The Starkville news. (Starkville, Miss.) 1902-1960, 1920-08-20

roads were worked on Road
Day" by Ga crews composed OF
1897 men and 142 teams, ac-
z cording to statistics gathered
= from the reports sent to the
Chamber of Commerce by the
MANY road captains of the day.
oktibbeha's "Road Day" proved to
be one of the greatest events in the
history of the county. Almost to
man. the citizens of the county dom
ned their oldest clothes early Friday
morning and hurried out to Xix mud
holesn-men, in many cases, VINO
had never done hard days work IN
their lives before. And many are
the blisters and bruises that can be
found even today as result OF the
!. enthusiastic labor so that Oktibbeha
would not have to face another WIN WIN
ter with the prospects Of being mud
bound.
There was little confusion, and no
trouble. Right on schedule, the
bells of the city rang and the whls-
ties blew at six o'clock and the
crowd began to gather on Main 81.
20 minutes later. The size OF the
crowd was never fully shown nor
realized until later in the day, as
car after car filled up and pulled out
for it's destination before many re-
ported :,
But one thing was very noticeable.
Those who were not in sympathy
with the spirit of the day it is claim
Cd found it most convenient to keep
out of sight until late afternoon.
But these were mighty few, as the
spirit of the day had captured al
most every man.
1t is impossible, even at this late
date, the amount of work done, ami
it. is impossible to even attempt to
give credit where credit is due. The
rough spots of almost every road In
the county were smoothed over,
holes filled up, trees and bushes were
felled by the hundreds and in two
cases at least, roads were entirely
made over for distance of four
miles and more.
Totaling up the results from the
captains reports that are in and es-
timating the balance according to
verbal reports from various members
of the crews, it is claimed that 1887
men put the day con the roads,.
One hundred and forty-two teams
are reported as divided among "a
crews. More work was done on the
roads, it is said, on this one day
than had been done in the past two
years-and the wonderful results ac-
complished puts the Board OF Super
visors once more on top of the propo-
sition that has been facing them ever
since the rains and high cost OF la
Dor started the trouble.
And that the spirit of the day was
accepted by the Board is shown that
in many places where some work had
to be elft incomplete, the Supervis-
ors have rushed regular crews to fin
ish the job.
The county captains are most gen
erous in their praise OF the city men
and their spirit of cooperation and
the city men are most enthusiastic
over their day with the trainers.
Honorable mention must be made al
SO of. the College men and those
termed "war Students. These made
themselves felt in many places in ad-
dition to the College road. AS II.
\ G. Young expressed it in his report,
"It was a great pleasure to have had
( such a nice bunch to work with.
One captain, ]. R. Ricks, wrote,
.You will note that had about six
ty in the forenoon and much small
er crowd in the afternoon. recon-
mend that those putting in the full
day receive the distinguished service
medal but the autoist who goes now
by the dirt road to the College will
doubtless vote medals to them all" !"
The captains were unanimous in
reporting that the people in their
community were interested in Road
Day., that those who turned out
worked well and that Road Day was
a SUCCESS. A special vote OF
thanks is rendered the colored men
of the county who surprised every
body by their spirit and good work.
ssThe movie man arrived little late
in the day but, by making the flea
lures" Saturday, got a dandy film
which will be shown here and all
over the United States in about two
weeks, and the advertising secured
for the county is not to be estimated.
Already the demand is felt for an
annual "Road Day" and in Trim
Cane at least there have been several