Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-08
Written for The Star.

Written for The Star.
Did you ever have to drive half a dozen
miles through the roads that criss-cross
the prairie lands of Illinois in more or less
regular squares. those which afford
egress to the outer world for the people
who dwell in the eight or ten-mile-wide
strip known as the black north between
the Ridge road and the southern shore Of
Lake Ontario in good old York State" or
any other roads like them. In the spring
breakup timer"
If you haven't there are possible expert
ences before you which, should they come,
will develop amazingly either your patience
or your vocabulary, and make 1t entirely
clear why It is proper to say drive
through" and mot drive over" these roads.
For in the spring they simply long
narrow sloughs of mud without bottom,
apparently. and admiringly adapted not to
the promotion of traffic, but to its almost
utter stagnation. Some years. when the
season is backward" this condition Is hard
ly over with late as is date; other
years. when the season is a forward" one,
the roads pretty well dried out and
fairly passable by this time. Whether the
season be early or late the time OF The
spring breakup" is the most disagreeable
OF all seasons for those who live in the
real country.
Living IN the country as most city folks
understand It, IS by no means the real
thing; to really live in the country you
must get miles away from q city, where
there are no macadamized nor even gray
eled roads, and where, II a railroad runs
through your section at all, there are only
one or two trains day In each direction.
You should he at least five miles away
from the station, but even one mile Will
do since a short stretch of impossible road
Is about as bad miles and miles of it.
Getting Rid of the Drifts.
The first thing nature does when 1t is
time to bring about the spring breakup is
10 get rid of the snow.
It takes the spring rain and sunshine
weeks longer to melt the drifts, from five
to twenty feet deep. than II does to make
way with the snow where there are no
drifts, and there IS generally quite a pc
Rod every spring when the east and west
roads are snOwiess stretches of mud, while
yet the drifts persist the roads running
north and south The resulting situation Is
one of the chief annoyances of the breakup.
and when the winter has been long and
severe, as the one just over with has not
In many places, lays the first embargo of
the season upon the roads.
For while the east and west roads can
be navigated only by wagons, sleighs only
can negotiate comfortably those running
north and south. In such a state of af-
fairs no one ventures away from his farm
unless 1t is positively unavoidable When
he does he IS likely to go with a wagon.
tor while the wagon generally can be
hauled through the drifts II is practically
out OF the question to drag a sleigh, a pair
OF hobs or even light cutter through
the mud.
But getting the wagon through the drifts
Is no easy matter. Nothing but the neces-
sity OF getting to town to pay the interest
on the mortgage or such direful Illness in
the family that the doctor must be had at
all hazards Il warrant for an attempt to
go abroad when the drifts prevail north
and south and the mud east and west. It
Is not alone that the trip is tedious and
difficult; the farmer who essays TO get
through a few miles of melting drifts runs
serious risk of spreading" the wheels Of
his wagon. In which case either q broken
axle or a collapsed wheel. either of which
Will put the vehicle out Of business, is the
certain result.
When the Wheels Spread"
WHY do the wheels spraad9 WILL er..