Times-promoter. (Hernando, DeSoto County, Miss.) 1898-1970, 1909-08-19
MAJOR DockERY WRITES
Good Roads. General Conditions in North
State and PeIlasra Discussed.

State and Pellasra Discussed.
i Mt. Airy, N. c., Aug. 13, 1909.
Editor Times-Promoter:
j / intended no reflection upon oul
board of supervisors or any member
of it in my last letter. The road law
is good enough and the taxes not toe
high, if they brought us good roads.
But do they? Don't each supervisor
report, the roads in his district pass
able or tolerably well worked. The
contractors certainly know what
they agree to do-and certainly know
that the county will do its part, that
it will pay every cent that it agrees
to pay-and I think the board as guar
dian of the peoples interests should
require rigid execution of the con-
tracts on both sides, so as to report
the roads all ovor the county-as
Charlie Emerson's was when the con-
tract system was first adopted FIRST
CLASS.
Mr.. Wilson was soundly abused to
me, on account of paying for some
roads that had not been touched, and
refusing to pay for some that had
been worked. don't know about
the roads that had not been worked
but I do know he did right in refus-
ing to pay for the road said to have
been worked. Ought we not to have
good roads by this time? The con-
tract system was adopted six years
ago, We have paid good many
thousands of road taxes. The first
working is the hardest and most ex-
pensive. Evidently the first working
was not well done.
But I am thousand miles off and
possibly / am complaining without
cause. Possibly the members of the
board have stiffened their backbones
enough to say no. or possibly our
good looking, intelligent, well-fed
and fat contractors have taken adj
vantage of the fine summer and have
rushed their machiig 1asl errs's.'.s '7,1.s,-
and the board can 1ithout strairallg
their consciences, report to the peo-'
ple that the roads are worked accord
ing to contract and your money prop
erly invested.
But still believes 3 superintendent
for the whole county-elected by the
people, responsible to the people,
and under sufficient bond to secure
his faithful work and the safety OF the
money is best. and cost no more.
/ thought Vi en- Mr.. Farley and !
canvassed tAa county and talked
roads, roads, roads, that had talked
out, but her I am at it again, and If
the scontra> ors, the supervisors and
the people !, i'll forgive me this time
/ promise not to do SO any more-til
next time.
Ihave been down town this even
ing and have seen more cabbages
than I ever saw before. They are the
finest I ever saw, are brought in loose
by the wagon load, sold, weighed and
Grated by the buyer and shipped by
express to Florida and other places.
Hundreds Of barrels Of fine potatoes
are being shipped every day, and ap-
ples-oh my, oh my-such splendid
looking and eating apples you never
saw outside the mountains.
The railroad is crowded with busi-
ness; the factories are running to their
full capacity; the granite quarry Is
shipping train loads Of finished stuff
to Cincinnati, and to the national
cemetefies north and south. Crops
are good and everything has busy
and prosperous look. The sulphur
springs four miles away have good
crowd from lower South Carolina,
Alabama, and Georgia and North
Carolina. Our western folks don't
come further than Ashville and its
neighborhood.
We had case Of the new disease
called pellagra to die here last week.
It is cropping out here and there IN
the south. We have had several cases
in our state-it is an Italian disease
and the word means ''bad skin.n The
lady who died here had had it two
years, and had been in the lunatic
asylum part Of the time. She suffer
ed no acute pain. The exposed parts
Of the body, the face, neck and hands
Get red like sunburn and the Skin
peels off repeatedly. The mind i
affected and the patient becomes in