensued between the actor and
Baynham Garrett. Edwin Booth sent
my brother Raynham many presents,
the most valuable of which was Ii
brary that cost $500. The books are in
my brothers possession today. There
is a splendidly bound volume of Shake
speare, containing the autograph of j.
Wilkes Booth. Later on, when my
brother concluded to educate himself
for minister Of the gospel, Edwin
Booth often helped him while he was in
college.
THE story of J. Wilkes Booths es-
cape from the country and his subse-
quent career in South America, which
has recently attracted the attention Of
the rec ding public" continued Mr.
Garrett. sis a very ingenius piece of
literary labor; but it lacks the essential
element Of truth. Nothing is truer to
my mind than the historical fact that
]. Wilkes Booth was killed in my faith
er's barn, and that the general accept.
ed history of the tragedy is correct, ex-
cept some triflinG Details
Loads and Eoads, Here and Abroad
Says Otto Dorner, the advocate Of
good roads: IAN American farmer Wis
iting France and Germany will certain
ly be interested, and perhaps somewhat
amazed, to see the average country
highways as there eXist.ng-broad,
smooth roadways, splendidly surfaced
with stone, suitable for heavy traffic in
all kinds of weather, and generally
lined on both sides with tall, stately
trees, shading the highway like a park
driveway. He would wonder at the
money which had been spent upon
them. With u solid stone roadway, on
which an ordinary wagon tire would
make no impression, it is not to be Won
dered at that three and four tons Of
produce should be loaded upon an ordi-
nary farm wagon, which is there built
with tires four or six inches wide A
French load Of hay, approaching our
American farmer from distance,
would bring to his mind vision as of
moving a hay Stack-such a great diff
ference is there between the ordinary
load of hay as there hauled to market
and the load he is accustomed to see
among his American neighbors.
Contrast such a system of roads with
those Of our country, with which all Of
us dwelling in a rural community are
so familiar The law lays out q high
way siXty-siX feet wide, but it is rare
that more than twenty feet of this
ground are appropriated for highway
purposes proper. The highway such
as 1t is, is rough and uneven, and the
ordinary wagon passing over it travels
through an inch or two inches of dust
in dry weather and through three or
four inches Of bog, very frequently,
after rain of no unusual severity This
is the road on the level. Where a hill
exists conditions are even worse, for the
action OF rain and snow washes away
the soil at the top of the hill, leaving the
surface covered with the toughest of
gravel and transforming the road" at
the foot of the hill into what, after
shower, is veritable quagmire.
what wonder, then, that the average
wagon load as we see it in the United
States is so entirely different q thing
from that seen abroad! Travel over q
road OF this kind is necessarily slow
with any kind of a load and as the dis,
lance from the farm to the market is
greater by far than in France and Ger
many, the farmer reduces the weight Of
his load, that his team may make some
| respectable progress without being
Worn out during the first few miles Of
the trip. Reducing his loads, the farm
er's trips are multiplied in number, and
! the result of it is that it requires three
or four times as long to market his
crop as would be consumed on Europ-
can highways.
The movement for good roads is con-
tinually and rapidly growing. Every
thinking farmer who has become famil-
lar with the publications of the depart
ment CT agriculture becomes at once an
| advocate Of better highways and an ad-
vocate Of better methods in building
them. The American people have
| brought their system Of water trans
portation to a high state Of perfection
and we are the possessors Of a system
of railroads which is unequaled by that
| Of any other nation in the world. 1t
! now looks as if the American people
were seriously turning their attention
to the common country road, and it is
safe to assume that, once the movement
fo4' better highways is led along definite
lines, we shall, before many years, have
| a system Of country roads equal in ev-
cry way to our water and railway
| transportation facilities"