The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1914-05-24
ARE THESE THINGS TRUE
IF TRUE, WHY ARE THEY so!
NirEinin Is Charged With Making Bnt
Hrcnk In Great Rond-
wny.
WHAT AND WHERE Is TROUBLE
Tourist Gives Black Eye 10 NirEinin I'm
General, nnd Hichmonh and Char
Iottcsvillc In Particular.

tourist. who claims to have mo-
torcd all the way from the everglades
Of Florida To the cold and rigid pre-
cincis OF baltimore. the town that is
all the colder for having failed To find
"a regional bank, has written an nc
count OF his trip to the Manufacturers
record, ana in that account he saws
some right ugly things about Rich.
mond and some other parts of Viz
GINA. II may lac that he has told the
simple truth; shouldn't wonder If he
has. allowing for exaygcr;,tion: ana If
that he the case. II Is high time that
So!nc-AinE he done to make his bald
statements untrue. This tourist saws:
between Richmond. one OF the rich
anu growing cities OF the South, and
charlottesville. Il great educational
which ia becoming noted throughout
the land for the splendid homo that
are being built In II by people from
other sections there Is n road of In
dcscribablc badness. The Automobile
Association of Richmond has mar kcd
IL as though II were Il feasible propo-
sition. Pcrchancc ii may be lin midsurn-
m"r, but during the spring. at least 1t
is a road that disEraccs civilization.
virginia is doing splendid work In
road building. II may have some roads
worse than forty or nfty miles of the
Vile. but if IL has. may a kind Proyi-
dcncc deal gently with the people who
are dependent upon II for transporta-
tion. whether they be living there or
whether they are strangers passing
through the country. In motor trips
covering many thousands OF nilns
through regions sparsciy populnted
In sections where abandoned cordurov
roads through cypress swa,nps have
been travcrSed. tho writer has never
found Il road Of forty or nfty miles no
continuously bad and bad to such :,
uepth as this richmond Charlottes-
vie line during wet season
Mud holes in IL seem to be without
notion: ana the clay. Of which largo
part OF IL Is composed, Is almost ~
bottomless as the mud holes"
HUNG lP IN VERY
MUCH of VIRGINIA MUD
Just here the writer gives two or
three pictures showing his troubles I'm
getting willing farmer and his I'm
Wiling mules to pull him out" and
about this he says:
Merely with Il view to trying to stir
up an interest In showing what bad
roads do. the accompanying iliustra-
ton is presented of u party of half n
dozen men trying to prize an automo-
bile out of a mud hole where the blue
cay was so tenacious that three mules
could make no impression whatever
toward moving the car. They might
indeed. have just as we'll been hitchcd
To the Washington Monument That
mud hole was not worse than hun
drcds Of NV holes along the line. but
SKIN IN guiding the ear kent IL out of
most OF the other apparently bottom
less holes. The old farmer living
close by. who supplied the three mules
and who cut down a few trees i'm or
der 10 try to prize the car out of tho
mud. I'm II scmijocular way said TINT
The county was rich enough to have
good roads. and when asked why they
did not have /cm said the politicians
and the offices ldcrs got all the money.
We hope he was wrong. 1t has been
suggested sometimes that occasion
ally Il piece of road was kept bad In
order 10 give the farmers nearby an
opportunity To pull out stranded an
tomobilcs and make a profit thereby:
hut that Is not the case here, for this
farmer. with three mules and four or
I'VE OF his hands. actively worked Mt
the job for about two hours and then
refused To accept moro than dollar
for pay.
Along this stretch OF road. which
Continued on Fifth Paye.)