The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1906-05-12
the Young Who Bravey Strikes Himself Receives No Credit
Ball. Great National Game Only Played Which the Young
THE SECOND LESSON.
More About Road Building From the Pen Of
J. Il. Livingston.

Mr. Editor Kindly permit meto pay
my humble respects TO the Hon VIM b.
Sheldon and to ieicitate this good
christian friend OF mine upon his ig-
norance respecting road material and
road construction.
One would hardly expect, however,
irrespective Of his paucity OF knowl-
edge upon a subject entirely outside of
his profession, that SO brilliant an at
torney at law should sto0p to petit
FORGERY, as'he pefsistently does in a
recent art Gle published in the Banner
over his signature in that he made
reference always therein to hare
heads, ignoring the quality which the
Roaring Branch yields And yet pos
siby my proyerbial charity ought to
lead me to admit that it was his ignoi
ance above referred to, and not desire
TO pettifog the case, that led him t.
omit the name of the hardhead . whit h
me recommends for road construction
Let me inform The distinguished ~t-
torney that the "hardheads found in
the Roaring Branch are wholyquarz-
ite. He may not know that hard
head" is a rock worn more or less
spherica by attlitlon He may not
know that there are as many kinds OF
"hardhead' as there are kinds of rock
in the earlh's crust re may not know
that quarlzite is compressed sand
aud devoid of cleavage. therefore I'M
suited for road construction because
its broken fragments will not unite or
| ht one into another 10 form mosaic
in the bed of the road lie may not
| know that a hardhead Of any kind is
casehardened by attrition, and there
fore me re difficult to crush than the
original rock Of which it is composed,
and that by reason of this hardened
case a sort OF explosion occurs in
the crushing that disturbs the elo-
ments Of the original formation and
! produces much detrtus.
Still, it matters little whether Mr.
sheldon knows these things, every
body else knows, what Mr. Sheldoc
parsistenLy denies, ihat quartlite
hardheads are a nuisance ia any
scheme Of road construction We will
cite In as our most credilable witnesses
to prove this: First, the veteran road
builder Mr. ii NJ. Tuttle; second, Mr.
d f.. Moore, who held the tenure of
road commissioner for three years,
and third, Mr. NJ w Stewart, who al
so served as road commissioner for a
1 like term Perhaps as worthy wit
nesses as these are the streets them
selves. II we except few rods on
/ Silver street, which was bound Gown
with some sort OF siliceous gravel, or
material other than quartzite detritus,
and Gage street, which was bound
down with yellow clay" so sarcas.
tically referred to by MIR Sheldon,
there IS hardly another rod ofthe miles
that were built in the i've years that
quartzite was used as a road metal re-
naming in the village
1t may be well TO acknowled e right
here that the street lmmissoner had
rather exaggerated notions Of the prop
er quantity" otclay he was directed
to lay on Mr. Sheldon quartzite
Gage street, which had !oosened up and
resemoled the iloor of a quarry, and
that rather bad mess was made of ii
for a time. but the yellow clay has
held the quarlzite down ever since,
and was really the salvation of the
street. for which MIR Sheldon should
be Gully reyerent rather than nippani.
1t was really more successful an ex-
pertinent than Mr. Shedon's purchase
ofthe Remington water works We
have at least something to show for
our money
We will not accuse Mr. Sheldon OF
pettfogging when he refers to Union
street as lhe cleanest street in town.
He simply gives his case away, which
is not usual with able attorneys
Union street, with the exception of
about 200 feet at the lower end, was
top dr. ssed with three inches of lime.
stone We presume that Mr. Sheldon
would admit, under pressure. that the
surface, and not the foundation, really
, CONSTITUTES the "clean' part of il. But
possibly he may still claim, as he did
once in a public meeting thereby "lay
ing me in a lie that Union street wa,
built wholly OF quartzile, bat Nh
Tuttle's letter, published in the Re
former directly thereafter, may be re
produced as irrefutable evidence
against such a claim.
, We may add, that Mr. Sheldon ha,
never extended the common courtes,
? of a public apology for the insult OF
fered the writer in a public meeting
But rather 10y inference at least
! he covertly reiterates his denial of m,
, statement of fact aud Mr. Tuttles cor
; roberative testimony, by referring t
Union street as 'the cleanest street il
0 town
B But Union street was built ten year
! ago and it is now fast dsintegrating
= thanks to the quartzite in the base o
y it, The lower end has been loos
3 stone heap from the first year, an,
0 now ia many spots, where the lime
0 stone is worn away, the base is COMING
y up and being kicked about by passing
= traffic Had the full deDth of the dress