The Mt. Sterling advocate., 1922-09-05
F
A
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NJ

I Near Bowling Green we crossed a
creek. Rogers asked what river that
was. | told him Elkhorn, guessed
| had no idea what II was, nor where
Elkhorn was. Afterward asked
what creek it was and they said
"Elkhorn." In fact, did not know
whether there was ever a creek by
that name, although l. had heard OF
old ten-year-old Elkhorn. But now
let's do like they used to do at school
in playing a game of horse race mar
bles-when your marble was hit you
had to go back to two and start over
in the game again; let's go back
where we first started on our trip
concerning the roads to travel.
The day before | left l asked one
of our well-posted road men of the
county if he could tell me anything
concerning the Dixie Highway. He
didn't seem to know anything about
it and talked as though he had never
heard of any such a highway. Then
he said he had heard something of
the road, but knew nothing about it.
The reason l asked him was because
he was a highway man, but not a
holdup highwayman, and a man told
me to ask him; that he knew all
about it and could tell me more than
anybody else. Now back to the
travel again.
We went and went, l don't know
how far, from Bowling Green, and
got on a good strip of road for dis
tance; then on and on into Tennes-
see. | can't remember how the roads
were altogether, but let's go back
to where we saw big sign in big
letters, "145 miles to Nashville; stone
road all of the way" and said good
road all of the way" That lie about
the road was even bigger than the
sign that | read. We went through
ounty in Tennessee; l don't know
the name of it, but l called it the
bad Lands" of Tennessee, like the
Bad Lands of the Dakotas. Then
came a strip of good road into Nash.
vile, busy looking city as regards
to lots of people and mobiles going
to and fro Now and then we would
read a great big sign, BE careful;
live within your income; buy only
what you need and have to have;
save, for prosperity is just around the
corner" Maybe the first thing we
would see would be a typical native
of his state or a negro and a typical
mule; then ON and on; then the first
prosperity we could see was some
body prospering on someone who was
not prospering. Bnt with all that,
hardly ever saw face that did not
have its native smile and sometimes
a real grin, when l would halloo and
say to them, "A merry Christmas"
On and on | would come to a viii
lage with many sitting around doing
nothing. One man said he had his
corn planted and had nothing to do,
but another man said his corn was
coming up and he was going to plow
it the next day, although it did not
need to be plowed, and another said,
"Yes plow it; it will keep the ants
and moles out and make the corn
grow"
Then on into Alabama-through
more typical scenes, mines, dogs,
chicks and hogs. II is said that the
late war was fought to make people
free, happy and independent and !
prosperous. If that is true, my, my,
what kind of fix were they in be-
fore the war? Farther on we stop
ped to give the Velie something to
drink. She never seemed to want
anything to eat or drink but gas and
oil and water, Then she would go |
at 45-mile gait. At times we could
look ahead and the road would look
as long and straight as the road on
my "uncle's farm" Then, all night |
after the sun had nearly burned
hole in our blanket, we would sit up.
On and on, and some on would ask,
From the north? How did you find
the roads?" Good and. bad; more
bad than good" We asked them
why they did not have better roads.
They would say that they did not
have the northerners TO build them.
told them that 1t did not take
northerner, nor even an Irishman, to
build roads, that a southern white
man could build them just as we'll
Some would say that they had paid
out money In road taxes to build con-
crete road over the state, but had no
roads of any worth. Ask them what
had gone with them money and they |