i6 



Among the ancient Greeks the care of the roads was 

 one of the specified, personal duties of kings; while the 

 Romans testified to the veneration with which they 

 regarded those who opened this means of intercourse, by 

 giving to their highest religious officer a name derived 

 from this service, — the word, Pontifex, which was the 

 regular title of the Roman High Priest, and is the word 

 from which we have the English word pontificate, literal- 

 ly meaning bridge builder. Among the Mohammedans 

 and in mediaeval Europe to make such provision for the 

 safety of way fares was esteemed an act of charit}* and 

 devotion which ranked with the establishment of temples 

 and hospitals, and constituted a claim to the honors of 

 canonization. 



We once heard America's most famous pulpit orator of 

 his time specify the making of good roads as among the 

 natural fruits of the Christian spirit. For us who are 

 to-day citizens of the cities and towns of this county, the 

 improvement in our roads means, as it ever meant for 

 other people in other lands, a more advantageous inter- 

 change for purposes of traffic and a closer union of fellow- 

 ship. In some degree it helps to solve the problem of 

 bringing into nearer relations the producer and consumer 

 of the products of our farms. 



The lines of railroad have in a great measure super- 

 seded the custom of a generation ago, when the farmer 

 sold his produce from door to door to his city customer. 

 But there are still considerable numbers who insist upon 

 receiving their farm commodities, as far as possible, from 

 the hand that produces them. Within a very few years 

 we have known of some who carried this preference so 

 far that they willingly paid their market man a greatly 

 advanced price, even for such a commodity as corn meal, 



