The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1917-06-15
HISTORY BOUND UP IN
GREAT ROADS OF FRANCE
War Enriches Country by New Net
work of Communications.

work Of Communications.
Christian Science Monitor At the
close of the present war France win
find herself enriched by network Of
new roads. These will be mainly to the
northeast and due east of Paris in
which directions they have been con-
structed to provide for the need of rap
i'd transport to and from the front. But
in every part of France the necessities
of war have added to road communica-
tlons Factories have been built where
raw material was most easily procured,
and these have had to be connected
with main arteries by means of roads.
Many Of them have only been meant
to meet the exigencies Of the moment,
but there are others which will re-
main and be remembered and known
as the roads Of the great war.
The history of the roads of France
is that of France itself. The great
roads which cross the Alps and the
Pyrenees and converge on Paris were
the medieval highways of civilization,
and these roads France owes primarily
to her former status as one Of the
principal and most prosperous prov
inces of the Roman empire. Roads,
bridges and aqueducts were among
slowed on the Gauls, and it has only
needed the additions made by Colbert
and Napoleon to provide France with
system of roads unequaled in the
world.
This subject of roads attracted, IN
the Sixteenth Century, a barrister Of
Rheims, Nicholas Bergier who set
himself to write a history Of the roads
of the Roman Empire-"Histoire des
Grandes Chemins de lEmpire Roman"
lin which great enterprise he had the
encouragement and help Of his friend,
Monsieur Nicholas de Bellievre, presl-
dent Of the Paris parliament. The
Rheims barrister set about his task in
the spirit Of an enthusiast, connois-
seur OF great things, and with love
Of the road strong enough to banisn
aridity from two quarto volumes, IN
which the technique Of his subject Is
by no means neglected. NJ. Bergler, In
fact, did great justice to his subject.
To him. as to the Romans of whose
handiwork he wrote, the roads ranked
among the noble. not the sordid, nor
the mechanical works Of man. He
notes pecularities in his subject,
which prove his imagination and
breadth of view; the roads, he says,
were dedicated to posterity under the
Of ha taut
princes in the world. the emperors; no
manner OF man could hold himself ex-
empt from road building and mend
ing, and the roads which were builde1
were not particular to a town or even
a state but ran from one province to
another; and finally, and this is with
out a doubt the chiefest reason for his
esteem this very esteem and admira
tion with which he is filled is a tradi.
tion passed on from century to cen
tury, derived indeed from venerable
Labor by all and for the
use of all formed the commonwealth
of the roads. "If l have not been able
to determine" he says, "the exact
number Of people who have worked
OF nave tduStu OlntIS u NoTh on lue
great roads, or the sum Of money ex-
pended thereon. IL is because both the
one and the other exceed all that the
most subtle arithmetic can number OF
calculate; or that the mind Of men
can conceive, except confusedly and in
a general way. The number Of men
who built the Temple Of Solomon and
the Pyramids OF Egypt, and the sums
Of money spent are known: but II is
impossible 20 say as much Of the Great |
Roads. since the greater part OF the
OF the earth have given OF |
their labor to them-and those who |
have not given of their labor have
given OF their money.
And so Nicholas Bergier passes t.
the particular consideration OF the |
irandes Chemins, the Chaussees, of |
Saul. He recounts, as something OF
IN historic plaisante," the fantastic |
yenealogy OF the great roads OF Bel
a.. .