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THE HAMILTON. JOURNAL.
I (VI fir. J
THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF HARRIS COUNTY.
VOL. XIII.
PUBLIC ROADS.
I he best thoughts on this subject
were embraced in a speech by the
a’sw.’as--■* president ot a Harris county ^ul
ten nor spoken. About two and a
half years ago, and in a speech also
by the writer which suffeiet 1 ,e
same fate, 1 he piesident, -now,
used or intended to use toe terms
evolution and devetopement synom
mously, as he, m laying down his j
premises, announced that it mattered
not lor his then purpose whether the
Danvinianism or Bible theory be cor
rect, meaning in the first that of evo- i
lution. His purpose was to trace
the development of man’s vocations
from the primitive root-eater to the
hunter,thence to tire herdsman,thence
to the farmer and merchant, and on
and up to the present series of doc
tors, lawyers and pollutions and
doubtless intended to go back and
take up the process from the first
trail as they passed to and fro from
their root pounds and hununf
giounds up to the and market politician, way, but toe
merchant, lawyer ex-presi
before he had time another
• dent mounted a mill out doors and
began proclaiming the uses and prof
its of grinding, and tne gieat bread
making process, and every farmer,
lawyer, politician and preacher rose
up and made for the door and there
by testified unqualified preierence and
tor their bellies over their feet, a
great speech was cut off and another
smothered before it peeped.
After two and a half years I have
been able to preserve mine in small
scraps which, with others coming in
‘Tm quilt to co\er the B reat dviS cmlizmg
agenL first place, briefly, , . the . . law
In the
as more immediate as to district
commissioners, overseers and work¬
ers.
The first, appoint overseers, appor¬
tion roads and hands.
They hold court or meet in the
district after ten days notice at one
or more most public places therein
for fining defaulters, issue executions
and warrants.
Overseers shall summon hands at
least one day before, the day of work,
and road and place to meet and what
implement superinteni and have the
road worked and repaired in the best
possible manner (mark the last) and
in five days after report in writing to
commissioners of all defaults—to call
out as many necessary hands to do
special work, deducting their time
from the general call.
Workers fined for default not less
than one nor more than three dollars
a day or imprisoned, default in failing
to appear, or appear and neglects or
refuses to work faithfully. Hands
employed as laborers on any railroad
exempt provided the overseer is paid
one dollar per day for each hand to
- be expended in hiiing Other hands,
&c. Fifteen days annually allowed
or provided, but in Harris county an
average of not more than two. The
C. R. & R. should use great dis
creation in selecting district commis¬
sioners as capable, courageous, pub
iic-spirited and aspiring to no higher
place, able to tell a good road or a
bad one before and after report of
overseers and pluck to deal with
overseers and workers in default.
Overseers should be men of public
pride and sense enough to have a
fair notion of the flow of ivater, its
JOSEPH L. DENNIS
PROPRIETOR.
accumulation, its direction, its
umfe and its effects; the compactness
Qr - tg yi e i<li n g character ot the soil,
, v h ee ] cu t ; slide and plunge inclina
tion3 fore and after, and lateral and j
•
r saw t he other day a lower side ot
a road cut t0 flll a i ong dip in the
middle, making in lower depths a
lower deep. l They should Know j
when a hoIc is fiUed up , and when \ j
pract l i C able whether best with rock,
WQQd or d irt. I never saw a hole
fi]] d P in the road entirely and per
I think I never saw a
causeway / extcnd de an across the
d 0 5rid „ e to cover a cross ditch
mQr ^ thau half way. People are j
overta k en by night and have to travel
j n t h e dark and dangerous is the
w thereof and thereby. The first
bio-rain chokes the ditch, water flows
° puddles, and the
ar und and forms
bridge a useless pretense for twelve
months t0 come. The rule is to
WO rk only once a year. I never saw
a d {^ch generally Lo cut through a fence !
bigge t a woman would Imve
around a chicken coop, and if a
gjound-soaker were to come the next
da y ? q was a day old and no moie.
Commissioners should have an ap
p rox i mate idea of the road’s demands
j n order to equal apportionment, work
g ome half miles need more
dian odier m fl e s, two or three. There
are one or tw0 things grossly wrong ine
j n present working—a gross
quality in apportionment, workers or a if gross Oth
lac £ duty "by sudlC
ers have but done their duty.
I live ; w here two roads unite at
r j g ] lt an gi eSj and the terminus of
three wor king wAke companies is right
he A I two days on their
road treble distance and a little over
double hands of the two others, and
the best previously conditioned over
^he others, one of which worked un
til n, a. m., and the other until io
o. V of one day, and one of the lat
ter,*not many years back, morning finished up] he j
by S o’clock the same
began. I like this last the best. I
can’t help liking a completed thing,
even if it is a fraud. I am sorry to
read of the legislature adjourning. It ]
spoils a jeb by its incompleteness. working
But here are some hands 1
from four to ten times as much as J
the others and only claim to do their
duty. Further, a day with some is a |
very indefinite term, varying from an
hour to perhaps eight. Would it not i
be well to have the present law
amended by establishing a term of
hours to make a day’s work ? I saw
3 lone man sitting and approached 1
him at 9 o’clock and found him wait -1
ing for the other road hands to begin
the day’s work. They came in the
next half hour and hour. Further
more, the roads are worked at the
end of tne summer when they are
hard compacted and smoothly wro Jght
by summer travel, and they have
thrown up on them the loose dirt
from the sides to hold the coming
winter rains, to soak down the road
beds and make them soft and pliable
to the ponderous wheels bearing
heavy loaded cocton and cotton seed
and on and on through the winter
freezes and thaws and rains, forming
yet deeper cuts to hold more water, ,
on and on til the still heavier loads I
of fertilizers and weighty supplies are
pulled through and at a time when :
all animal kind, man and brute, are
in an enervated condition. Do wc i
still discuss the why and wherefore of
the seeming iucreased demand r
OCTOBER
stock on each returning year? But
another and I quit. Commissioners
should remember that railroads have
shifted the heavy travel from some
roads to the others and the forces
P
*
in roads from the baby to the old
man and WO man, and no better indi
cator of civilization ot a people with
a ballot and brains.
Plowman.
----------
PERSONAL, '
Hamilton ***““£^ is well * represented a' the
Sta * e rs 1 a Rachel " il l \ ^ Radne e ek £ returned t . to .
*
her home near Salem Sunda T
Miss Lula Stubbs, of Chipley, vis- _
iting the Misses Lovelace.
Mr. Irby Hudson and lady left for
their home on Lake Weir, Fla., this
morning.
Mr making-some E Fort was in town Satur
day purchases for the
Valley Plains Fair.
T ^ l lor „ thl i t ndfTe state^fail i p
Wednesday morning.
Mr. A.- F. Truett, clerk of the Su¬
perior Court is seeing the sights of
the Slate Fair this week.
The college pupils enjoyed their
monthly sociable at the residence of
Dr. Barnes Friday evening.
Prof. W. E. Murphey, of Colum¬
bus, spent Saturday in town, with his
brother, Mr. S. R. Murphey.
f m Mobley left yesterday
t0 attend the Fair in Macon. He is
superintendent of the department of
jq e { d Crops
« *£$£ qimmnn of iVavcrlv ^Hen’ry
< Mr.
f Beuna yista, were in
town yesterday, vesterdiv the the gue guests t of Mrs i .. T .
* ^ ar s ‘
Gunnells, of Ban as county,
connected with tie btale Giange,
will deliver a temperance lectuie at
Glowers church, near Cataula, Wed
nesday mght.
Mrs. M. Hunley went up to Chip
ley Saturday to attend the bedside of
the young daughter of Mr. Robert
Moss, who is lying quite ill of ty
phoid fever, Will Dallis, who died Ilreen
Mr. at
ville Friday night, was taken to La
Grange for burial. He had many
friends here who deeply regret his
untimely death.
Mr. A. D. Anderson of Valley
Plains district brought two fine cows
to town Friday, which he sold to Dr.
q\ s. Mitchell and II. C. Cameron,
Esq., at $40 each.
Mrs> M E Mullins closed the ex
erdses 0 f her school at Grainge’s
r p an k last wee<c and has returned
home for a short rest. She purposes
resuming in a few weeks.
Maj. T. N. Sparks handed us yes
terday morning a remarkebly large
sweet potato, the finest we have seen
this season, for which he has our
thanks. Now, who next ?
Capt. L. L. Stanford went over to
Macon yesterday. He and Col.
Mobley represented the Hamilton
Lodge at the Grand Lodge of masons
which met at Macon to-day.
Yesterday afternoon one wheel os
a wagon heavily loaded with cotton
passed over the body of the little
lour year old son of Mr. Moses Jones
who lives near town. Dr. Mitchell
was sent for, but he could discover
no cause for alarm, and although the
ONE DOLLAR A YEAR,
STRICTLY IN ADVANCE.
little fellow complained of pain, he
w s quietly sleeping when lie left him
last night,
j Our gifted young preacher, Rev.
Bascotn Anthony, preached five pow
(la T On Sunday morning especially
he seemed inspired, and his masterly
effort in favor of prohibition has
* s j ncP ^ een t h ® e theme of o nearly nearly everv every
. „ Hamilton. f 1 he
tongue in text was,
‘Help One Another, ^ and was emi
” ent y appl \ >l>nate * 1 ne dut f of ev “
er y man and woman m - regard to the
^ twffic was presented in such a
clear forcible light that it would ap
pear like inviting the wrath of heaven
to give one’s influence m support of
the great evil, ue wish that every
n ian in t ‘ le C0lint y could have hear v l
that J sermon.
Dr. R. B. McCants, of Jefferson,
Ala., is visiting Ins old home. He
has many friends here who are glad
to have the pleasure of meeting ;him
again.
EDITORIAL NOTES.
The Talbot county Fair last week
was financially a failure, but in the
uniform excellence of the articles on
exhibition it was a credit to one ol
the most progressive counties in the
state. ’Talbot is a fine county and
her annual fairs have done much to
make her what she is.
According to the figures of the At¬
lanta correspondent of the Macon
Telegraph the clerk of the house of
representatives and the secretary of
the senate are about the best pail
officers of the commonwealth. The
one received it is claimed an average
of over $40 a day, while the pay of
the other was hardly less, both re¬
ceiving about $8,000 for one hundred
day’s work. This when the hard
worked member got only $4.00 a day
with mileage perquisites and free
passes.
It will be remembered by our
readeis that a resolution was passed
]jy die ) 10USe 0 f die j a ^ e memorable
general assembly empowering its
clerk to employ ladies as enrolling
clerks. The discussion on the sub¬
ject consumed the most of one day’s
session, thus costing the state nearly
$1,200. It may interest our readers
to know that the clerk, acting under
the resolution, employed during the
late long session, four lady clerks,
who received for their services an
a gg re g ate of $252. Thus we move.
In putting $252 into the pockets of
these worthy women, our thrifty So
lons put $1,000 in their own—or
thereabout.
Paul J ones, the Atlanta whiskey
king, has wagered $500 against $400
that the wet ticket wins in Fulton.
The canvass is lively and he may
lose his money. Sam Jones is to be
there next week and Sam is power¬
ful on temperance. If the temper¬
ance cause wins here, the remaining
cities will be surely captured.
NO. 45.