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THE ROAD
AND
THE ROADSIDE.
By
BURTON WILLIS POTTER.
BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
1886.
_Copyright, 1886_,
BY BURTON WILLIS POTTER.
UNIVERSITY PRESS:
JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.
TO
THE HONORABLE JOHN E. RUSSELL,
SECRETARY OF
THE MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF AGRICULTURE,
These Pages are Respectfully Inscribed,
AS A TOKEN OF MY LOVE AND ESTEEM FOR HIM AS A TRUE FRIEND,
A CLASSICAL SCHOLAR, AND AN ELOQUENT ORATOR,
WHOSE SPEECHES AND WRITINGS HAVE AIDED POWERFULLY
IN BRINGING ABOUT A REVIVAL OF AGRICULTURE,
AND IN CREATING AMONG THE PEOPLE
A LOVE OF AGRICULTURE AND
RURAL LIFE.
Transcriber's Note: The asterisks in footnotes 89 and 92 have do not
have corresponding references in the text.
PREFACE.
The chapters of this book relating to the laws of public and private
ways were written and read as a lecture at the Country Meeting of the
Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, in December, 1885, at Framingham,
and have since been published in the "Report on the Agriculture of
Massachusetts for the Year 1885."
The laws as herein stated are, as I believe, the present laws of
Massachusetts relative to public and private ways, and therefore they
may not all be applicable to the ways in other States; but inasmuch as
the common law is the basis of the road law in all the States, it will
be found that the general principles herein laid down are as applicable
in one State as in another.
Believing that good roads and the love of rural life are essential to
the true happiness and lasting prosperity of any people, these pages
have been written with the sincere desire to do something to improve
our roads and to encourage country life; and they are now given to the
public with the hope that they will exert some little influence in
promoting these objects.
B. W. P.
WORCESTER, MASS.,
_May, 1886_.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
HISTORY, IMPORTANCE, AND SIGNIFICANCE OF ROADS.
PAGE
Roads the symbols of progress and civilization. Macaulay and Bushnell
on the value of public highways. The first sponsors of art, science,
and government were the builders of roads. The ancient highway between
Babylon and Memphis. The Carthaginians as road-makers. Roman roads:
their construction, extent, and durability; their instrumentality in
giving Rome her pre-eminence in the ancient world; their mode of
construction described. Ponderous roads in China. Magnificent highways
in the ancient empires of Mexico and Peru. Prescott's description of
the great roads in Peru. Bad condition of the English roads in the
sixteenth century. With the revival of modern civilization the
improvement of the public highways has engaged the thought of public
and scientific men. Advantages of good roads generally and especially
as the means of a proper distribution of population. 1-11
CHAPTER II.
LOCATION.
Best possible location desirable. Permanent nature of roads. Many of
the ancient roads are still travelled by the people of to-day. The law
of the survival of the fittest applicable to the location of roads. The
makers of a good road often build better than they know. Roads may be
located in three different ways. The old Romans and the modern Latin
nations locate in straight lines. The English-speaking people usually
locate their roads in curved lines. Curved roads have many advantages
over straight ones, as good grades are more desirable than straight
roads. 12-16
CHAPTER III.
CONSTRUCTION.
Importance of drainage. Good roads impossible without proper drainage.
Proper width of roads for travel. They should be wide enough to admit
of foot-paths at their sides. Every road should be crowned sufficiently
to run off the surface water, but not enough to make the road-bed too
unlevel. The golden mean is to be sought. A macadamized road the
cheapest and best for our climate and soil. Proper foundation and depth
of stone covering for such a road. The Telford road sometimes the best
for clayey soil. Its construction. They will be the future roads of our
country. Earth-roads now generally prevail. How to make them, and how
to keep them up. 17-21
CHAPTER IV.
REPAIRS.
Economy and public convenience require roads to be kept up the year
round. Advantages of a road always in good condition. Evils of the
present system of annual or semi-annual repairs. The present system
described. Advantages of the continual-repair system illustrated by the
great turnpike from Virginia City to Sacramento, by Baden, Germany,
France, Switzerland, Great Britain, and towns in the vicinity of our
great cities. This system alone will prevail when the principles of
road-making become better known. 22-27
CHAPTER V.
LAWS RELATING TO THE LAYING OUT OF WAYS.
For what purposes ways may be laid out, and how they may be
established. May be laid out by town or county authorities.
Distinction between town ways and public highways. When the public
officials refuse to lay out ways, parties interested may appeal. How
damages are avoided and costs paid. 28-31
CHAPTER VI.
LAW AS TO REPAIRS.
How and by whom ways are to be kept in repair. The duties and rights
of the public authorities in making repairs. The boundaries of
highways. The rights of travellers as to the removal of obstructions
in the road. Unauthorized persons have no right to repair ways.
Highways to be protected by proper railings. How wide roads should
be. 32-35
CHAPTER VII.
GUIDE-POSTS, DRINKING-TROUGHS, AND FOUNTAINS.
Guide-posts to be erected and maintained at suitable places. Penalties
attached to neglect or refusal to erect and maintain them. Town
officers may establish and maintain drinking-troughs, wells, and
fountains. Their duty in this respect. 36-38
CHAPTER VIII.
SHADE TREES, PARKS, AND COMMONS.
Towns and cities have authority to beautify the roadsides and public
squares. May plant trees and encourage their planting by adjoining
owners and improvement societies. The rights of improvement societies
and the penalties for interfering with their work. Shade trees and
other ornamental fixtures not to be injured or destroyed. 39-41
CHAPTER IX.
PUBLIC USE OF HIGHWAYS.
How roads are to be used by the public and adjoining owners. Due care
to be used by travellers. Masters responsible for their servants'
acts. No responsibility for inevitable accidents. What is a proper
rate of speed. 42-44
CHAPTER X.
"THE LAW OF THE ROAD."
Rules for the meeting, passing, and conduct of teams on the road.
These rules not inflexible. When they may be deviated from. Each
traveller has a right to a fair share of the road. The rights of light
and heavily loaded vehicles. When a traveller with team may use track
of street railway. 45-49
CHAPTER XI.
EQUESTRIANS AND PEDESTRIANS.
Equestrians must give way for vehicles. "The law of the road" does
not apply to them by the terms of the statutes, but they should
observe it as far as practicable. Pedestrians have a right to walk
on carriage-way. In cities they should walk on the sidewalks. They
must use due care. Their rights on cross-walks. They are not subject
to "the law of the road." They may walk out on Sunday for their
health. 50-53
CHAPTER XII.
OMNIBUSES, STAGES, AND HORSE-CARS.
Carriers of passengers for hire are bound to use due diligence in
providing suitable coaches, harnesses, horses, and coachmen. They must
not leave their horses unhitched. If they receive passengers when
their coaches are already full, they must use increased care.
Passengers must pay fare in advance, if demanded. 54-56
CHAPTER XIII.
PURPOSES FOR WHICH HIGHWAYS MAY BE USED.
Public ways are mainly for the use of travellers, but they may be used
for other public purposes, gas, water-pipes, sewers, street railways,
telephone and telegraph lines, etc. Every one may use the highway to
his own advantage, but with regard to the like rights of others. What
animals and vehicles are allowed upon the road. Towns and cities may
regulate by by-laws the use and management of the public ways. 57-61
CHAPTER XIV.
USE OF HIGHWAYS BY ADJOINING OWNERS.
They own the fee in the land, and are entitled to all the profits of
the freehold, the grass, the trees, fruit, etc. If the land in the way
is subjected to any new servitude, like an elevated railroad or
telegraph or telephone lines, they are entitled to damages. They can
load and unload vehicles in connection with their business on their
premises, but it must be done in such a manner as not to incommode the
travelling public. They must not fill up the roadside with logs, wood,
or rubbish of any kind. 62-69
CHAPTER XV.
PRIVATE WAYS.
Private ways may be established and discontinued in the same manner as
public ways. The owner of such way must keep it in repair. The owner
of the soil may use it for agricultural purposes, and keep up bars and
gates. "The law of the road" applies to private ways. 70-72
CHAPTER XVI.
DON'T.
Don't drink intoxicating liquors when travelling. Don't forget to
look out for the engine while the bell rings. Don't take animals
affected by contagious diseases on the public way. Don't go upon the
road if you are afflicted with a contagious or infectious disease.
Don't go out sleigh-riding without bells attached to your harness.
Don't try to drive a horse on the road unless you know how to manage
him. Don't ride with a careless driver. Don't use a vicious horse,
or let him to be used on the road. Don't let your horses get beyond
your control. Don't encroach upon or abuse the highway. Don't ride
on the outside platform of a passenger coach. Don't jump off a coach
when it is in motion. Don't wilfully break down, injure, remove, or
destroy a milestone, mile-board, or guide-post. Don't go out of the
road-way upon adjoining land. Don't suppose that everything that
frightens your horse or causes an accident is a defect in the
highway. Don't fail to give notice in writing if you meet with an
accident on the road. Don't convey land encumbered with a right of
way. Don't keep a barking dog. 73-83
CHAPTER XVII.
FOOT-PATHS.
Necessity of air, sunlight, and exercise. The progenitors of every
vigorous race have found in forest and wilderness the sources of
their strength. The Israelites, Greeks, Romans, Dutch, Anglo-Saxons.
The teachings of Nature essential to the development of the human
mind. Job, David, Plato, Aristotle, Christ, Wordsworth. Foot-paths
tend to bring people into the open air and into communion with
Nature. The by-ways of old England. Towns and cities should lay out
foot-paths. 84-88
CHAPTER XVIII.
WITHIN AND WITHOUT THE ROADSIDE.
Every dweller under obligation to maintain neatness and order within
and without his roadside. Unselfish exertion in this behalf pays. He
who beautifies the roadside benefits mankind and himself alike. A
dirty and shabby dwelling gives a traveller a mean idea of its
inmates. A cosey and clean house always speaks well for its inmates.
Every homestead should be adorned with trees. The beauty and utility
of trees. They are inseparable from well-tilled land and beautiful
scenery. Wayside shrubbery: its use and abuse; it should be allowed
where green grass will not grow. 89-94
CHAPTER XIX.
ENJOYMENT OF THE ROAD.
A traveller should have a hopeful and sunshiny disposition. He should
be in harmony with Nature; he should have an observing eye to enjoy
the _latent_ enjoyments of the way. How the observing faculties may be
cultivated. The pleasures incident to knowing how to appreciate the
beautiful in Nature. The different degrees of enjoyment in the same
situation. The love of Nature the sign of goodness of heart. Ruskin,
Wordsworth, Christ. What an observing traveller can see to admire and
enjoy on the road, grass, flowers, trees, as reminders of human
beings, domestic and pastoral scenery, mountains, animal and vegetable
life, sun and sunlight, latent enjoyments in himself. 95-104
THE ROAD
AND
THE ROADSIDE.
CHAPTER I.
HISTORY, IMPORTANCE, AND SIGNIFICANCE OF ROADS.
The development of the means of communication between different
communities, peoples, and races has ever been coexistent with the
progress of civilization. Lord Macaulay declares that of all
inventions, the alphabet and printing-press alone excepted, those
inventions which abridge distance have done most for the civilization
of our species. Every improvement of the means of locomotion benefits
mankind morally and intellectually as well as materially.
"The road," Bushnell says, "is that physical sign or symbol by which
you will best understand any age or people. If they have no roads,
they are savages; for the road is the creation of man and a type of
civilized society. If you wish to know whether society is stagnant,
learning scholastic, religion a dead formality, you may learn something
by going into universities and libraries, something also by the work
that is doing on cathedrals and churches or in them, but quite as much
by looking at the roads; for if there is any motion in society, the
road, which is the symbol of motion, will indicate the fact."
As roads are the symbols of progress, so, according to the philosophy
of Carlyle, they should only be used by working and progressive people,
as he asserts that the public highways ought not to be occupied by
people demonstrating that motion is impossible. Hence, when we trace
back the history of the race to the dawn of civilization, we find that
the first sponsors of art and science, commerce and manufacture,
education and government, were the builders and supporters of public
highways.
The two most ancient civilizations situated in the valleys of the Nile
and the Euphrates were connected by a commercial and military highway
leading from Babylon to Memphis, along which passed the war chariots
and the armies of the great chieftains and military kings of ancient
days, and over which were carried the gems, the gold, the spices, the
ivories, the textile fabrics, and all the curious and unrivalled
productions of the luxurious Orient. On the line of this roadway arose
Nineveh, Palmyra, Damascus, Tyre, Antioch, and other great commercial
cities.
On the southern shores of the Mediterranean the Carthaginians built up
and consolidated an empire so prominent in military and naval
achievements and in the arts and industries of civilized life, that for
four hundred years it was able to hold its own against the
preponderance of Greece and Rome; and as might have been expected, they
were systematic and scientific road-makers from whom the Romans learned
the art of road-building.
The Romans were apt scholars, and possessed a wonderful capacity not
only to utilize prior inventions but also to develop them. They were
beyond question the most successful and masterful road-builders in the
ancient world; and the perfection of their highways was one of the most
potent causes of their superiority in progress and civilization. When
they conquered a province they not only annexed it politically, by
imposing on its people their laws and system of government, but they
annexed it socially and commercially, by the construction of good roads
from its chief places to one or more of the great roadways which
brought them in easy and direct communication with the metropolis of
the Roman world. And when their territory reached from the remote east
to the farthest west, and a hundred millions of people acknowledged
their military and political supremacy, their capital city was in the
centre of such a network of highways that it was then a common saying,
"All roads lead to Rome." From the forum of Rome a broad and
magnificent highway ran out towards every province of the empire. It
was terraced up with sand, gravel, and cement, and covered with stones
and granite, and followed in a direct line without regard to the
configuration of the country, passing over or under mountains and
across streams and lakes, on arches of solid masonry. The military
roads were under the pretors, and were called pretorian roads; and the
public roads for travel and commercial traffic were under the consuls,
and were called consular roads. These roads were kept entirely
distinct; the pretorian roads were used for the marching of armies and
the transportation of military supplies, and the consular roads were
used for traffic and general travel. They were frequently laid out
alongside of each other from place to place, very much as railroads and
highways are now found side by side. The consular roads were generally
twelve feet wide in the travelled pathway, with a raised footway on the
side; but sometimes the footway was in the middle of the road, with a
carriage-way on each side of it. The military roads were generally
sixty feet wide, with an elevated centre, twenty feet wide, and slopes
upon either side, also twenty feet wide. Stirrups were not then
invented, and mounting stones or blocks were necessary accommodations;
and hence the lines of the roads were studded with mounting-blocks and
also with milestones. Some of these roads could be travelled to the
north and eastward two thousand miles; and they were kept in such good
repair that a traveller thereon, by using relays of horses, which were
kept on the road, could easily make a hundred miles a day. Far as the
eye could see stretched those symbols of her all-conquering and
all-attaining influence, which made the most distant provinces a part
of her dominions, and connected them with her imperial capital by
imperial highways.
The Romans not only had great public highways, but they possessed a
complete and systematic network of cross-roads, which connected
villages, and brought into communication therewith cultivated farms and
prosperous homesteads. In Italy alone it is estimated that they had
about fourteen thousand miles of good roads. Their laws relating to the
construction and maintenance of highways were founded in reason and a
just conception of the uses and objects of public ways; and they are
the basis of modern highway legislation. By their law the roads were
for the public use and convenience, and their emperors, consuls, and
other public officials were their conservators. They were built at the
public expense, under the supervision of professional engineers and
surveyors, and kept in repair by the districts and provinces through
which they passed.
But during the dark ages, when arts were lost, when popular learning
disappeared or found shelter only in cloisters and convents, when
commercial intercourse between nations vanished, and when civilization
itself lay fallen and inert, these magnificent Roman roads were unused
and left to the destructive agencies of time and the elements of
Nature. Rains and floods washed away and inundated their embankments;
forests and rank vegetation overgrew and concealed them; winds covered
them with dust and heaps of sand; and little by little in the process
of ages their hard surfaces and massive foundations were somewhat
broken and caused to partially decay. That their remains still exist in
every part of the world which ever bore up the Roman legions is
conclusive evidence that they were built by master workmen who realized
that they were responsible to posterity and to the eternal powers.
"In the elder days of Art
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part;
For the gods see everywhere."
In China, at one time, labor was so abundant that it was kept employed
in constructing great walls and ponderous roads. The road-bed was
raised several feet above the level of the ground by an accumulation of
great stones, and then covered with huge granite blocks. It was found
that in time the wheels of vehicles wore deep ruts in the stones, while
the travelled part of the road became so smooth that it was almost
impossible for animals to stand thereon.
In the ancient empires of Mexico and Peru, where there were no beasts
fit for draught or for riding, magnificent roads were constructed for
the treble purpose of facilitating the march of armies, accommodating
the public traffic, and ministering to the convenience and luxury of
the lordly rulers. In Peru two of these roads were from fifteen hundred
to two thousand miles long, extending from Quito to Chili,--one by the
borders of the ocean, and the other over the grand plateau by the
mountains. Prescott says: "The road over the plateau was conducted over
pathless sierras buried in snow; galleries were cut for leagues through
the living rock; rivers were crossed by means of bridges that swung
suspended in the air; precipices were scaled by stairways hewn out of
the native bed; ravines of hideous depth were filled up with solid
masonry; in short, all the difficulties that beset a wild and
mountainous region, and which might appall the most courageous engineer
of modern times, were encountered and successfully overcome. Stone
pillars in the manner of European milestones were erected at stated
intervals of somewhat more than a league all along the route. Its
breadth scarcely exceeded twenty feet. It was built of heavy flags of
freestone, and in some parts, at least, covered with a bituminous
cement, which time has made harder than the stone itself. In some
places where the ravines had been filled up with masonry, the mountain
torrents, wearing on it for ages, have gradually eaten a way through
the base, and left the superincumbent mass--such is the cohesion of the
materials--still spanning the valley like an arch.
"Another great road of the Incas lay through the level country between
the Andes and the ocean. It was constructed in a different manner, as
demanded by the nature of the ground, which was for the most part low,
and much of it sandy. The causeway was raised on a high embankment of
earth, and defended on either side by a parapet or wall of clay; and
trees and odoriferous shrubs were planted along the margin, regaling
the sense of the traveller with their perfume, and refreshing him by
their shades, so grateful under the burning sky of the tropics.
"The care of the great roads was committed to the districts through
which they passed, and a large number of hands was constantly employed
to keep them in repair. This was the more easily done in a country
where the mode of travelling was altogether on foot; though the roads
are said to have been so nicely constructed that a carriage might have
rolled over them as securely as on any of the great roads of Europe.
Still, in a region where the elements of fire and water are both
actively at work in the business of destruction, they must without
constant supervision have gradually gone to decay. Such has been their
fate under the Spanish conquerors, who took no care to enforce the
admirable system for their preservation adopted by the Incas. Yet the
broken portions that still survive here and there, like the fragments
of the great Roman roads scattered over Europe, bear evidence of their
primitive grandeur, and have drawn forth eulogium from the
discriminating traveller; for Humboldt, usually not profuse in his
panegyrics, says, 'The roads of the Incas were among the most useful
and stupendous works ever executed by man.'"
With the revival of human thought and civilization after the Middle
Ages, the improvement of the roads engaged the attention of public and
scientific men, and became once more an object of government; but for a
long time the rulers who concerned themselves about roads thought more
about repressing the crimes of violence and extortion thereon than they
did about improving their condition for travel. The first act of the
English Parliament relative to the improvement of roads in the kingdom
was in 1523; yet in 1685 most of the roads in England were in a
deplorable condition.
Macaulay says that on the best highways at that time the ruts were
deep, the descents precipitous, and the way often such that it was
hardly possible to distinguish it in the dark from the unenclosed heath
and fen which lay on both sides. It was only in fine weather that the
whole breadth of the road was available for wheeled vehicles; often the
mud lay deep on the right and on the left, and only a narrow track of
firm ground rose above the quagmire. It happened almost every day that
coaches stuck fast until a team of cattle could be procured from some
neighboring farm to tug them out of the slough. But to the honor of
England, this condition of her roads was not allowed to continue very
long. Although her progress in trade and prosperity has been
marvellously rapid, yet such progress can be measured by the
improvement of her roads, which are now unsurpassed anywhere in the
world.
Beyond question, internal communications are of vital importance to
every nation, and good roads are a prime necessity to every town or
city. A good road is always a source of comfort and pleasure to every
traveller. It is also a source of great saving each year in the wear
and tear of horse-flesh, vehicles, and harnesses. Good roads to market
and neighbors increase the price of farm produce, and bring people into
business relations and good fellowship, and thereby enhance in value
every homestead situated in their neighborhood. They cause a proper
distribution of population between town and country. For many years in
this country there has been a movement of population from the rural
districts into the cities and manufacturing villages. Many ancestral
homesteads have been deserted for promising "fresh woods and pastures
new" in the commercial world. This centralization of population is
evidently a violation of economic laws, and when carried too far
results in business depression, in the multiplication of tramps, and in
the origination and development of industrial and social troubles. The
remedy for this state of affairs is found in the readjustment and
proper distribution of population between town and country. When men,
sick of waiting on waning business prospects, turn to the soil as their
only refuge from non-employment and surplus productions of factories,
and reoccupy and rehabilitate deserted or run-down farms, then business
revives, and the wheels of industry and enterprise revolve steadily and
with increased velocity at each revolution. Bad roads have a tendency
to make the country disagreeable as a dwelling-place, and a town which
is noted for its bad roads is shunned by people in search of rural
homes. On the other hand, good roads have a tendency to make the
country a desirable dwelling-place, and a town which is noted for
its good roads becomes the abode of people of taste, wealth, and
intelligence. Hence it behooves every town to make itself a desirable
place of residence; for many people are always puzzling themselves over
the problem of where and how to live, and those towns which have their
floors swept and garnished and their lamps trimmed and burning ready to
receive the bride and bridegroom, will be most likely to attract within
their borders the seekers of farm life and rural homes. We now live in
the city and go to the country; but we should live in the country and
go to the city. This is "a consummation devoutly to be wished;" but it
can never be brought about until good roads connect the cities and
villages with the green fields and beautiful scenery of the country.
All money and labor expended upon them result immediately in a
convenience and benefit to the whole community. Every one should deem
it an honor to be able to do anything to improve and beautify the
highways of his town. The Lacedemonian kings were _ex officio_ highway
surveyors, and among the Thebans the most illustrious citizens were
proud to hold that office; and a few years ago Horatio Seymour, of New
York, said that his only remaining ambition for public life was to be
regarded as the best path-master in Oneida County.