202 Highways. 
turned the water off, a labor which in most instances would not 
have occupied five minutes, when it first began to wear this gully, 
he would have been four-fold compensated for his service, every 
time he passed that way, the public would have had the pleasant 
and agreeable thoroughfare to which they were entitled, a heavy 
bill of expense in repairs, and perhaps a heavier one in damages, 
or a bill of indictment, justly rendered, might have been saved 
— all by five minutes labor before a shower. 
But we introduced this article to speak more particularly of the 
common method o{ repairing highways, funds for which are usu- 
ally raised by a tax to be paid in labor, at stipulated prices per 
day or hour. How large a proportion of this tax, in many of our 
towns, is worth six pence on the dollar, w^e leave it for the curi- 
ous to decide in their own localities; we are certain, however, 
that within the sphere of our own observation there are some noble 
instances where men labor with their teams with the same fidelity 
that they would in getting in a crop on their farms. This is the 
correct principle. Every man who pays a highway tax contri- 
butes to a common fund, which should result to the benefit of all, 
and every man who cancels his tax by labor ought to consider 
this labor as resulting directly to his own benefit, not only as a 
matter of personal convenience and comfort, but in an economical 
point of view. Does an individual wish to sell his property? 
The path that leads to his premises, is one item that goes to set a 
value upon it. If easy of access, its value will rise in estimation 
of the purchaser. Then, again, the general character of the road 
goes to tell the general character of the neighborhood. If the 
highways are rough and unpleasant, the ways of the people about 
them are likely to be so too. 
And this class of people are the ones upon whose labors we 
Avould make a discount of ninety-four per cent, from the assess- 
ments. They are behind time in coming to their labors, and 
watching time with sluggish indolence to see the sun gain the 
meridian, or sink behind the western hills. They make it a holi- 
day, a day of rest, unless perchance they exhaust themselves in 
fault-finding, because those who work do not work faster, or do 
different. Thus they cheat themselves, for the sake of cheating 
others. 
In working highways, care should always be taken to leave 
them as smooth as possible, with a gradual slope from the centre. 
The smoothing will enable beasts and vehicles to pass smoothly 
and easily along, without danger of stumbling to one, or an anni- 
hilating jolting to the other. The old practice of raising high 
bars across the road to stop the progress of water on hills was a 
pernicious one, and should be wholly abandoned. They were un- 
safe, and often highly dangerous annoyances, fraught with no 
