Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1907-11-30
A TOWNS SIDEWALKS
Those of Wood Being Discarded
by Wide Awake Communities.
PERMANENT INES WANTED.

IF this is not the cement age the
1cXt age promises to be-" recently re-
marked man who has Travelled wide
~ through the interior sections of sew
PraI states in the west and south. 81
am not aIuding to the cement build
ingS and bridges which we see spring
ing up in the big cities and on railway
Iines-this stuff they call re enforced
or armored concrete Il is the use of
concrete in the smaller cities and
towns which calls t - my prophecy.
Take California. for instance OF
course California is exceptional. par
ticuarly southern California, where
wood is very scarce and naturally ce-
ment is largely used, not only in house
building, but in laying walks and in
flooring ana ceiling easements and
that sort of thing. While in southern
California not long ago man who
had lived there for years made Il bet
that couldn't find a wooden sidewalk
b. any of seven towns which he
uImcd. | had Informed him that in
tended to visit those seven towns.
"Wcll | thought | was safe in taking
the bet 1t looked like a cinch, for |
had lived many years in middle
western town and some time in a
New England town where wooden
sidewalks were the rule. | made n
still hunt for wooden sidewalks in
each of those seven towns. | think |
must have walked at least hundred
miles more than otherwise would
have done. But | lost out. Not one
single stretch of wooden sidewalk did
| find. Everything was concrete.
paid up cheerfulIy, for | had learned
q valuable lesson. When | returned
home the first thing | did was to give
an order for the laying of concrete
sidewalk in front of my house, and my
neighborS at each side took the hint
and continued it uniformly until now
the whole block is sidewalked with
cement. The town has run cement
mad as to sidewalks
since my California experience |
have made it II practice to observe and
inquire as to sidewalks in every town
l visit find that the concrete side
walk is here and here to stay. 1t
makes Il much better, prettier and
safer sidewalk than the Old castoff
lumber which most of us used to put
down In front of our houses. You
know the sort. In the towns along the
navigable river courses particularly
some of the wooden sidewalks were
frights to behold and still worse to
walk over. The lumber was full of
those round auger holes. which dis
closed the fact that it was the bind
ing lumber used in building the great
rafts of plank which were floated
down the streams. When the dealers
couldn't find any other way of diSpos-
ing of the bored planks they sold 'cm
at a nominal sum for sidewalk mate
rial The pIanks quickly rotted around
the auger holes, and here and there
one soon broke, making sag in the
walk and sometimes costing n pedes-
trian the use of a limb or costing the
town a few thousand dollars in dam.
ages after losing out in a lawsuit.
"Now thousands of town property
owners are chopping up their ancient
sidewalks for kindling wood and put
ting down cement which stays put.
If this material IS laid by Il man who
knows his business it will Outlast any
other sidewalk. and it is cheap enough
now to be available for almost any
body. In the long run it is by all odds
the cheapest sidewalk material in the
market
You will notice that practically all
the boomers of real estate additions
lay concrete sidewalks IN front of the
lots and advertise the fact before of
fering the lots for sale. Plenty of peo-
pie will pay considerably higher for a
lot curbed and Sidewalked with con.
crete than for one in the natural state.
They pay for the concrete, too, though
they may not know it, These real es-
tate dealers know what's what. They
keep up to date and they profit by it.
Just take look around your own
town and see how many citizens have
put down concrete walks not only
along the street. but In their yards.
front and rear The old time gravel
walk is disappearing, while the obso-
iete plank walk is so far behind the
fines that nobody can claim to be up
with the procession unless he has elm
mated the perilous planks. l say per.
liOus because sooner or later somebody
is sure to get lockjaw from stepping
on rusty nail sticking up from the
walk or fall through the place where a
plank ought to be and peel his shins or
worse.
"lf ! were n moving character in a
town Improvement society | think the
first thing ! should do would be to
insist upon cement sidewalks along all
streets. even If they We're but two feet
wide. Nothing adds more to the at
tractiveness of a town than concrete
sidewalks. A visitor takes note of
such things and If he finds that the
citizens have kept up to date along
this line he goes away with a favor
able impression of your town.
81 dare say that many town has at
tracted new citizens who, If they were
pinned down to ii, would have to ad-
NIT that 1t was the decent sidewalks
that first gave them a favorable i'm
preston. and they We're of cement.
80 far as sidewalks are concerned,
at any rate, this is the concrete age,
and you may take this hint for what
1t is worth"