Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, July 23, 1893, Page 10

10 LAKE VIiISTRl(T 'STATESNEN | A Peopla Zealonsly Tenacious of Their Tiny Poss:ssions. UNBHKOKEN CUSTOM OF NEVER ''HIVING OFF"’ A Visit to Thelr Stone-Balit Habitations Ancient Farnitare and Utensils—A Cla, of People Crented by t In Feudal Timos, (Copn Krswick, Eng., ohted, 1893,) uly 10, respondence of T Bre. | first time 1 ever saw a peasabt of the English lako district—that splendid portion of England strewn with mountains, scaws, fells and hills and gemmed with countless lakes, comprising the shires of Cumberland, Westmorcland and the northern part of Lancashiro—was in company with a personal friend of John Ruskin, Mr. A. M. Fraser of Seatt street, ‘Aunan, Scotland, who lives among his friends ana books not a stone's throw from where Jane Welsh Carlyle's youtnful ideal lover, the gentlest soul that Scotland ey knew, noble, saintly Edward Irving. was born It was a gray, grisly, grewsoms day, when the mountain mists like gigantic bellying ails were pounding back and forth between the mountains of Scotland and Cumberland, now and then fu their flapping concussions flinging sheets of slanting rain from their heavy folds, which the wina instantly caught up and swept stingingly against the bar headed, bare-breasted and bare-legged fish ors of the loaden-colored firth. On the English Side of the Solway. My friend had to do with the railway serv- co; took me to the Annan station yard cured o hugo shunting engine with stoker and driver for our use: wo were soon reeling and crashing across the great Annan bridge connecting Scotland with ngland jand our 0 gray and echoiug glish side of the Solwn; tiny, stone built Bowness looks out upon Scotland and the firth, just where, nearly 8,000 vears ago, the great wall of KRoman Servius came o an end because of the un- conguerable Gaelic hordes of the wild, bar- baric north, Everything in and about this gray little nest upon the heights above the Solway soomed of cverlasting stone. The rough, half stairs, half streev leading up to and through tho hamlct, . was of stone. The few huddied structures were of stone; rude stone window-ledges, onves, gargoyle gutter-spouts and all. was like a huge vrotruding from a shapeles mass of stones. The choked yard surround- ing it was enclosed by a stone wall huge enough to have been loft by Hadrian hin- self, and the huddled grave stones seemed hike' jagged, half-decaved teeth of stone which for cénturios had gnashed at and been ‘ments as hard as stoue. The sparse soil, s wing between the stone road- wiy and the stone houses, and her pping up between house ddock and wall, was th with stone. ~ And fow old, old dames no id then seen peer- ing at us from the tin ngle-neuk windows rixed and vacuous stone At ono window we man pastmiddlo aightwa) knocked at his wide, low door and_were bid- “~den to enter. Among these humble folk the coming of strangers at any time or hour is not reckoned an intrusion, but rather ‘n pleasure;and there are mo bolts or, locks upon the doors of sny ‘vousnnl'x abitatfon in all this English Alpine country. They are trustful and simple and good in the face of all “friendly appronches, but hard and dreadful as their own mountain scaws aud fells where wrong is found beneath friendly nddresses, A Typo ot Luke Distriot Peasnntry. We had come simply to see and tatk; but 1t mattered not what our coming was for; and tho old man gave welcome as statelily as a lord. As my friend engaged him in con- ‘versation in dialect and topic common to the region, I sat and studied this old man and his picturesque environment, eager to more fully know, as time and many wanderings among the lake district peasantry have sinco given fmple opportunity, of the stuff and stock of which such imposing human frames are made, and the influences of the centuries that bave given to ignorant men and womeu, moSt renmiote from teo activities of other mon and things, such a wondrous, lofty and al- most indetinable calm This man iversal type of the lake district y y. He was much more than six feet in height, and as ho moved about the large, low room, his head just escaped the huge ouken beams of the ceiling. His hair wus $0ft, silken and bountiful; flaxen where the silver had not yot ¢ and with his full, fino beard suggested a strain of the old Norso blood. His forcheaa wus high, wide, white, ~ His eycbrows wero* bushy, but fine and flossy, above large eyes of lustrous light, blue, deop sot, st and almost mournful i their gaze. The nose was strongly cut, truly classic; and the mouth wilg large, but characterful and fivm, This Bort of a head set upon huge and perfe frame, stout as the timbers of his contur oldj habitation gave & wan who looked straighv ut you s power that made you, do- spite joursclf, look strasght at him in ro- turn. 1 have found other such faces among the fishers of the English west t, at Coldingham, betow the Firth of orth, among the Highland crotiers, among the petty “airds” of the Shetland islands, and not a fewamong the mountain peasantry of Inishowen, about Shieve Snught, in the north of freland, and I have wondercd i their endless communion with naturo in hey dreadful moods, as well as stheir lives of danger and deprivation, had not to do with tempering tho light of their kindly eyes With the changeloss look of mournful resig. nution which is 50t there as if with a graven seal upon them. But I have over found humbie mou like these sturdy, tender, grave nud true, Interior of the Pensant's Home, The interior of this Cumbrian peasant’s homo was as characteristic and fino us tho appearanco of 1ts sturdy The largo room where we y “fire house or living room of the tubithtion.- T was fully eighteon feet wide and twenty-five feet long. Al the door and window case- monts, the ceiling beams und tho timbers aboui the fireplace had been hewn out of solid oak. The floor was of the same huge Ato slabs as the roof, and these were so clean from scrabbing that they shone like dusky wirrors beneath your™ feot. Thero o many windows, no two in range, all li tlo and splayed inwardly, the sid of their stone apertures as white as suow; d the sash of each was half hidden by milk: white muslin. Huge sottles of ouk with Hloece or chintzencased covers were ranged along the low white walls. Iuone corner, its face yellow with age, solemaly ticked' an eight-day clock, its clumsy frame built into the two abutting walls, In thecenter of the room was i long, strong table with huge logs, cross-pheces and braces, worn and pol- Ished from use; and its great ago was plainly told in one-half its length being providod, s [have found entire tables in the peasant homes of Brittany, with squave, oval and circular depressions, in which the food of the children and hinds was served perhaps 100 years ago. whou oven pottery was luxury, and only the peasant master, his ud the older sous and duughters kpow use of the rudest delft, More curious tuan all else was the entire side of the *five room," coutaining the fire- place, in which, though our visit was in mid- summer, there was & cheery, comfortable blaze. A huge arch sustaiied the bowed cottage wall. Th oue arch was roally the bape of the chim In its center was the open hung about with chains, hooks and cranes, and st each side was & narrow splayed window, like those of a castle turrot-—tiny outlooks from this peas- ant fortalice of & snuggery; and the dack mouth of the chimney above must have been mearly six feot across. I have found tho same odd arrangement in the cottages of ola ans in the Hebrides, in the Scostish in the aucient, half deserted weavers' v of Gaitonside, near Mel- rose, beaide the Tweed. alates of the Hoor i frons of this freplace were decor frames and ated with grotesque figures and designs, ono of Noah's do Il work in ochire and vermition chalk, al homeside cus. tom among vhe iake district peasantry. o chairs were hugo and high and of oa The buresus and dressers, quaintly r ated with shining pewter and strange old bits of chinaware, were high, narrow and sprawling-logged, and all of mahogany. The beds—for one for the houso mastor occupiod a corner of the room - were high, huge and strong enough for the ropose of giants and wore of strangely carved oak Seems Like a Droam of Sweet Old Age. Out from this ample living room extended inviting vistas through low-ceilinged “lean- ot ch one doubtless built in a different century and each provided with many tiny windows with deep casements, through which could be caught o _glint of blossom, a spray of foliage or the lichened gray of some nt structure; the wholoa dream of et old age, centurics-old, rooting to the y rocks of the hills, eudless content and unbroken repe o wondor is it_that the heart of the wanderer, when coming upon scenes like this, for the' moment thrills with longing to end his piigrimings and vide for aye where the bittor struggle of life may 1o more come within such winsome, storm defying walls! This picture of a singlo peasant home at Bowness-on-Solway is one of oven tono with thousauds of others, from the Scottish vorder down through the mountain dales and passes of the grand lakoe district, across Cumberiand and Westmoreland, past M ambe bay, almost to the River Lune, in Lancashire. Its TPeasunt Owner Wasa “'Statesman.’ That one word is the key to his spiendid self-noise, his_simple, strong nature, and to the ample comfort and fixedness of his en- vironment. It is true of them all. These “statesmon” are peasants absolutely pos- ing the sofl which they till. There is no pulling, head ducking or knee cringing among such as these in England or any ovher country, In the ancient feudul times the barons were often in sore stress to repol the Scottish border incrsfons or to make equolly barbarous forays of their own. To provi_e retaine would fight to the death for these s well as their own mountain-side, rock-| cabins, it was found a wise thing to parcel out the lands in tiny bits to hi nd the villein re- tainers were in time enfranchised. They wera only bounden to their liege lords for tary service in defense. When feudalism passed away tho villein land owners re- od froemen and possessors in fee of the testat heace 'statesmen,” the noblest peasantry of all Europe, and a won- drous though singularly unhceded example to the rematnder of Britain in its endlessly perplexing agrarian problems. 1n no other portion of England, unless it ba in the quaint old stone-built villages among the Malvern and Cotswold hills, has there been so little change as in the English Al- pine region. But two faint arteries of travel thread through it. One is a railway from ancient Penrivh to Workington on the Irish sea. The other is the most picturesque coach road 1 Britmin, It leads from Keswick, where the shrine of Southey is found, past lordly Helvellyn, the mouutain monarch of tho region, and mystic Dunmail Raise, through Grasmere, where DeQuincy lived and Hartley Coleridge and Wordsworth sleep side by side, on past Royal Mount and quaint old Ambleside with its cherished memories of Harriet Martineau, Christopher North and Dr. Arnold, to Windermere and the little Bowness of Westmoreland, where the kindly face of Mrs. Hemans seems pressed aga rose-cmbowered window pane, but a little walk through any mountain p: from these thoroughfures and come to the ancient stone built men rly the samo manuer of peasa ¢ as existed hundreds of years ago. Wordsworth was born among this folk. He engagingly speaks in this wise of their mountain-side habitation: “Hence buildings, which in their very form call to mind Lhu]lru ses of nature, do thus, clothed in part with a vegetable garb, appear to be received into the bosom of the living princi- plo of things, as it acts and exists among the woods and fields,” Pooullugitles jof Structure Common to Al You 'will seldomi find a detached and isplated hmbitation. From a halt dozon to a scora will croodie together in some pockety dell, huddlo beneath the frowning hight of o dreary scaw, hestle along the'side of foaming ghyll, crouch closely together'in the tangled verdure of some narrow pass, or stand like a clump of mossy rocks beside some shadowy upland, - tarn.” Wherever found,. many of their poeuliaritics are common to all. ~You will always find them beneath the shade of lofty sycamoro trees; und when the leaves of these or gone, thereis always neay the cottage the green of the fir-tree to gladden the oyes in winter. I do not beliove there is a peasant’s home in the entire lake district whero the wimpling sound of near running water is not endlessly heard.” The orc rolurge and bouniiful. The stout-walled ) naidly kept and fruitful. i1fortable stone outhuild- lled and covered sheep the most bitiless iably a tidy stone of bees which distill from the mountain heath the sweetest “hinny" i England ;and in summer time'every - is wss of flaming roses. e of these habitations is a museum cient housy utensils, ‘The oldest one known to man, the quern, is hero; all imple- ments of the hand weaver and spinuer aro here; theantique ““fulling” boards are here; and I have as oftentfound in these habitaions uether, that most ancient of Gaelic and drinking vessels, as T have come upon n the cabins of Hebrides or the west and, Too Soddon to Be Rolsterous, When folk have stood ‘still so long and have so steadily fended all chango thoy usually furnish most interesting studies in their daily lives, customs and folk lore, and you these people are singularly lacking in any strougly marked pieturesqueness asido from that found in theirunyielding tenacity to the i 3h tho soil, their nd theiralmost, auess of calm and repose, They were never a boistorous, Toystering folk, and to this day tho dalesmen’ of ono valley may have no acquaintance with or knowledgo of thoso of another valley, unlesssthe huddled lomes of tha latter happen to lic aloog the mountain road leading tothe nearest market town. Partly accounting for this is the un- vroken custom of never “hiving of.” Peopla of the same blood and family namo occupy entiro districts and are sufficient unto them- selves, ‘This occasions grotesque nomencla- uroof identitication, One is known as Joeic 't Scow; another, Jem o' ' Kizg; another, Miles o' V' Beek; another, Barrow-back't (bentbacked) Boib; another, Lratehin (quarrelsome) Ned," and still another, Byspel (mischiovous) Billy. Theso are all likely to be hoads of families and grave old men, Tho names came along with them from boyhood aud overy oue accepts his neighborhood designation as Lo does his in- crease of children or flocks and herds, in diguified though prideful content, ne Distinetive Ancient Some other distinctiveancient customs are till found in the remoter districts. The ‘watching” of the dead, almost identical in manuer with the Irish \wake, is universal. Courting is facilitated by the household re- tiring, after putting out the ligh.s, and leay- ing tho “font” or lovesick coupls upon tho “long sottle” of the “fire room” to their hearts' contont, at which modern delicacy way stand aghast; but this manner of mat- ing proves sturdy and true. Funerals fur- nish heroic feasts. Ata few of the moun- tain towns “hirin’ » still survives, whon the maidens who wish to engage at service stand in groups at the market ulace; but they will uo longer hold in thew hunds the wisp of straw, which was the olden badge of servitude. 'OnShrove Tuesday tho boys still ferociously play *Beggarly Scot,” a game based on the forays of the old time borderers. “Shaking-bottle,” contuining & decoction of licorice and water, is common withall children on May day. Kurn-win: ning, or the Harvest Home fostivity, con- tinues general. Youthful *pace-eggers” ap. pear o tortnight before Easter, sometimes 1n Erotesque costu and carol demand colored eggs, which aro never refused. T o smiths of the district will not heat iron or strike nail on Good Friday, in memory of the nails used in the crucifixi i; and that beautiful old custom of ‘rushbesring” or strewing the church with flowers on its patron saint's day, survives caly in this almost idyllic and wholly pastoral region Maldens Huge but Falr of Form snd Face. The lake district maldens are uge of frame and fair of form ana face, splendid “Jael Dences" all, brave almost to forward- neas in their free, fine spirit and fearless, uncopscious ways. 1 think they are ghe wost outspoken maids of undoubtod virtue T ever knaw. lhlumln, oue eveulng with “viatesman aod seversl of his uml[v frow a ings for cattle; w. folds to with: mountain tempests shed for the many | sodd THE OMAHA DAILY BEE: : SUNDAY, JULY 23, 3-SIXTEEN PAGES, day's labor at charcoal burning on Wasdale Fell. at which I had assisted, tho ‘stat noticing that his daughter an self were chatting gayly together, jocularly od her with *“Look 0ot o' thyssel’, Betty, or thoo'l ga th' gradloy writin’ man!" “Ho'd t' noise on the', fadder, wil' te'"she answered him quickly. ' Then’ she stepped squarely in the mountain path beside me and looking me through and through with her honest eyes of gray, said almost sol- emnly I'd tak yon (oo, him) as V' stans, fadder—if t' ha' na ither!" 1 told her qu as 1 could, and_rather bluntly, L am afraid, that [ was not in a po- sition to carry 8o much of value outof the lake country, The “fa ht it all a great go, and gurglingly ratlied her with, “He ga th' & fair sneck-possett, Betty!” (literally the drink of ono _turned from one's door; the ‘cold shoulder.”) But the girl just ‘trudged along measurealy and una- bushad, the meanwhile saying quictly, and Aweel, aweel! s na v (Perhaps, after all, he What God's left oot we putin o'en ' gradley writin’ man " And with this comforting reflection 1o all, we came into the pleasant dale below and to the welcome evening meal, tho best of frionds togethe FneAl L. WAKEMAN, - L AND DL Alexander Salvini's next season will begin on Septembor 13, Wilson Barrett's American tour next sea- son will cover twenty-six weeks. Roland Reed will open the Boston m: on’ August 21 with “Inmocentas a | It is proposed to hold a Scandinavian song tournawent in Scotland during the next sea- son. S. (. Pratt, the well known composer and director, is enjoying a four weeks' stay at his old home. Jessic Bartlott Davis has resigned from the “Bostonians,” and announced that she has permanently retired from the profession. The operatic debut_of another American girl, Miss Adrienne Osborn, at Leipsic last month in “Mignon," was one of the sensa- tions of the senson. The James Gilbert opera company has begun a season of Gilbert and Sullivan's opera in Boston. Carrie Tutien, the wite of Harry Pepuer, is the prima donna. James O'Neill will play next season in “Hamlot,” “Richeliou,” "“Monto Cristo,” “Fontenelle,” and *Don Carlos_de Seville,” a romantie drama founded on the rise of the Moors in Spain under the roign of Philip 11. Sig. Mancinelli, the celebrated Convent rden conductor, has resigned his post of director of the i O house, Madrid, i Jean do Reszko ber. The newest thing in the way of ‘“com- bine: ctors’ union. There has been New York a national alliance of sater employes, who have leagued them- ves together for the purpose of mutual protection. MeKee Rankin has written a new play. It is called “The Baxters,” and is in three acts, scene being laid in northern Ohio, at President Garfield's old home. Mr. and Mrs. McKCeo Rankin will use it during tho season of 18041895, Some of the best and prottiest coryphees in the American Extravaganza company corps de ballet, now appearing in “Ali Baba at the Chicagoopera house, are Chicago girls vho have been trained in the regular vallet school maintained at that theater. u Russell will disband her opora ny in about three weeks. She is now ting “La Cigale” at the Columbia theater, Chicago. ~ After this season Louis Harrison will retiro from the operatic stage and Mr. Hayden Coffin will return to Eng- L clen is not wh nusic. ATIC, y to Chicago in Septem- Tho duke of Bedford has decided not to renew the lease on Urury Lane theater, but to tear it down. ‘Ihe neighborhood has gone steadily downward in the 230 years since the theater was founded. Much regrot is ex- pressed over the proposed removal of the nt landmark. The theater no longor P and the duke of Bedford 1s tired of helping vut the lessces. Last year his own 000, Perkins will conduct the musical loxcreises at Cloar Lake park, Ia., July 24 to 30, assisted by Mrs. Ragna Lanne, sopranos Miss Hattie E. Brush, contralto; the Chicago Lady Quartet; Miss Jennio Shosmaker, dra- matic reader, and Mrs. J. M. Emery, pianist, all of Chicago; the Masonic quartet of Minn- eapolis, and the Haydn Concert club of De Pauw university, Greencastle, Ind. A con- cort will bo given each evening and two Sunday. Formerly 1t was expected that every actor should pay allof his own expenses, except fare, while on tour, but lately some of the leading men have insisted on a clause in their contracts that shall guarantee their sloeping car accommodations as well as transportation. The “‘utility” people, who receive from $10 to #15a weck, often travel all night without sleep, except suc as they can get sitting up, b y not ufford to hire berths. = Among th companies member takes caj self and asks o favors of hotel men, but “fly-by-night” troupes usually put’ up together, and as they take tho poorest rooms and sleep two and three ina room y get reduced rates. Lists of cheap hotels and boarding houses are to be found behind the scenes in nearly every thoater in the country for the guidance of the minor actors, and for the chorus and ballet. — ——— THE YOUNG PEOPLE. A little girl, 12 years old, says the Boston Journal, was told lasv year, just before the “ourth of July. that her papa could not af- ford to buy any fireworks, but that sho and Willie would have to watch the other chil. dren. The small brother scomed «uite re- signed to the inevitable, and on the morning of the Fourth marched across the street to watch the other boys fire their torpedoes, But the little girl was not so easily satistled. She could not beliove, at first, that it was not all & joke, and hunted all over the house for bundies wnich might suggest firecrackers, but all in vain, At breakfast nothing was said about any fire works, and when she was fully convinced that it was not & joke at all, but truth, and that they wore not to haveRiny firecrackers or torpedoes or rockets, she burst into tears, and said, botween her sobs: What do you think Samuel Adamsana jeorgo Washington and John Adams and John Hancock would say if they were alive?’ ‘This was too much for the fond father,who loft cho table and went out of the houso, re- turning about two hours later with as many firecrackers, torpedoes, rockets, roman can- dles and firo balloons as he could carry. Small Son—Mammh, T wish you'd buy me a fidate. | Mamma—You have no_car for musi the noises you would make would bo utierly unendurable. Small Son—I won's play only w'on papa. is at home, cause then I think maybe ho'll buy mo u nice bicyclo so I'll stop. Fdith is at an age when the problems of the world to come aro just as interesting os those of the world that is. “Mamma," said she the other day, “what colored clothes do tho angels wear? ““White, my dear, T supposo.” “Well, T wonder who doos all the laundry worlk." e Mertio was not allowed to play with sey- eral children who had lately been sick with diphtheria. Ouno diy her mother saw her playing with a little girl, and she asked: “Who is that child? “1t's a little girl that hasn't got the 'theria smallpox. She hasn't got anything kles," o Little Brother Grown folks don't know as much as they think they do. Littlo Sister—Why{ Littlo Brothor—Mamma whipped me yes- terday, and said she guessed that 'ud téach on, and today I missed every lesson jus" tho samo us before. w'e At the theater: “Mamma, doesn't papa like music?” ©s, my child; why do you ask?" He niways ut between the acts, when the band L e —— There are tnree LANgs WOrth saving— ‘Time, Trouble and money—and De Witl Little Early Risers will save them for you. These little pills will save you time, as_they act promptly. They will save you trouble as they cause no pain. They will save you money us they economize doctor's bills. R — Since 1840 the world's production of meat has increased 57 por cent, that of graln 10 per ceat. DUGLAS COUSIY ROADWAYS The Bad Results of Wing Roads on Sec- tion Limes, AN ILLOGICAL AND RUINOUS SYSTEM In Which the PubMa Good Was Sucrificed In the Interest of Property Owners— Cost and Advintdiges of Con- struoting Now Roads. 1T, Mankind only settlcs into the right courso after passing through and exhausting all the varioties of errors. —Fontanelle. In the first article of this series I stated that “‘we can nover have good rouds in this county until wo abandon our present illogical and ruinous system of locating roads, and adopt an intelli- tom based upon common ples.” resent system of locating roads may be best explained by quoting from the laws of Nebraska. Section 46 chapter 78 of the Compiled Statutes of the Stato of Nebraska for the year 1801 reads as follows: The section lines are hereby declared to be public roads in each county in this state, and the county board of such county may, whenever the public good requires it, ope such roads without any preliminary surve; and cause them to be worked in the same manner as other public roads; provided, that any damages claimod by reason of the opening of any such rond shall be appraised and allowel as nearly as practicable in man- ner hereinbefore provided. To the uninitiated this may seem like a wonderfully ample and direct method of disposing of & great question. To the man who is compelled to use the roads and to the taxpayer who is obliged to pay for their ‘improvement nothing could be more costly, more ruinous or more stupid. It is not difficult to find the cause for this piece of legislatic It was a simple way of treating tho demand that then existed for publie roads, requiring.as it did no exponse in making surveys, no knowledge of tho first principles of road building and meeting with no opposition from the private property holder. Public Good Saoriflced. Indeed it would scem that the interest of this latter classof individuals was the paramount consideration that controlied ana produced this remarkaBle bit of leg- islation. For though the private property holder is always desirous of securing a good road from his home to market over the best route obtainable, yeot im- mediately the road. touches his land he insists that here at least boundary lines must be followed, ragardless of natural obstacles or the convenigence of the pub- lic. The inevitable result of this con- tention is the enactment of such a law as has been quoted. It is questionable whether there is any ‘single law on our books that is produetive of greater loss and waste, direct and indirect, to the community at large than this unfortu- nate road a On.a deéad lavel prairie there are still serious defects in a system of roads located exclusively on section lines. But when the .surface of the country becomes hilly; and broken the obstacles encountered by section line roads are so serious s to render such a system a piece of extravagunt folly. These are precisely the conditions mev with in Douglas connty. The surface of tne country from the Missouri to the Elkhorn is broken by the Papillion creeks and their tributaries into an in- terminablo sories of ridges and depres- sions. The immediate result, therefore, of locating roads on the section lines is in ssing & single divide, not to climb one hill as nature dictated, but to climb and descend a series of hills, sometimes multiplying the difficulties of transport many times, always increasing them ab- normally. * This, then, is the worst de- fect in the section line road. It is difti- cult to underestimato the actual disad- vantages encountered, for the more one studies the question the more glaring becomo the dofects. There are many other defects and in order that they shall all receive due consideration let us discuss the possibilities of improve- ment in our clay roads regardless of ar- tificial surfacing. Later on the question of artificial surfacing shall receive due consideration. There Are Two Ways in which we may secure improved nat- ural clay or earth roads in Douglas county. 1. Weo may improye by grading and draining the roads tat wo now havo. 2. We can purchaso the right of way for new roads on earefully selected routes, and place them in fit condition for travel by grading, draining, placing bridgas, culverts, etc. In writing on this subject in the future Ishall speak of these latter roads as “correctly located roads,” that term be- ing supposed to include everything dictated by knowledge and experience in the matter of road location. It is now our business to consider, first the cost of the two systems, second their relative values. Ivis no easy mattor to estimate ac- curately the cost of improving section line roads, for the reason that no de- tailed record has been kept of county funds expended upon them. The best that can be done is to make an approximation with the aid of such data as are at hand. After having ex- amined numerous Yrulilos of typical roads I believe that the following state- ments are not far fromthe truth, First—As regaMs section line roads. A. The mean gradients of the section lines taking the hills and levels as they come in their original state wiil® fall ymewhere between five and seven feet » per 100 feet horizontally. B. These grades ot be reduced by an excessive amount of " cutting and filling senso ‘to a mean gradient, in''some cases as as low as 3 per cent. 1§ j8;however, rarel practicable to secu¥e a mean gradi- ent less than four fé6t per 100 for the reason that the quantity of earth to be moved in cutting downa hill increases with very much greater rapidity than the depth of the cut; sothat while a 6 or T per cent grado may be re- duced to a 4 per cent grade at a reasonable cost, yetli wb undertake to reduce it a little mdte, say to & 3 per cent grade, we will'/ifill' that the cost has increased abnoimgily. C. At present prités for grading it costs not much, i’ any, less than $1,800 per mile to bring s section line road to a mean gradient of 34 per cent. Second—As regards correctly located roads: A, The divide does not exist in Doug- las county that cannot be crossed by a road—with no material increase of length—with a mean gradient of 2 per cent; and this with only light cuts and fills, It will be apparent, however, that such & road must be carefully located, rogardless ot section lines and like con- siderations. B. By means of a carefully designed, well executed system of roads, the mean radient of all the main highways of uglas county taken together need not exceod 1§ per cent. To secure such a manifest advantage by grading the sec- B i b ATy ool that i e C. The cost of correctly located roads is mainly the ocost right of way. Eight acres of land are ench mile of 1 Cost of condemning the roquired for d, sixty-six foetin width. Right of Way, Tho average value of farm lands in Douglas county is porhaps #75 per acre It would be a liberal appraisement to place the damages suffered by land owners at four times the valuo of the land taken. Wo may then estimate liberally the cost of right of way per mile as Tollows: #75x8x4==$2,400. Tho cost of grading and bridges would not exceed $1,000 per mile, or a total of 23,400 por milo s the cost of the new roads. Appended is a table showing sum- mary of the above statements T Kind of Road. | | | on Tine Correetly o rond 1,500 8 1400|1130 It must be borne in mind that the figure of $1,800 per mile placed as the cost of section line roads represents not money that has been spent alroady, but money that must be spent in the future in order to bring the roads to the final mean gradient of 34 por cont. The figures in _the last column show the 1o including the weight of the wagon, that one horse can haul over the two kinds of roads, These are for aver- age conditions and are meant to indicate what a horse can do working full time, day after day, without injury to himself. For purposes of comparison they are perfectly reliable. So we soe that at an additional cost of $1,600—the difforence betwoen 31,800 and #3,400—we have so increased the value of our roads as to enable the farmer to hanl nearly 50 per cent heavier loads than he can now haul, and this gain will be wholly in produce, for the weight of the wagon need not be much inereased. Are thero any other known means of road improvements by which equal re- sults can be secured for four or five times this cost? C The decreased cost of maintenance is another very strong argument in favor of correctly located ronds, but this must be left with other considerations for a later a C. TURNER. Wilson is a rapid t it will stitch threo only two yards ar vibrating shuttlo ma- Sold by Geo.” W. Lancastor & C 514 5. 16th street. POINTS stitcher; apid th ards of goods whil PROGRESS. South Africa has American locomotives. Southern Pacitic locomotives will soou use for fuel bricks made of cosl dust and as- phaltum. From the American aloo treo is made thread, needles, ropes, cables, paper, cloth- ing, suap, sugar and brandy. To make 1,000 cubic feot of illuminating gas eight pounds of coal, costing 2 cents, and four gutlonsof naphtha, costing 12 cents, are required. Russia is making such successful efforts in increasing her cotton production that within five years she expects to raiso all that she needs for home consumption. Potroleum, wiich is popularly supposed to bo derived 'from col, is, according to ad- vanced science, more probably the result of the action of water on metal A writer in the Railway Age states that in the six months ending Juuo 30 there were ninety-five different lines incorporated and 1,014.96 miles of track laid in this country. A pneumatio tube connects Parls with Berlin. 1t is used for postal purposes and makes it possible for a levter mailed in Paris to be delivered in Berlin in thirty-five min- utes. A new driving “belt has been made in France by parchmenting the leather in- stead of tamning it. Tho belt does not strotch and is more durable than tanned belts. X Last year 2,750 porsons sent in_claims for the maple sugar bounty offered by the gov- ernment. This year 3,050 persons are en- titled to bounties, and they will receive in the aggregate about §70,000. The output of shoes from New England tories, according to conservative reckon- will 'foot up oyer 7,000,000 pairs more than turned out in the first balf of 1892, and shipments are proportionatéiy greater. By irrigation 25,000,000 acres are made fruitful in India alone. ' In Kgypt thore are about 6,000,000 acros and in Kuropo about 5,000,000. The United States havo just be- gun the work of improving wasto ares and have already about 4,000,000 acres of irri- gated lands. Ior the first time 1 the history of the trade every plate glass faotory in the United States is closed, and that indetinitely. Fully 10,000 men are idle as a result, The deprer sion is attributed to threo elements, ovol production, a tight money market und the urbitrary methods of the plato glass trust. Delegatos representing the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firomen, Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, Switchmon’s Mutual Aid association and Order of Railray Conductors met in Pivtsburg, P’a., last week and formed a federation, the objoet of which s mutual protection and aid. The Order of Railway Telographors was not ropresented but will be wcluded in the new organization, which, however, will not admit the Brotherhood of Locomotive Enginecrs, —— No_Anti-Pyrine in Bromo-Seltzer. Cures all headaches—trial bottle 10 cts. 9800k ""T'0 WOMANMAILED FREE, ORADFIELD REGULATOR €0~ ATiANTAG. OLD DY ALL DAUGGISTS, 130 will cover the exponso of a trip from St. YELLOW Paul to the STONE PACIFIC PARK RAILROAD This includes A LL necessdry traveling expenses, railroad, stage and sleeping car fares, moals aud hotels for the complete TOUR OF THE PARK. Your trip to the World'’s Fair will not be complete unless you also go from there to the Yellowstone Park (total expense about #130) and view the wonderful things the Almighty has placed there for mankind to see. No such spot is found elsewhera on earth. The Northern Pa- cific is the direct line there, Send for 6,000 Miles Through Won- derland,” and our new map ol the Park. CHAS. 8, FEE, [ | Passonger Asent. 8T.PAUL, MINN. nwI>rrou VIA THE NORTHERN | (] They can’t last long with us at the price, and this is just the reason we have made the price— $L1.15 for the handsomest and -best Moquette Carpets made. LARGE RUGS from remnants of these goods, In a great variety of sizes, with borders, $1 per yard made up. It will pay you to see if we have one to fit your room, Orchard & Wilhelm Carpet Co;. Dougls, Delwen 140 and 15§, | § g. § Dr. SEARLES & SEARLES PHYSICIANS, SURGEONS o SPECIALISTS Consultation Free. 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