INFLUENCE OF GOOD ROADS. 73 



could cart tins rubble and put it along these main roads in 

 little heaps, 50 or 100 feet apart, and then it would be very- 

 little work to repair a break. 



Tbink, too, what a satisfaction it is to drive over that 

 Chestnut Hill road. I would not advise you to go there on 

 Sunday ; I should rather you would go to church ; but I sup- 

 pose there arc from 3,000 to 4,000 teams on that road every 

 Sunday in pleasant weather in summer. Why do they go 

 there ? They go there because it is the best place to drive that 

 I' ever saw ; because it is a real pleasure to ride on a good road. 

 It is magnificent ; it is fine as it can be. We all believe in 

 more or less pleasure travel, certainly about the large cities and 

 towns, and there is notliing more attractive than a good road. 

 There is no one thing that will bring more people into a town 

 than the fact that it has the reputation of having good roads. 

 Then, aside from that, look at the teams that must go over all 

 these roads. I remember going from Yarmouth to Province- 

 town in a stage with two horses (I never want to go there 

 again in that way), and the stage, which had only one passen- 

 ger, had to stop every 20 or 30 rods going up the sand hills. 

 But some friend will say, '' we can't afford to build good roads 

 down there." Look at it. That is one extreme. I will ven- 

 ture to say that a good liorse, such as there are hundreds of in 

 Ijoston, will draw three tons over the Chestnut Hill road. That 

 is the other extreme. I submit it to you, all things considered, 

 whether they cannot afford to do it. Whether it is economy to 

 have a roaQ over which a horse can draw three tons, or to have 

 a road over which he can draw 500 lbs., or perhaps but 250 lbs., 

 besides the carriage. 



I understand very well that some will say you cannot have 

 these perfect roads in every town. Then I say, put your stan- 

 dard as high as you please, and come as near to it as possible. 

 If we cannot get a perfect road, let us make it as perfect as we 

 can. At any rate, let us take hold and mend our ways in some 

 degree. 



Tlie chairman can tell even greater stories of Dorchester than 

 I have told of Newton. I know that these results are not 

 owing entirely to the fact that we have good roads ; I know 

 there are other influences at work ; but this is among the 

 prominent influences which have produced the result. 



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