16 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE TEXAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
there very characteristic of ourselves. We shall not adopt their specifi¬ 
cations, for we have not the unlimited labor supply of a subject people, 
nor are our first considerations merely military. As the Roman Empire 
fell to pieces in the fifth and sixth centuries, the appliances of civiliza¬ 
tion became dilapidated, and during the long night of the middle ages, 
wheeled carriages were replaced all over Europe by the primitive pack- 
saddle. This state of things remained practically unchanged, so far as 
it affected the common people, until the end of the last century. In dis¬ 
cussing a bill for the betterment of English roads about 1750, a country 
member humorously remarked that judging from their general condition 
they might be more readily turned into canals than improved into high¬ 
ways. 
Napoleon the First, amongst his other endless activities, inaugurated 
an admirable system of roads in France. In that country the highways 
were divided into Imperial, Departmental, and Communal. They are 
very thoroughly constructed, and are frequently adorned with avenues 
of noble trees. They are now, of course, National instead of Imperial, 
and are admirably directed by the splendid engineering -department of 
the “ Fonts et Chaussees ” or “ Bridges and Roads.” In Great Britain 
the work was done by turnpike companies and highway boards, and it is 
only in recent years that the “Turnpike Trusts” have become extin¬ 
guished. This brings us to Kentucky, and there is always a temptation 
to copy Kentucky in the matter of roads. The result of its system was 
good, and the argument that the people who used the roads paid for them 
has a show of reason, but as a matter of fact their maintenance is exceed¬ 
ingly costly to the community. Mr. N. S. Shaler, writing in Scribners 
in 1889, points out that there are not less than one thousand families, or 
not far from 2 per cent of the population of the State, who are sup¬ 
ported by toll-gate keeping, and that the tax on the commonwealth is in 
consequence at least one million dollars per annum in excess of the cost 
of maintaining the roads. Again, one of the most important utilities of 
country roads is partially defeated by a hesitation to travel as freely as 
one would without the toll, thus preventing much of that social inter¬ 
course which it is desired to foster. 
By force of circumstances we, in Texas, have stumbled in the matter 
of transportation and communication upon a certain inverted order of 
progress. We are able to travel to the ends of the earth in conditions 
of luxury that the Caesars might envy, whilst denying ourselves the priv¬ 
ilege of visiting our neighbors in the same precinct, if the rain has de¬ 
stroyed the usefulness of the road to their house. We eat the excellent 
fruits and vegetables of California, Colorado and the tropics largely be¬ 
cause the truck patches of our farmers are not in touch with our towns. 
Notwithstanding this, we have on account of our cheap and fertile lands, 
