Letter from the Ox-Team Express 
[Many of our readers will remember former pictures 
and articles about Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Berrang. This 
worthy couple left Connecticut about one year ago. and 
started for the Pacific coast in a wagon drawn by oxen. 
They have been moving along slowly, taking all the 
time 'they need as they pass along. They are now in 
Southern Ohio, as the following letter states. We see 
that a “good road"’ for a car driver may not be so good 
for an ox team.] 
BATHER DELAYS. — It has been several 
moons since I gave the readers of The R. 
N.-Y. a story of our trip from Connecticut to Cali¬ 
fornia, via ox express. I have promised several 
along the route who seem interested in our progress 
that about Thanksgiving time I might tell them 
again the ups and downs, high and low lights of the 
trip. Today (November 18) we are camped in the 
heart of Dayton. O., on a vacant lot. practically 
■marooned on account of the rain. It has rained 
incessantly for three days, and as the streets here 
for several blocks around the main business section 
are paved with wood blocks impregnated with a tar 
or creosote composition, it makes travel for us 
utterly impossible, as the oxen absolutely refuse to 
walk straight on these block-paved streets. They 
fear they will slip, and slip they do. So they lean 
against the pole of the wagon for protection. We 
are playing “safety first,” and stay in camp until 
the streets dry up. 
POOR ROADS.-—We had planned our schedule to 
eat Thanksgiving turkey in Cincinnati, but this rain 
has shot our schedule all to pieces, so if we eat at 
all it will be somewhere along the route of the Dixie 
Highway. Highway? Well, the old National Trail 
is some highway. If some one had taken me over 
the highway in a motor machine and gotten me over 
without a broken neck or lesser accident, perhaps I 
would have called it a good road, but traveling it as 
we have done I can only say it is anything but a 
good road. True, in some sections it is properly 
, built, and the engineers exercised good judgment, 
but in other sections it is simply abominable. If 
one complains, the remarks invariably are: “Oh, 
well, the roads are not built for oxen or horses; they 
are automobile roads.” A road that is not fit for 
everyone to travel is not a good road. For instance, 
say, from Wheeling, W. Ya., west to Columbus, O., 
there are several places where they put on what they 
term hillside brick. This is a brick 3x5x10 in., 
about; the edges on one side are chamfered about 
% to y 2 in. When these two bricks are laid side by 
side there is a gap whereby the horses can catch a 
foothold if they should slip, so that it is impossible 
for a creature to go down. This is all right, and 
ideal for hill climbing, where they are left in that 
condition, but do they leave good enough alone? 
Not on your life! Along comes some monkey who 
fills these crevices with tar or cement, and gives the 
road a smooth surface, so nothing can climb the hill, 
and automobiles go skidding over the banks. 
MOUNTAIN TRAVEL.—Then again, for instance, 
there are the Cumberland and Alleghany Mountains, 
that have an elevation from 1.200 to 2.500 ft. above 
sea level. Then the road builder puts on another 
angle, viz., 14 ft. of smooth asphalt, with a hump in 
the center, with a slant sideways of the road 1 in. 
to the foot, making two angles a creature must work 
against. Fancy a horse pulling a load uphill under 
these conditions. If you ask the road builders, as I 
have done several times, why they put the curve in 
a road, they say to shed the water. Can you imagine 
water staying on a hillside 25 to 40 per cent grade 
on a smooth surface? Why, the day and night after 
Labor Day there were six auto wrecks within seven 
cniles on these mountains, all because of the wet 
roads and that hump in the middle. Wait a moment. 
If some road builder reads this he would say I’m 
quite a “knocker.” Yes, so I am. I want better 
roads everywhere. What makes a good road, did 
you say? Cement or brick make good roads. But 
lay the brick on a good foundation, and don’t make 
the sui'face of cement too smooth; leave it rough, 
and only a drop of 1 in. in 8 ft. on a 16-ft. road, so 
horses can scratch a foothold. Automobiles will roll 
over it just the same. 
TRAVELERS’ JOY'S.—Now let us have some of 
the sweets. We had the pleasure of meeting lots of 
nice people. Some bring us some of their homemade 
bread, some give us jellies, jams, vegetables, eggs, 
milk, etc. We have invitations to come through the 
towns they reside in. and surely we must come to 
their places and camp, stay as long as we will, 
plenty of grass and feed for the oxen. etc. We left 
Washington, D. C., jvhere we camped five weeks. 
It was too hot to move, so we left the oxen in good 
pasture to kick flies, and we went sight-seeing until 
July 19; reached Frederick July 25, trailed along 
the route George Washington and General Braddock 
took their soldiers on their way to Pittsburg. We 
drank water from the same well, from the same 
hand-forged iron dipper; camped two nights and a 
day on Braddock Heights, one of the beauty spots 
of this great America, where one can go up on the 
“lookout” tower and see the beautiful valley below 
all four sides of the compass. One can look and see 
three States at the same time—Maryland, Pennsyl¬ 
vania and Virginia. We saw the Sugar Loaf Moun¬ 
tain, then roiled along to Hagerstown. Md., where 
we listened to the reminiscences of some of the old- 
thners who were near grown-ups during the Civil 
War; how they remember the armies taking posses¬ 
sion of their goods and chattels. From that time on 
we climbed one mountain after another, up five 
miles on one side, down three miles on the other, 
and vice versa . all through "August. September 25 
we arrived at Wheeling, W. Ya. After that there 
were some hills, rolling country, hut we left the big 
mountains behind. In Ohio the going was much 
better for us in most places than Pennsylvania or 
Maryland, because the road is wider on the sides of 
the asphalt. There are 7 or S ft. of gravel, whereas 
only 3 to 4 ft. in the other States that we have 
passed. 
KINDLY STRANGERS.—One little incident I 
forgot in my previous article. When we reached the 
city limits of Philadelphia, Pa., early in Spring, it 
was May 1, >ve pitched camp on a ball field at 
Holmesburg. A man came and asked if we believed 
in signs. I answered yes, if it was the sign of the 
dollar mark. "Why, he said, they had a chicken din¬ 
ner when he first read of our trip in The R. N.-Y., 
so he, as usual, broke the wishbone with his wife, 
and he wished we would travel the route we came 
so he would have a chance to see the outfit. lie got 
his wish. Now if he reads this, I would like to have 
my wish: that he send me his address to 27 Edson 
Street, New Britain, Conn., so I can send him a card 
some time. He made it so pleasant for us and the 
oxen that cold and disagreeable night that I wish to 
thank him personally, but fail to have record of his 
name or address. If any other persons would like 
a card from us, personally, and .will send their address 
as above, we will be glad to respond, j. c. berraxg. 
This is not one of the oxen that are hauling Mr. and Mrs. Berrang on their ox express, but a famous Canadian Shorthorn steer. Tie weighed 3,500 pounds, and 
surely represents a mountain of beef. His feet icould soon give way on those hard and slippery roads. 
