The St. Mary banner., 1910-09-24
BROADWAY No rNcs1N TRlA-
Cows Father tha r-l.ca6te Eng nee
Tha. Lad It C-t.


In one ot the elder villages OF New
England situated near W2:er I vii
probably be found hat the main
street Is gently cu-v.ng, although the
land may he quite la and there are
no hills 70 avoid. This IS because the
street was originally Indian trail.
The Indian made his way through
the primeval forest ever on he lock
OUT for enemies He never maze a
straight trail through the fores-, bat
always went in curved line toward
his destination This afforded greater
safety from POSSIBLE enemies.
Broadway" said he man who
made these statements, is no- IN
indian trail, although it was or.ei-
naily gently curving and has al IL
regular course up Manhattan is.ard.
The probabilities are that it was
path made by cattle or sheep beng
driven out of the town limits by the
settlers TO find suitable pasture. This
path was enlarged by subsequent
travel in a nor:herly direction as set
Elements advanced up tie Hudson.
If you will take notice Of Broad
way when you are going Up It tow-
ard the extreme end Of tie island you
will see that III only rare cases will
water from the cross streets run
toward It. This means that the Iar-
ttcular path the cows selected gave
the d--est and best footing during
the spring an1 that the worat place
was the swamp up at what S low
Manhattan stree, where the subway
station is
broadway follows the watershed Of
Manhattan Island as nearly as pos
sible, with saving OF distance in
mind as well.
Third avenue, which was the old
road 70 Boston, had water flowing
34th street. 1t was much poorer
roadway of its kind than Broadway
was because it was wetter and mud
dier. That is one reason Why Broad
way became the main artery of New
York, even though Third avenue lad
the old Bowerie, the wide, tree shad-
ed show street Of old New York to
help it.
broadway was no Indian trail, !
though, and this is because an Indian !
trail in that direction wouldn't be ,
necessary. The Indians could reach |
any Part Of the island in their canoes |
by taking the East River or the Hud- !
son. Any Indian trail on the island |
would probably be a short portage /
around He'll Gate, but as such road |
would lead nowhere in particular, be-
ing short, it was long ago eliminated.
You can always recognize an IN
dian trail by the fact that it ieads
between two bodies Of water. even
though they Ge separated by 20 or %
miles, or else the trail avoids -aplds
or rough portions Of the river near
which the tlail is located. j he tran
makes grand, easy curves from one
end to the other and keeps 20 the
level whenever possible. In course OF
time the white settlers transformed
trail of this kind into read, mace it
a highway and finally Street.
The cunning CT the Indian il max
ing his paths crooked probably had
q great deal to do with the irregular
Of roads in the older
part of New England and Nova SEQ
ia, for the settlers had to adopt the
same device as a measure of self-prc-
lection. The winding roads you find
1own East are legacy of the In
iian and the stray COW, who made
or herself feasible path through
he bush that the settler found it
most convenient to follow. New
York Sun.