Old Man's "Brain Wave" for Making Money: Roads Full of Mudholes From Our Own Correspondent.
Lanchowfu, Kan., Dec. 4.
In days that are past, I used to sympathize with Chinese farmers, across whose fair fields the ruthless carters drove. their vehicles. To see the standing corn crushed by their wheels, or deep ruts made through a family burying ground, made me feel sorry for the sons of the soil. Such days ate past now, never perhaps to return, partly because I have come to sce that it is their own fault, and partly because I have recently, on two occasions, been almost buried in a mudhole. Still another reason is that the farmer sometimes makes a financial: profit through the damage, as the following case will sh nond of mine was travelling by. cart in autumn, and the summer rains had made the road impassable in places, so the carter, following the rut-tracks of other carts climbed the bank and along by the edge of the fields. The ruts led into an old burying ground, so the carter followed the track, which at one point—wheto the graves were closely spaced—ied right over the little mound which" marked an old neglected grave, The mules crossed the spot, when suddenly, from behind another grave, appeared a little wizened old man, full of wrath, shouting and gesticulating. He threw himself across the roadway, and was ready if.necessary to hold the animals' bridles and detain the travellers by force. The carter, uneasy and nervous, was conscious of wrong doing and willing to make amends. The old fellow said that the cart had just gone over his father's grave and that nothing less than $5 could put right such an insult. Finally a compromise was effected, and some thousands of cash paid to the injured and filial-spirited old farmer. The cart departed, and the last seen of the old man was that he crouched behind his grave again, waiting for the next cart to wrong him, and pay in the same way for the privilege.
The fact is, that the roads are public property, and therefore no One cares. No official stays long enough in one county to feel it worth while to mend roads. The farmers take the surface soil from the roads for manure, and when their fields have been irrigated sufficiently, they let the surplus water run into the roads, so that mud and pools are frequent in summer. Sometimes the rivers ate conducted on to the roads which then become canals for irrigation. At.intervals deep pits are made to get soil, and with the soil dams are thrown across
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.