Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-18

gave me a steamship ticket to Sar
| Francisco and Sc with which she tolC
} me to buy ticket from San Francisco
----------- ------------
wagon does not readily submit to thi:
open air embalming. If left where ht
fell it is only a few days before III
, loudly howls for burial rites He i!
then cast into the ditch and can be use:
in the later days of road mending.
1t is written that "the way of the
transgressor is hard This makes
preaching a mighty hard job in Cali
; fornia during an unusual season. Thc
unusual season" in this state occurs
semi-annually, once in the winter ant
once in the summer. A man with ma
chine or wagon standing in four feet o.
mud, and no bottom at that, looking fol
, a good way out and remembering thai
''the way of the transgressor is hard.
, mourns over his own unlucky rightc'
BUSINESS and resolves that hereafter he
will stick to the macadam. If he per-
sists in that resolution there is little
question but that he will walk on g
pavement of good intentions" here"
latter, a paving material that has been
used, according to sacred history, for
some 1000 years. The supply is fur
nished fresh from the quarries by each
generation and becomes kiln-dried after
being placed in position. 1t is impervi-
Gus to frost. Its foundation is far, far
below the frost line. And it is imper-
vious to moisture. If a California rain
should fall upon it the steam would
blow the roof off.
Road Making Ancient
Road making is a feature of civiliza-
tion in which the dearest and the WiSeSu
and the best, the most hustling and
lrustling, progressive, enterprising, wide
awake and up-to-date people in the
whole round world, the inhabitants of
Southern California, could learn from
civilizations that existed 1000 years ago.
We could even learn something about
it from the English people, who may be
guilty of transposing their his now and
then, but are never known to build
their roads upside down, with the stones
at the bottom and the muck on top. A
year or two ago 1 went a-motoring
through western England with my
family, through Surrey, Hantsk Dor
Berks. There is not one mile of city in
Los Angeles equal to any one mile OF
the roads we toured over.
Through cities and towns, picturesque
country villages, over the downs,
through the forests, everywhere the
roads were as near perfection as skill
land patience and continued work could
make them. Repairs on English roads
are not made just prior to state or a
city election, as is the custom in
America, but they are repaired every
day. The road members go over them as
Regularly and frequently as the track
men walk along our railways, and the
roads are made for people to walk
Ialong, to walk on and to drive over. In
cantrast to the hostility of the citizens
here to the automobile, all the sym
pathy of the English road makers is
with the auto wagons. Every group
that we passed, whether it was two or
half a dozen men, shouted cheerfully to
warn us of possible danger. When we
first heard the repeated cry, "P'lice tray
art a mile ahead sir!" we said, "Thank
you," with an English accent, and at
tributed it to the kindness of the
laborer.
Traps Imaginary
After a while we learned that the
price of a pint of beer would not be re-
; fused by the kindhearted men who
warned us of police traps that We're
neither set nor baited, and existed only
in the thirst and imagination of the
honest toiler. | have known the re-
pairer of the political roads of the re-
, public, repairing with busy muck rake
land carloads of mushy material for The
fall rains, to warn the country of ap-
Iproaching destruction with an appeal
ing account that told of unassuagablc
thirst, unfllable capacity and elegant
mendacity one word more about Eng
lish roads. The harder it rains the
, cleaner the roads. The driveWays cut
down by the cart wheels of the CEN
Ituries are walled with high banks
crowned by blossoming hedgerows. II
, there is anything loVelier than an Eng
: lish country road in June is must be
; heaven.
An Englishman may go to the ends
of the earth for climate, but he never
, leaves England in search of landscape
!, beauty and highway cleanliness.
There was a time when we had fairly
good country roads i'm many localities
but the railways checked the impulse
toward good roadmaking. When there
was nothing but the highways mer
were compelled to make them passable
but when the railways defed mud, rain
and storm and tied all the towns to-
gether man abandoned road making
and road mending. The bicycle revived
it a little while; then they failed again
The automobile will compel good
roads in this country, Instead of leg
islating against the auto, the member
from Alfalfa and Antelope valley, the
member and all his constituents should
bow down and serve them with legis-
| lallNe IdNOfS. FOi II man is only
going to market he win depend on get
ting there some how and some way
and some time A man going out mere
ly for pleasure is going to have it If
ii costs his bottom dollar. A man can
get drink of spring water for moth
ing, yet he "makes Rome howl' if he
is asked to pay AN infinitesimal tax to
bring owens river down to Los An
geles. But he viii walk a mile and
pay 25 cents for a drink of whisky
Every year we have bad roads. Every
year we have watched the waste storm
water running i'm torrents down to the
sea, and every year since l have lived
in California we have laid our hands
on our hearts and declared that this
should never occur again; that before
next winter We would have great res
erYoirs for the storage of storm water
and we would have roads as hard To
make as prediction promises are TO