Norwich bulletin., 1915-11-05
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Better Roads Wanted in Ledy

Better Hoads Wanted in Ledyard.
 Mir. Editor: Some newspaper space has recently been dedicated to the ef- fort of competent quills in Norwich and New London to work up interest in a better road from Groton bank. or borough, to the state road in Norwich that commences at the foot of the so- called Willow Hill. an even two miles out of the city. Good points for the proposition were made by former sem ator-Judge Frederick Palmer Latimer of New Londcn and Groton. who, hav- ing been over the route time and again. must have known very nearly what he was talking about; and then into the ring came the hat of Former Representtive Jake" Gallup of Led yard. who, with charity for the sem ator- judge and malice toward no man save the auto hog that occasionally money, will show-and really did
 show-that Ledyard has done pret-
 ty well all the time, and mighty we'll
 some of the time, to make her road
 money do the greatest good for the
 greatest number. On top of all the
 Latimer-Gailup feast of rhetoric and
 flow of argument. Rev. Giles F. Good enough, once of Winsted and the hor-
 rible hills of that otherwise delecta-
 ble locality, got busy in Hartford
 paper as we'll as in our county pa
 pers, and I think the reverend gentle
 man from the lofty attitude of Meet
 inghouse Hill hit the right nail a
 good enough smart crack in the center
 of the head when he alluded to auto
 horse and shoeleather going in other
 parts of the fine old township that
 was cut of from Groton on purpose
 they say-to be named for the brave
 defender of old Fort Griswold. But
 The road around Long cove in this
 selfsame town of Ledyard, is not ex-
 actly according to Hoyle. to take the
 word of some people for 1t; and one
 one of the people would he your
 humble servant for I went over it in my No. 1-2 D's Sunday and should know what I am writing about! This road has many sharp rises, and it is narrow, call it about eight feet 10 be exact. on an average all the way. The rural mail carrier goes over it daily. and, while he has never knock ed that road to me, I know he has worked his rig harder over it than
 over any other piece of road out of the 21 miles Mir. Hurlbutt has to handle. It's so bad he can't use his Ferd-and they say a Ford will 20 up 10 per cent. of a fair opportunity! To reduce the hurnocks a deal of dirt | has been piled on each, but the ap- proach is short and, to make the thing worse. the slope is not toward the rut that offers a natural gutter. but goes the other way.
 Result: Not less than one large nor more than 10 small puddles on top of or around the ridge made by fling ing the dirt up on top of the hum mock.
 One ching more. The road is full o1 1 loose stones, some two pounds, a few | five or six in weight; and it's no new thing for even a skilled country horse | to turn ankles or stub his toes human | being fashion, when SO much loose ory~o ot1ik kn f5 anf mol dy tro pesky thing to throw or pick it out of the way except the mail driver-and | he is not supposed to do a job like that. The patrons of the route, when | they set up their poles and buy their boxes agree to make the road passa-
 ble for Uncle Sam's country carrier
 whose job is not all honey and pie ! and who, on a road like that, earns
 his $1o4o and then bit.
 There was a man at Gales Ferry | who once got several people to agree | to take five stores out of the road I every day for a year. His plan work
 ed well. We ought to habe a concert cd effort like that on the Ledyard side | of Long Cove. I say Ledyard be- | cause the Groton side of the hill is in | apple pie order, or was the other day.
 There were no humnocks. There were 1 no loose stones. The hill was smooth and clear, and if all parts of the Gro ton road system are as good there ] should be no cause for the Grcton carriers to use Joe Cannon's language,
 albeit the federal empioye over here | is sometimes tempted to forget he is good Gales Ferry Methodist and em- l ploy the kind of scriptural selections ] that are said. by the Washington cor respondents, to glide so gracefully from the lips of the statesman from the Illinois cornbelt.
 PRO BONO LEDYARD. Gales Ferry, Nov. 4, 1915.