St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1913-11-08

town. Why not put down NOR
wood block and watch for then
to 'buck?"
| The Mayor of Hattiesburg
Miss. writes Mr.. Dunbar tha
Bitulithic has given satisfaction
and is very sanitary and noise
less; that it has been down only
Seven Years, so they can't tel
lyet whether it is going to last
but that it was H-to cut Whel
making water connections. III
doesn't mention wood block
though in the heart of the pin,
section, but prefers brick fol
heavy traffic. His only objection
to bitulithic appears to be that i
just won't show signs of wear
| We strongly suspect that TIT
three Dunbar letters got mixec
in with the Doctors by mistake
They don't sound alike. Alder
man Dunbar's hardly mention
wood block.
The City Engineer of Ameri
Gus, Ga, writes DR.. Shaw in re.
ply to an inquiry limited to Wooo
block, that tl1ev have had Wooo
block pavement down, (and up)
for nearly two years, and had
comparatively little trouble. =
He nonchalantly let's out (msybe
he is a football fend) thatit was
bucking at the ends, = and
in some instances in the middle
but he says they don's mind that
down in Americus, that every
body there is satisfied, and ]
guess they will have that pave
ment going through the center
for touchdown after a fe.V more
years education.
Some unnamed civil Con-
struction Engineers" at Browns
vile, Texas, write DR.. Shaw in
reply to a letter limited to an
opinion on wood block, and give
it a good send off, but warn him
to look out for expansion, and
suggest that they are in the con-
suItation business, and that they
had some experience in wood
block expansion" which can be
had for the asking.
The City Engineer at Birming-
ham, also. in reply to a letter OF
DR.. Shaw asking only about
wood block, writes that the first
wood block laid there was a no
torious failure, !" but that later
pavement more carefully laid
gave better results. He made
no comparison between wood
blocks and other pavements, of
which there is much in Birming-
ham, for the simple reason that
he was not asked for it.
The foregoing is an accurate if
slightly informal dissection of
the result Of DR.. ShaW's inn
partial" investigation of the va
rious classes of paving, in his
impartial" effort to select the
best for Opelousas. He first
gets ten letters from or through
the New Orleans Office of the
Creosoted Wood Block Paving
Co. He then writes to Laurel
and Crowley, two towns known
to have no other paving than
wood block. He then writes to
Beaumont and Brownsville, Tex
as, Americus, Georgia, an d
Birmingham, Alabama, and by
a most peculiar lapse this i'm
partial" Alderman in each case
sends out an inquiry on the one
subject of "creosoted wood block
pavement. !" Each of these let
ters shows on its face that it
comes in answer to the Doctors 8
inquiry as to experience with
that kind only. Some of the
other answers intimate it, but
these four come right out and
say it. Surely the Doctor knew
that the City Engineers of such
big towns as Beaumont, Browns
vile, and Birmingham especially,
had had varied experience with
all sorts of paving. If he wanted
letters showing the worth of
each kind, why did he not ask
for them? Was it because he
was impartial?
Yet even under these circum-
stances he presents a bad case
for his client. Out of the nine
letters not eliminated above as
coming direct from the con-
tract tors file, a n d wit h
out exclud d in g OF h er $
containing a strong smack of
very careful selection of CORE
spondents, and the remainder
showing that our impartial"
Alderman limited or tried to linn
it the responses to tcreosoted
wood block, /" yet the astonishing
result is that we find several re-
plies which warn us that wood
block is only good for heavy
traffic, two which actually have
the impudence to mention buck
ingo in connection with this