The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1905-05-24
Communication.
To the Editor.

Dear Sir:-The two most i'm
portant questions that Ire agi-
tating the minds of the people of
the parish of Lafayette at the
present time are education and
good roads. The two must go
hand in hand together, the first
can't prosper without the latter.
l think that our patriotic public
spirited men are taking a very
worthy and judicious course in
the way they are trying to build
up our school system through
out the parish ard they are sue
ceeding as we'll as could be ex-
pected under the existing cir
cumstances and with the means
at their command.
But it seems to me that they
have not taken the deep interest
that they should have taken in
building up one of the most i'm
pOrtant pillars that their school
system must stand upon or fail,
j., e., good roads, without which
the parish or the people that live
in it can't prosper, nor no school
system can prosper.
There is no subject of such
vast Importance to the welfare
and prosperity of this country as
that of good roads. And yet
there is no subject of such vital
Importance to this parish that
our ruling public men have paid
so little attention to in the past.
l will here state in the way of
introduction and in support of
what l intend to say later on in
reference to building roads in
this country, that / have always
taken a deep interest in the
different systems and methods
of building and working the
public roads in every country
where l haye lived or travelled.
l have travelled nearly all over,
through and around the Ameri-
can continent, Mexico, Brazil,
Patagonia, Faulk Island, Chile,
Peru, California, Guatemala,
twice over the projected Mica
ragua Canal route and once over
the Panama Canal route, when
under French control. / have
lived over forty years in Canada,
eight years in California, fifteen
or twenty years in the western
States and Louisiana.
In 1858 | built. ready for laying
the track, seven miles of the S.
v. r. r., the first railroad ever
built west of the Rocky Noun.
tains. The same year | was ap-
pointed chief supervisor of public
roads for the district of Sacra-
mento. which included all the
roads leading into and out of the
city, north, east and south for
ten miles. It was a very i'm
portant and difficult position to
fill, on account of their being SO
many deep gulleys to cross that
it had to be bridged from bank
to bank, and large marshes that
had to be drained orsdirt hauled
IN wagons to raise the road bed
two feet above high water mark.
For eighteen years I had the
principal control of the town
drainage, sewerage and the
grading and crawling of the
streets and sidewalks of the
town of Simcoe, Canada.
! mention the above -circum-
E-- t. show shat any man of
ordinary intgence who has
had the practical experience in
bnilding railways, turnpike,
gravel and other roads that II
have had, ought to know how to
build good roads in this parish,
and ought to be able to tell
others how to do it, for this is
certainly the best and easiest
country to build good roads in
that / have ever seen.
The soil in this parish is so
fine and heavy and settles so
close and hard together after a
heavy rain that no water can
penetrate it, unless the waller is
left to stand in the road so long
that the road becomesxsoaked.
soft and DOGGY.
Then our OldfS ed, mar.
row tired wagons very SION
ont my ROOD tho1sRs11 L.