Norwich bulletin., 1918-03-29
Isn't It Better to Fight Calamity Than to Howl Calamity

CWritten Specially for The Bulletin.) !. That is the five hundredth time you have bumped off your seat dr1v1ng lickety- over that same stone! The next time you go that way take a pick along, dig out that stone, ana put 1t where it never will bother any body again"
 read the above, recently, in that re- doubtabIe little Farm Journal of Phil adelphia. It seems to me worth pass ing along, Some folks" added the | writer do too much calamity howl | ing and not enough calamity fighting does that idea suggest anything to anybody? This stone -in- the highway business though, is one that must make some sort of appeal to about every man who ever travels a country road. I've as- sociated with several such, and can't seem to remember single dirt road in all Eastern Connecticut which isn't more or less infested with them.
 One, in particular, recall with special interest because of the insight it gave me into several phases of what is called human nature" This stone stuck it's knobby head out of the driveway, just in the wheel track, too, about halfway between my lane and the village. Every winter the frost would heave it up little. Every spring the road-menders would throw two or three shovels of dirt over it. A fortnight later this dirt would be ground or blown away and for the rest of the season we all mpbumped over it,-or drove around it, if we happened to think of it in time.
 One day, when old Sorrel was in an unusual hurry to get home to his oats. I got an especially bad bounce and broke a buggy spring. So, next trip, I decided to abate the nuisance, myself. I put pick and a hoe and a small bar into the wagon, drove to the place. hitched the horse to a road side tree and set to work. A few min utes with the pick and the hoe dis closed the fact that what l had NAp- posed to be only a sInalliSh boulder was really a rock of some size. Only it's nose had shown, but the rest of the head and body was there, ex- tending out and reaching deep into the hard-packed surrounding road
 
 to disclose some of its real propor- tions but my small bar made no im- pression, so far as stirring it from its bed was concerned.
 Not more thar stone's throw from neighbours L. l. He saw me puff ing away and s..olled down to see what was up. Together we investi- gated the prospect. He admitted that he'd seen 'more'n a thousands folks bump over that stone. But, some how he'd Kinder sposed twas the road commissioners business to see to 1t, and he'd also Kinder" got used to it and kinder forgot about it goin' to get it out, why. he'd got a shovel and a bigger bar, nd p'raph between us, we might do su'thin So he strolled back and eventually returned with the additional tools Meanwhile 1 enlarged the excavation with my pick. After half an hours digging, when we'd got hole at least three feet deep all around the pesky thing, without any sign of it's loosen ing. we were compelled to admit that it wasn't a boulder at, but a pro- jecting spur of the neighborins mountain and removable with nothing
 
 tainly we could nothing with crow bars, nor even with a twelve-foot raj which we commandeerer from the fence to serve as lever.
 lt looked as if we were beaten But I've always had a sort of interest in rocks and have come to know something about their structure. II the absence of anything better to dt for moment. had brushed off tho incrusting dirt on one corner. Closer examination now showed that tn, rock was rather soft, as rocks go, anC indicated traces of fissility. M, neighbor had a sledge and som, steel wedges. He brought them and giving up any attempt to get. tn thing out bodily, we set to work tt crush and split off it's upward pro jecting nozzle. This proved smaIle job than we had feared In less thai an hour from the time I hitched Ol Sorrel and took out my pick, we ha, broken off ali of the offending rocl which reached to within foot of tn road surface, had filled the cavity IT with first the broken stone fragment and then the excavated dirt, and wer gathering our tools up to 80 home.
 From that day to tFiS,-and our ad venture occurred nearly twenty year ago-the rosd there has been o. K The only indication of the conceale rocks presence is that given in tn spring, when the area over it drie out little quicker than surroundin portions. At no other time coul ==-===.--->----....=.-.------..