Lower coast gazette., 1910-02-05
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1910.
Good Roads.

We hope that the good people Of the Parish
Of PlaQuemines, notwithstanding the disastrous
storm of September 20, and the enormous losses
therefrom resulting, will keep in mind the good
roads problem, which is one Of very grave I'M
portance to US all. Anyone who will look at a
map of Southern Louisiana will see how the
Parish of Plaquemines projects out into the sea,
a miniature peninsula. a hundred miles long,
with the Mississippi River running directly
through it's center. This grea5 disra .ce, equal
to two hundred miles Of roadway, that is
a hundred miles on each side Of the river, makes
the good roads problem in Our parish one Of the
most serious that presents itSelE t. us. Good
ton, of good schools, Of good churches, OF good
neighbors and Of good society. If we had the
good roads all of these things would come to us
far more quickly than if we still 60 about by
walking, or on horseback. Or with on little
jumpers, OF as best We can, twenty-five Years
ago a planter living twenty-five or thirty miles
Down the river required three days to go to and
to return from New Orleans. Rising early in
the morning and putting a Waterman out to look
for the coming boat and that boat arriving at
uncertain hours, anywhere from nine in the
morning until three or four in the afternoon, a
passenger from the Lower Coast would be land
ed in the city far in the night. When the i'll
fated steamboat Empire sank at the wharf in
New Orleans she landed 50 late in the night that
many of her passengers remained on board, and
some of them were lost, as is now only too we'll
remembered.
Arriving in the city late at night, with the
following day devoted to business, the third day
would be consumed in returning down the river.
The writer of this article has embarked on a
steamboat at the Lower Coast landing in New
Orleans at II o'clock in the day and got thirty
miles down the river, going ahead all the time,
stopping at various landings taking, on bricks,
putting off lumber and doing such work as was
done then, and reached his destination, thirty
miles down the river at two O'Clock the follow
ing morning, or fifteen hours time to travel
thirty miles. Our railway service has done
away with all OF this old time trouble, but. it is
wise to remember these old troubles of ours in
these latter days when we have railways and
are sometimes disposed to abuse them for their
sloWness in travel. They are certainly a very
great Improvement upon the old time methods
OF nearly a generation ago.
This improvement has come to US, but we
must not forget that elsewhere they are infinite
ly more progressive, and all up through the
Western States they have interurban electric
railways, hourly trains going to almost every
direction, and we are still hampered by our rel
atively slow methods of travel by the long dis
tances that confront US and the bad quality of
our roads, rendering local access to each other
among our W people much more difficult than
it should be. We must solve the good roads
problem in some way and the more we discuss
it, the more thoroughly we appreciate how much
we are behind other states in the union, perhaps
the more quickly this full realization will lead
us into earnest, active efforts for the betterment
Of our roads.