Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1905-12-01
POVERTY AND PROFANITY
SEQUENCE OF BAD ROADS
Mudholes Cause Farmers to Lose
Their Farms. Their Piety and
Their Boys and Girls.

and the Courier herewith gives II in
full, that the farmers of Josephine
county may read it and it is hoped
profit by it,
Under the caption OF Roads As A
Means of Grace, the Oregonian S
article is as follows:
1.-The favorite paving material for
country roads in the United States is
good intentions. The best.known
highway where this material is EN-.
ployed begins in America, bot its ter
minus is elsewhere. 1t is much
travelled, though in one direction
only. All the traffic goes downhill
nobody ever comes back The country
it leads to is said TO be undesirable
as residence section. but once there,
the settler never tries to get away.
He invariably makes up his mind
that it is better to stay in spite of the
climate than to attempt to return
uphill over such road. This is the
reason given by many theologians
why the population of Hades does not
emigrate. 1t may not be true, but it
looks plausible. Certainly uphill
roads paved with good intentions and
nothing else keep large fraction Of
the rural population of America fixed
in conditions of life to which Hades
would be preferable
1.-THE worst enemies to religion in
America are mud roads running up
aud down steep hills They were
LAID out by the devil, every one of
them, and his object was to keep
people at home from church. Millions
of souls in the United States. now ir-
retrievably lost, would today have
been rejoicing in happy salvation if
they had not been kept from the
means of grace by mudho es in the
road. The devil trembles, saws the
hymn, when he sees the weakest
saint upon his knees. Maybe he
does; but he trembles a good deal
worse when he sees the same saint get
up off his knees and begin TO haul
gravel into the mudholes in the road
what pleases Satan above all things
is to see a saint trying to drive over an
Oregon dirt road in Winter with q
load of potatoes. At that spectacle
the Adversary invariably curl' his tail
six times round himself and licks his
chops, for he knows that within the
next 10 minutes that saint will be a
saint no longer. He will be a howl
ing, raging, blasphemous, baokslidden
sinner.
Not only do mud roads and steep
grade. destroy the farmers religion,
but, what many theologians account
a great deal worse, they empty hi
pocketbook. Five miles over bot
tomless road up and down hill are, for
all practical purposes, farther than
from New York to Chicago A man
; living five miles from town over such
road is as far from humanity's reach
as Alexander Selkirk ON his lonely is
land II he goes to market he can
haul no more than three or four sacks
of potatoes, whereas over a graveled
road he could haul 30 A horse can
haul twice as much over gravel ar
over the best dirt road, and four times
as much over smooth stone. He can
haul at least 10 times as big load
over gravel as he can through deep
mud. Sad is the fate of the farmer
living at the end of bottomless
road. His sons leave him and 90 to
town; his daughter never has beau
and grows up an old maid mis- wife
goes crazy, his house goes to ruin,
and he goes broke.
Satan is the patron not only Of mud
holes, but also of steep grades. 1t
was the Old Serpent himself who put
the notion into farmers heads that il
is shorter to 20 over hill than
arouLd it. 1t is not shorter. Have an
apple and lay it fiat,side down. Then
measure over and half way around,
and compare the distances. Often
20 round on the level is shorter, mucl
shorter, and 1t is always easier
Think of the time, the horsefiesh, th'
wear Of wagons, the loss of the buoy
ancy and JOY Of life that have beer
spent in hauling loads up one side n
a steep hill in order to haul then
down on the other. The FIRST thing
railroad builder thinks Of is leye
grade, or as nearly level as ray be-
1t is the last thing the country roa,
builder thinks Of and yet an easl
grade cuts as big a figure in th'
farmers little business as IN the rail
roads big business.
"On good, level road a horse hss Il
throw on his collar only Que. thirty
fifth OF the load he hsuls. \ grad
of only per cent doubles his work
A per cent grade means 1873 feet ris
to the mile This doubles the team
work What then, happens to tb
team and load when the grade IL 80
OF even 1909 feet 10 the mile, as
is on many roadsf There il scarely
road on tho Pacific Coast which doe
not need resuryeyiBg for the sake q
better grades In the level state q
Iowa there are more steep grades i
the roads than there are In Switzei