GOOD ROADS NOT EXPENSIVE
Interesting Account of Surprisingly
Low Cost of Constructing Stretch
of Road in Missouri.
The cost of good roads depends up
on so many things that it rarely can
be estimated with accuracy in ad
vance of a minute examination of the
localities the roads are to traverse.
There may be heavy grading to do. or,
if the course of the proposed road is
“level as a barn floor.” it may be nec
essary to spend considerable money
in transporting from a distance the
material needed for surfacing. Some
times, with absolute honesty on the
part of contractors, and strictest econ
omy, the cost of constructing a given
piece of roadway provokes astonished
comment because it is so great, says
Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin. Some
Fine Macadam Road in Missouri.
times, unfortunately, costs are swol
len by reason of dishonesty and waste.
Now and then, however, there are sur
prises in the other direction.
There is now circulating an inter
esting account of the surprisingly low
cost of constructing a stretch of high
way in Missouri. It seems the state
highway commissioner reported to the
effect that the best-graded earth road in
Missouri was a piece of considerable
length in the Wellington and Napoleon
district. Whereupon the president of
the National Old Trails Road associa
tion at once wrote to Wellington to
ascertain the cost of this road. He
was told that the total expenditure
on It was six dollars a mile. Thinking
this a mistake he wrote again, only to
learn that the figure named was cor
rect. The district, it appears, owns
modern road machinery and pays fair
but moderate wages to an engineman
and two grademen. The per diem ex
penses run to an even twelve dollars.
Two miles are graded daily. Roads
elsewhere in Missouri that are no bet
ter for practical purposes cost six
thousand dollars a mile.
The surprising revelation thus set
forth would seem to Impose upon offi
cials entrusted with responsibility on
behalf of the people when good roads
are to be built the duty of making
careful surveys and estimates before
letting the contracts.
AUTO FEES FOR GOOD ROADS
No Reason Why United States Should
Not Take First Rank In Road
Building Operations.
There are now upward of two mil
lion motor vehicles in use throughout
the country. Of this number more
than a million and a half are automo
biles used for business and pleasure
purposes. About 60,000 motor trucks
are now in use. The revenues received
in the various states from the registra
tions of these motor vehicles amount
to more than twelve and a half million
dollars annually.
The greater share of this revenue is
being used for road improvement pur
poses, and provides a splendid fund
from which great progress should be
made in the construction of permanent
highways.
With the efficient and economical
use of these new funds there is no rea
son why America should not take first
rank in road building operations for
some time to come.—Farmers’ Review.
Big Road Factor.
The automobile has been a moat im
portant factor in obtaining good
roads.
Cost of State Roads.
More than $200,000,000 has been
spent by the various states on 31,000
miles of state highways. About 11,
000 miles have been built within the
last two years. Only seven states
have no form of 'state highway de
partment.
To Get Nearer.
Start a “good-roads-to-town” move
ment in your neighborhood, and it will
not be long before the farm is set
down from ten minutes to an houi
nearer market.
Degeneration.
Smuggs—“Say, Jiggs. Who are
those three gentlemen standing at
the conservatory entrance?" Jiggs—
"Why, they represent three genera
tions. The ruddy old man with the
fine head of hair, Buggs—the thin
haired one next to him is his son. and
the dissipated fellow with the bald
head is the grandson.”—National
Monthly.
Fur-Fabric Coat Has Distinction
Of all the handsome fur-fabrics, that
which imitates broadtail or moire
caricul is the handsomest. In making
this variety of their product the man
ufacturers have achieved a marvelous
likeness to the skins they imitate, in
a material less bulky and more dur
able than the fur. The expert fur
dealer must look twice to tell the dif
ference between it and his own wares,
in a made-up garment.
Designers have taken advantage of
this material to make up wraps that
really deserve to be described as
splendid. Its suppleness allows am
ple length and fullness without too
great weight, and its beauty makes
the use of elaborate ornaments, in
the details of finishing, appropriate.
Unless fur-fabrics are degraded in
quality they are destined to play a
great part in our apparel in the com
ing seasons.
The stately coat shown in the pic
ture Is made of an Imitation of broad
tail (or baby lamb). It is far more
elegant than the cheap grades of fur
and no fur could be fashioned into a
more Impressive garment. It will solve
the problem of those women whose
! consciences will not allow them to
wear broadtail, but who appreciate
its exquisite and incomparable rich
surface.
The broad collar and cuffs are of
marten fur, and a hanging panel at
the front is finished with it. Orna
ments of silk braid, with pendent
balls, define the waist line at the back
and front.
A careful use of rich embroidery
is managed with such good art as
the finishing decoration that this coat
is placed in the class of ultra-smart
novelties.
A White Velour Hat.
In one white velour hat the crown
is almost entirely covered with en
circling bands of black satin ribbon
through which only an occasional
gleam may be seen of the white velour
beneath. The brim of this hat is
bound at the edge with a full ruche
of white satin ribbon and trimmed on
one side of the crown with two very
large white wings.
HI Ml TODAY
People Confident Day of Deliver
ance Will Come.
Young and Old Are Learning to Speak
English—No Personal Relations
Between Belgians and Ger
mans—Boys Are Deficient.
London.—The following account of
conditions in Belgium is fiom the pen
of an American who has arrived in
London after a year’s stay in the Bel
gian capital:
“Belgium today is learning to speak
English. Everywhere you go, you can
see the old and young usually carry
ing notebooks, studying in the streets
and trams, in the cafes, restaurants
and in the homes, all talking English,
using English expressions and words
on all possible occasions.
“Belgium is confident. You have
only to look at their faces to see it,
and if you talk with them, they say,
‘Just wait. The day of deliverance is
coming, it may be this summer or next
summer, but never? Vous etes foul’
rrom me uerman military stand
point, Belgium is organized into three
districts, the first, the Operationsge
biet or the zone of operations, which
extends some fifteen to twenty miles
behind the actual line of fighting; the
second, the Etappen, which is an in
termediary zone where all the sup
plies for the front are collected and
distributed; and the third, the Occupa
tionsgebiet or the occupied territory
organized with both military and civil
governments. No person can go from
one to the other except on special per
mission, and then only by train, which
includes as one of its comforts a
thorough searching.
“No person can leave the town in
which he lives, except by train or on
foot. Those who wish to ride in auto
mobiles must pay twenty marks a
week or more. In the fortified cities
of Liege, Namur and Antwerp, you
must be in your houses at nine o’clock
in the evening.
“Naturally no Belgian can go to Hoi !
land except by stealth, and I have good
reason to believe that some sixty thou
sand have passed the frontier since
the first of the year. Sometimes this
necessitates the killing of one or two
sentinels.
"Above all it is strictly forbidden to j
sing or play the Brabanoon, the Mar '
seillaise, and Tipperary, as a result of
which nearly every Belgian can sing
Tipperary and does so very often. On j
the Boulevard Anspach in Brussels:
one day four little boys were march
ing towards the bourse singing at the
top of their lungs the Brabanoon. It
was not long before some German sol
diers chased them, catching one, who,
as he marched away to the komman
datur, cried out to his friends: ’Run
and tell mamma that I am a prisoner 1
of war.* The young Belgians all wear
caps modeled on the soldiers’ rest
cans, and are very Lii-pendent.
"Trie German government of Bel
gium has expressed its desire that all
Belgians should return to their work,
but if it be work that can profit the
Germans, they find something else to
do. Then, besides, every piece of ma
chinery that can be used in Germany
has been stolen long since.
"It is easy to say, ‘Go to work,’ but
it is another thing to have work to do
which is not of direct benefit to the
German military authorities. In Char
leroi there were about fifty locomo
tives which had been damaged more
or less. The Germans offered the
work of repair with fair pay to the
Belgian workmen, but they absolutely
refused, as the locomotives could be
used in sending supplies and troop3
to the front. It was nearly a month
later when after failing to persuade
the Belgians to work the Germans
were compelled to bring workmen
from their shops in Germany.
‘‘I have given you some idea of the
general relations between the Ger
mans and the Belgians. As for per
sonal relations, there is none.
During the week before I left Brus
sels, I was a spectator of an incident
which perhaps shows the distance be
tween the two better than I can ex
plain. 1 was s'anding on the platform
of a tram coming up from town. It
was crowded with both Germans and
Belgians. A German subofficer took a
cigarette from his case, and. having no
match, asked the man standing beside
him for a light. The Belgian had
nothing to do but offer the German
his lighted cigarette. When the Ger
man went to return the cigarette, the
Belgian very politely informed the
German that he did not care to smoke
any more. The German could do
nothing, although he felt the insinua
tion. He left the tram immediately.
“For our real news we have had to
depend upon the Dutch papers and
above all the London and Paris jour
nals which were smuggled in from
time to ti^p. The German authorities
have done all they could to stop these
papers coming in, even making it ex
tremely punishable, but as fast as
they would stop up one channel of the
supply another would be found. We
were never without an English paper
for more than two weeks since the
first of September of last year.
“The commission for relief of Bel
gium has. no doubt, saved a nation
from starvation, and under the diffi
cult circumstances, have done a won
derful work. The Belgians know and
really appreciate the help, even if the
Germans have tried to claim the credit
by publishing pictures of the commis
sion’s work and labeling them as some
of the fine work Germany has done in
Belgium."
New Ailment.
"I do hope," exclaimed Mrs. Twick
embury, “that that queer-acting dog
hasn’t got hydrostatics.'—Christian
Register.
Wnv He Mourned
You say that Jenkins owes every
thing he has to you." ‘Worse: He
owes much mere ihan he nas _o me
—Boston Transcript
MOTHER OF MISS CAVELL
A "grand old lady" is Mrs. Cavell,
| the mother of Edith Cavell, the Brit
ish nurse whose last words before
her execution were, "I am happy to
die for my country."
To perpetuate the memory of her
daughter, there is now a plan on foot
in Great Britain to organize the
Cavell Memorial fund.
Lead Pencils.
I don’t think I'm exactly lazy and I
have a fair amount of intelligence, but
! cannot sharpen a lead pencil. I've
been trying to learn for—well. I
won't say how long, but it’s many,
many years. I couldn’t sharpen them
when I was little. I couldn’t sharp- :
hem when I was big. f can't shirr ■
them now that I am bigger. Pen- ::
sharpeners don't sharpen them a:
oetter than I do. Or than you do i
wager, if you're a woman! When I':.;
rich I shall hire a man to sharpen my
pencils for me every morning.—Ex
change.
Only Person “Touched.”
Duels in France are often m
costly than dangerous. The very
est figure for which an encounter
be brought off is £4, and to do
thing in style considerably more r
be spent. Aurelian Scholl, the b<
vardier journalist, once suffered. v
friend of his sent a challenge and fc -
rowed 100 francs off Scholl for his < -
penses. This sum he never rep:
“The duel was a bloodless one."
lates Scholl. “I was the only person
touched.”—London Chronicle.
Your Opportunity to
Buy a Farm
A\ e are offering 2,700 acres of land in this county and with
in from three to five miles of Loup City, in any sized tracts
to suit purchasers. This land is all in grass and all fenced,
has plenty of windmills and reservoirs to supply fresh water
to live stock and is suitable for use as a large stock farm or
will divide nicely into several smaller farms, having plenty
of farm land and plenty of good pasture land with each tract.
Here is an opportunity for the man with a growing family of
boys to secure a larger farm, as this land, or any part of it,
can be sold and a smaller farm accepted as a partial payment.
There are no buildings on this tract but if you are in position
to make a reasonable payment and improve the land, arrange
ments can be made to give you time at a reasonable rate of
interest on a considerable portion of the purchase price.
If you v ant to buy a farm that is already improved, we
have a number of 160 and 320-acre farms, improved with good
buildings, that we can offer you at reasonable prices and on
very favorable terms. We also have a number of quarter sec
tion tracts of good farm land broken out, and some of them
now in winter wheat, that can be sold on a very small cash pay
ment and long time at low rate of interest given on the balance
of purchase price. If you are in the market for farm lands,
or any other kind of property, it will pay you to come and talk
the matter over with us.
*
1120 Acre Improved Stock Farm
Located two miles from Hoagland and six miles from Sat
pleton, Logan County, Nebraska, both on the Keamey-Staple
to branch of the U. P. railroad. 400 acres good tillable land,
balance rolling grass land. All fenced and cross-fenced and
improved with H story frame house 24x26 with kitchen addi
tion; large barn, 32x48, room for 19 horses, besides large hay
loft and grain bins, 2 good wells and windmills, 2 cisterns, and
never-failing supply of soft water, which is piped into the
house. Pictures of house and barn are shown herein and build
ings are in good repair and have just been painted. If you
look around you, you will agree that those of your neighbors
who have been most successful have been the ones who have
devoted the most time to raising live stock and caring for them
and this farm would be an ideal place for grain and live stock
farming and will make its purchaser a small fortune. A clear
quarter of Sherman County land can be accepted as part pay
ment and the balance of the purchase price can be carried
against the land for a term of years at 6 per cent interest. If
yon are tired of grain farming and want to get a farm where
you can handle live stock, as well as have plenty of good land
to farm, here is your opportunity to get a well improved place
close to railroad and at a very reasonable price.
Farm Loans. 5, 10 and 20
Years Time
If your farm loan is coming due or if you want to borrow
money on your land to make improvements or buy live stock
or to buy additional land, we are prepared to offer you loans at
lowest prevailing rates for terms of 5,10 and 20 years.
Five-year loans due five years from date, interest pay
able semi-annually, with option to pay in whole or in part at
interest payment dates.
Ten-year loans, due ten years from the first day of any
month you may select on which to pay your iterest. Interest
payable once a year at your home bank with option to make
partial payments at any time after one year from the first
interest payment. This loan gives you plenty of time to stock
and improve your farm before it is necessary to pay it and
avoids the necessity and expense of renewing at the end of
a five-year period.
Twenty-year loans under the rural credit plan about which
so much has recently been said and written in the agricultural
journals of the United States. Under this plan the loan is
repaid in 20 equal payments which include both principal and
interest. The interest rate being 6 per cent per annum. You
will be given the option of paying any number or all of the
notes in advance of maturity and the notes will be discounted
at compound interest annually for the unexpired term, in
case of pre payment. The total payment is just the same each
year, the payments, on account of interest, decreasing as the
payments on account of principal increase. The annual pay
ments, including botli principal and interest, only amount to
about one and one-half times what you would ordinarily pav
as interest on a loan of the same amount, but under this plan
your debt is fully paid and your mortgage released at the
end of 20 years. Under the ordinary plan of farm loans, on a
loan of $1,000, running for 20 years, you would pay:
Principal.$1,000.00
6 per cent interest on $1,000 for 20 years. 1,200.00
T°tal. .$2,200.00
l nder rural credit plan of annual pay
ments, your payments would be $90.69
and the 20 payments required to re
lease the loan would amount to.$1,813.00
Difference in interest paid ..$ 386.20
If you need a farm loan or need to renew your present loan
or to make any change m it, come in and let us explain these
different plans fully before you make anv other arrangements
THE FIRST TRUST COMPANY