ASSOCIATION OF FAIR MANAGERS. 199 



down in our present mode of construction and repnirs; so long as road 

 taxes are "worlvcd" out almost at the will of the worker, under a direc- 

 tion wbich varies with tlie individual — thus long may we expect to have 

 a system of roads which every other form of construction has left in the 

 rear of material progress at least half a century. 



It would be superfluous to go into these details were my only oliject 

 that of informing this body. I venture to say that there are none here 

 who are not as conversant with these facts as myself and who are not 

 as desirous of reform. The questions are, When? and How? in en- 

 deavoring to answer these questions I shall reverse this order, and pur- 

 suant thereto will consider what has been done in the past. 



Engineers are agreed that the ancient Egyptians must have possessed 

 roads of the most solid character, .iudging by the soil and weight of the 

 stones that enter into the structure of their temples, obelisks and pyra- 

 mids; but if so, they have entirely disappeared under the drifting sands 

 of centuries. Apparently, however, the great road-maker of anticpiity 

 was Rome. She seems to have adopted this as a part of her military 

 system, and in all of her conquests her road-makers marched with her 

 legions; and no sooner Avas her authority established over the invaded 

 territory than she fell to making roads therein — good, solid roads, duly 

 equipped with bridges, aqueducts, milestones pointing the way to Rome, 

 and these were soon connected to her own national system. Prisoners 

 taken in war, the subjugated people, slaves and bondsmen were compelled 

 to work upon these under the eye of Roman taskmasters, and under the 

 guard of the legionaries. Nor was it many moons, until the loot of the 

 con(iuered was pouring along these to fill the imperial coffers and to add 

 triumphal arches and marble palaces to the "Queen City of the World." 



After the first fruit of victory and subjugation came the more sub- 

 stantial barter and trade flowing along these artificial channels toward 

 the common center of all. passing battalions and cohorts that were hasten- 

 ing to fill up the depleted ranks of the victonous legions; the exulting an- 

 swer to all inquiry relative to the way was, "Go on, all roads lead to 

 Rome." 



At the beginning of the third century, Rome had twenty-nine great 

 military roads, which began and finished at the gilt column, or "golden 

 milestone," which stood in the forum, and into these cohverged very 

 many lesser ways. Extending from Rome* to Brundusiam was (and isl 

 the great Appian Way, twenty feet broad, paved with blocks of dressed 

 stone, closely joined together, with curbs upon either side: beyond which 

 were paved walks for pedestrians, the whole lined upon either side by 

 the marble tombs and monuments of the nation's mighty dead. Into this 

 celebrated highway nine lesser ones ran. With the exception of this road 

 all the other principal ones were sixteen feet in the clear, while those 

 of minor importance were Imt eight. According to Antoninus the aggre- 

 gate length of the Roman roads was 52,904 miles; these were projected 



