TARRYTOWN LETTERS— XV. 



BY A. B. TARRVER. 

 A MATTER OF WALKS AND GUTTERS. 



'OW the women and children are 

 complaining of the dug-out 

 walks where the water either 

 stands in puddles or runs zig- 

 zag, guttering i t s way, and 

 changing from glare ice to deep 

 mud or dust, as the weather 

 may be. The dotted line. Fig. 

 I, shows just how much that walk in the picture 

 lacks of being filled and finished with something fit 

 for the human foot at all seasons. 



During the Christmas holidays, a delegation of 

 country school mistresses and masters called on 

 Lady Schnipticket to thank her for ordering M'Tav- 

 ish and his gang to lay down samples of good foot- 

 path in various places throughout the surrounding 

 country, wherever the people don't seem to know 

 how to do such things right. In several places the 

 example spread. Many rods of im- 

 proved walk, and in one instance, 

 nearly three miles of it, were built, 

 because the little bits well done made 

 so many friends, and the leaven is 

 still working. 



One reason why our walks are so bad is because 

 we have no easy means of draining their surfaces. 

 There are pipes of all sorts, but nothing of cast-iron, 

 as there should be, fit for this business, that every- 

 body can get. That pipe in the sketch (Fig. 2) 

 anyone can see, laid just beneath the surface of 

 that walk, and covered with the heavy round grat- 

 ing to keep leaves and rubbish out, will take all 

 water that may gather from the inside gutter un- 



afterwards. As each piece of pipe fits any other 

 of the same size, and as the pieces are practically 

 indestructible by fair means, they can be exchanged 

 and shifted about when alterations or mistakes are 

 made, and are as near specie forever as any piece 

 of property a town can own. 



Moreover this iron pipe drainage is quite as ap- 

 plicable to roads as it is to foot-paths. It will 

 cross-drain from a gutter perfectly in many rather 

 flat places where too bulky stone culverts, costing 

 much more, would be filling with sand and mud. A 

 small drain will carry a deal of water if it is always 

 ready to work. 



One of the young women teachers made a re- 

 mark that pleased Mrs. Tarryer and Lady Schnip- 

 ticket very much. " Some think that where people 

 are few it makes no difference whether they have 

 good walks and roads or not. But I believe the 



I. An Unfinished Walk. 



Fig. 



A Drained Walk. 



der the walk, from grass to grass, so there can be 

 no washing with every rain or thaw. These con- 



fewer there are to enjoy good walks the more highly 

 they will be appreciated, and plenty of people soon 

 find them out." 



"That was what the Colonel used to say," said 

 Lady Schnip. " The conveniences for travel should 

 precede civilization. It is a bad government that 

 makes no provision for the future, and is continu- 

 ally running its citizens into the mud." 



The Camperdown place was laid out with con- 

 siderable expense for engineer- 

 ing, but the depressed roads 

 and walks, under Dingball's 

 management, who was al- 

 ways trimming, raking, hoe- 

 ing and lugging away cart- 

 loads of gravel and turf rub- 

 bish, soon made gutters of the 

 walks and roads, and led sur- 

 face water from the rising 

 the house into Mrs. Camper- 



lands in the rear of 



down's cellar. In summer the foundations of the 



veniences can be put in when the walk is built, or house were kept damp, though it stood on naturally 



