No. 4.] COUNTEY EOADS. 237 



moderate city traffic. The sooner our steam roller and 

 rock crusher brethren discover that the gentle pursua- 

 sion of the broad cart wheel, delivering metal filled with its 

 own hard binding, will enable us to lay down solid rock- 

 road at one operation, complete for a life-time, the better it 

 will be for all of us. 



The good stone man of this stone age will most intelli- 

 gently consider the pockets of his masters when he mind^ 

 least what they ignorantly say, and is most delicately sensi- 

 tive to the durability of the metal he employs in road 

 making. He should never be satisfied with a road that 

 changes at all except by surface friction, and the matter 

 loosened by that should be washed away by every rattling 

 shower. One of Telford's few remarks was, that "a good 

 road will be so shaped as to clean itself." To do this long 

 in the busy main street of a city or village, everybody must 

 say the new work is "too high," at first; but they will 

 presently get used to that, as they do to any new fashion, 

 and employ themselves with some other nine-days' wonder. 

 The best road maker will feel, however, that he is but a 

 necessary evil, and that the streets are not kept solely for 

 his exploits and perambulations. 



Now, we hear much said, by those who have been abroad, 

 of the fine roads that are seen there ; and we are invited to 

 consider the European plan of keeping our roads up.* It 

 seems to make no difference in Europe how the roads are 

 constructed in the first place, because the " maintenance " is 

 so thorough, being sustained to a considerable extent by 

 American travel and cheap bread. Great gangs of men, 

 with gypsy- wagons to live in, are continually moving 

 about the country, doing something to the roads ; but 

 the finest thing about the "system" is, that men are 

 stationed at short intervals, to do whatever the great 

 gangs forget or neglect. By the accounts we get, the roads in 

 some parts of Europe are lined with make-believe menders. 

 If armies were being disbanded to starve, there might be 



* W. C. Oastler, C.E., New York, says: "In London, where there are 1,800 miles 

 of broken-stone roads, and more than fifty steam rollers, the stone is brought 150 

 miles, and when it is delivered ready for use it costs $4.25 (17s. 9d.) per cubic yard." 

 If the measure is not quite half air, we can see that a road-stone quarry is better than 

 a gold mine. 



