n, left on
record a few paragraphs on the sociological effect of good roads that
ought to be preserved:

"Good roads do not concern our pockets only. They may become the
instrumentalities for improved health, increased happiness and pleasure,
for refining tastes, strengthening, broadening, and elevating the
character. The toiler in the great city must have rest and recreation.
Old and young, and especially the young, with character unformed, must
and will sweeten the daily labor with some pleasure. It is not the hours
of industry, but the hours devoted to pleasure, that furnish the devil
his opportunity. It is not while we are at work but while we are at
play that temptations steal over the senses, put conscience to sleep,
despoil manhood, and destroy character. Healthful and innocent
recreations and pleasure are national needs and national blessings. They
are among the most important instrumentalities of moral reform. They are
as essential to purity of mind and soul as to healthfulness of body. Out
beyond the confines of the city, with its dust and dirt and filth,
morally and physically, these are to be found, and good roads help to
find them. What peace and inspiration may come from flowers and music,
brooks and waterfalls! How the mountains pointing heavenward, yesterday
battling with storms, today bathed with sunshine, bid you stand firm,
walk erect, look upward, cherish hope, and for light and guidance to
call upon the Creator of all light and of all wisdom! How such scenes as
these kindle the imagination of the poet, quicken and enlarge the
conception of the artist, fire the soul of the orator, purify and
elevate us all! But if love of action rather than contemplation and
reflection tempts you, how the blood thrills and the spirits rise as
one springs lightly into the saddle, caresses the slender neck of an
equine beauty, grasps firmly the reins, bids farewell to the impurities
of the city, and dashes into the hills and the valleys and the mountains
to commune with nature and nature's God. Or what joy more exquisite than
with pleasant companionship to dash along the smooth highway, drawn by a
noble American trotter? What poor city scenes can so inspire poetic
feeling, can so increase the love of the beautiful, can so elevate and
broaden and strengthen the character, and so inspire us with reverence
for the great Father of us all? But for the full enjoyment of such
pleasures good roads are indispensable.

"Anothe