Says They are Death-Traps

Friend Taylor: I have been for some time wanting to write to you in regard to our town roads and bridges, & c.; and yet I hardly know where to commence. But in the first place I will say that I am not out for a road job, not looking for any other office. Simply I would like to see a good road, where the public can travel safely, and with a reasonable degree of comfort.

Enclosed herewith you will find a post-card picture, showing a little bridge, which I think ought to be a little wider; also it would be much safer if it had guard rails on either side; and it would look full as well if those scarecrow posts were sawed off.

Next thing, just above the post-office there has been a little ditch across the road for at least six months, where everybody would go in with a bounce that was anything but comfortable. Someone drew in a load of dust a month or two ago, which helped the looks of it for a few days — and then let it go at that.

Next the road from Smith’s store up to the long bridge — about two miles — don’t look as though it had had ten dollars worth of work on it in a year. There are two mud puddles on it from 15 to 20 feet long, almost full width of the road and this after the weather had cleared up and been nice for several days. Also there are several minor puddles in the same distance.

The next thing I notice is most of the guard rails, so called, along the dangerous places; and this is what impelled me to write to you. I was walking up the road a week or so ago in the company with a neighbor and his wife, when we came to this long bridge, and as I was going no further we paused on the bridge a short time. When the lady leaned a bit against the railing she lost her balance and came “within an ace” of plunging into the creek and on the rocks ten or twelve feet below. The railing being rotten gave way with her.

I remember a few years ago an aged man, a friend of mine, went out one morning on this same road, and feeling tired it is supposed sat down to rest on one of those rotten railings, which gave way and he was killed.

How I would like to ask why those death-traps are allowed. Far better it would be to not have them at all than to allow them to get in that condition. Now there is more that I could write, but don’t want to impose on your time and patience.

Very respectfully yours,

A Taxpayer