Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-05-03
VALUE OF GOOD ROADS
How They Increase Home Trade In the Bad Weather Season.
ADVICE FROM A NEW DRUMMER
He Tells the Loca! Merchant Why Business Is Dull During the Winter and Spr!ne-Farners' Wives Buy Through the Mail.


 The new drummer entered the office of the Grand Central hotel with q scowl on his face and several smother cd imprccations just inside his lips. He had the appearance ot man who wanted to use extremely hot language but the sight of the Methodist church. just across the way and the Baptist church down the street !e trained him In other words, he Ml~ caring mad.
 lie was really an drummer though neW to tE.s z}ieular town. This was the first time he had made the place The drummer had come ill overland from the county seat, twenty miles away, ia a spring wagon hired from the livery stable Ills two s3mpt, trunks were in tke =hscts part of the wagon They were s1la<il2a Witl mud There was mud even on t1e seat cIlst.- ion. ana tie tlrun4mef.* clothes Wess2 yellow with mud. Ehe drivers an- parel Wte. imply eHh@l H..th it, but l1a did u8t appear to #.Ad l litjie thing like tlIat. He was used 10 1t. The horses also were eafeel with mud. and the wheels of the yt.cla carried seT- eral pounds each of c yellow stfclli- ness.
 "Wall. 1 never." eiaeulate,1 tba drum mcr a lic wiped tise mud freH lis fingers Before takjn& ro Ike pen to r,ya ister his name "'f.s k the worst ! ever struck Nh& don't yeH f9!kS around here build some decent F0as3s? You've go; plenty of material right 3t hand TEcne's rock enough alon& tha roadside to make the finest roads il the land if you wouli only put where it will do Che most gool.'
 "Oh, we don't worry," said the hotel clerk, marking room No. 23 opposite the new guests name. We've put up with muddy roads from the beginning and got along fairly well, and I reckon we can continue to navigate" "Navigation - that's tho TOW, all l right" said the drummer You ought 1 to hire boats instead of wagons i'll this section. Why, some of the places we came through today would float q 1 skitf.''
 The local newspaper editor was standing by the desk. He smiled grimly.
 "I've been preaching good roads to the people of this neighborhoOd for years he said, but they don't seem to take to the idea. They are pretty good people. too. but they've formed 1 the habit of putting up With mud in the muddy season and don't kick much. They say their fathers were content to drive through the mud when necessary or stay at home till the roads dried out, and they think they ought to be content to do the same"
 "Huh!' the drummer gruntod flows business here in the winter and spring?"
 Mighty poor." replied the dry goods merchant. mighty poor for q fact. People ou; in the country don't seem to do any trading except in summer
 When the roads are good" contin- ued the drummer q thouoht as much
 that is, they don't do much trading with you here in town. But country people are always buying something l somewhere when times are as good as they are now. That you may put down as fact Where do they buy from?'
 "Well, certainly not from me-" said the merchant.
 'Of course not, because the women can't get into town. It's the women that. The farmers wives come to town only once a month or so during, the winter, owing 10 your miserable roads. They do buy things, though, and l can give you a little tip. They buy them by mail. They read these large and luscious catalogues sent to them by the big city mail order firms. and they order through the catalogues. Did it ever occur to you that if you had decent roads you would get a much larger winter trade from the country? No? We'll, think it over I have just been reading some figures The state of Iowa, for instance. has 2,23O,000 population. It has 1O0,430 miles of public roads-what they call l roads-but only 150 miles are Of mac adam and passable every month in the year What do you think of that: Then take Missouri. That state, &C., cording to these figures, has more than 3,0O0,O00 people, with 90,Coo miles of public roads. 1t has only abont a thor- sand miles of well built highways Illinois is still worse eff fer good roads Most of the states line up just about the same. What can you expcct?" "It's q nov i!ea'' said the merchant meelly. '':n1 I'2l going to think it over and talk it oser with soM!o of the other town people. We've been think ] Ing our editor here i; q go0,l roads frank. but I'm inclined to the oninion tow that he has more common sense 1 than the rest of us.''
 RITpp TONCU