No. 4.] HIGHWAYS. 237 



by the donor, and are to be expended by the authorities of 

 the town for the purposes specified. Xo part of the principal 

 can be withdrawn, and the same is exempt from attachment 

 or levy on execution. 



Here we liaAC a legislative sanction for the creation of 

 trust funds to be used in beautifying highways. 



I am not informed to Avhat extent funds have been deposited 

 in our savings banks for these purposes, but the legislation 

 certainly is a step in the right direction. Let us hope that 

 out of it ma}'^ finally grow the habit, on the part of our rich 

 men, of providing a permanent fund for the embellishment 

 and beautifying of our public places. One can hardly con- 

 ceive a direction in which benevolence could be more usefully 

 exerted than in the gifts of large sums of money for the 

 rebuilding, relocation, regrading and rendering more con- 

 venient and beautiful the roads of the country town. Men 

 of great wealth have given and are giving enormous sums 

 of money for the endowment of schools and colleges, for 

 scholarships, fellowships, lecture courses, the erection and 

 supi)ort of libraries, and for many other such like useful and 

 salutary purposes. There is even talk of having endowed 

 theatres. No one of these meritorious claimants makes a 

 stronger case than the neglected road and roadway. How 

 fine a gift it would be for a loyal son to bestow upon his 

 native town a handsome and expensive stone bridge, which 

 might bear his name, and stand as a permanent memorial to 

 his ffenerositv. What could be better than for such an one 

 to set aside a large fund for the improvement and beautifying 

 of the street or road passing the house where he was born, 

 and over which he travelled to school or to mill during the 

 years of his boyhood? This might well include not only 

 the construction and maintenance of the best form of mod- 

 ern roadway for vehicles, but also the sidewalk, bridle 

 path, planting of trees, cutting the grass, watering the 

 road, and perhaps even the lighting of it. Such a benefac- 

 tor might well expect the street to take his name. What 

 community is there that would not delight to reward such 

 beneficence with so slight a recognition ? Upon such a 

 highway so constructed and maintained, or upon the hand- 



