OCR Text |
Show A GOOD IDEA. : Representative Hobson of Alabama has introduced intro-duced a bill for a great boulevard from Niagara Falls to New Orleans. He say that was advocated by Henry Clay and by Andrew Jackson, and ic wants it called the Clay-Jackson memorial highway, and his bill authorizes a centennial celebration of , Hi h.ttln ..f Vow Orleana, to . beifin-Jauuaryj 1915. He wants an appropriation of $5(10,000 for a preliminary survey of the highway. He wants it to start at Niagara Falls, co to Janesville, O. ; to Mays- viile and Iexiuiiton in Kentucky; Nashville ami Columbia, Tenn.; Florence, Ala., which wa the route advocated by Henry Clay? from Florence, Ala., to Columbus, Mia., and to New Orleans, the route followed by Andrew Jackson and his army in the march from the auccesKful battle of New Orleans in 1815. That road would be a good thinu, S a great automobile road. It would be a great thing to start from the northern end say in October while the weather is pleasant and so continue aouth, stopping from town to town, and get to New Or-leana Or-leana in tim for the carnival. It would be a great road for couples to make their bridal ' trips over. It would be worth while for the states to put up the money necessary, becaune a great many people peo-ple would biiy homes alonff that route. For in- stance, of Columbia. Tenn., a shrewd friend of ours who has been the world over declares that this ia the prettiest spot on earth. JuKt before Andrew Jackson s battle, Lundy'u liane was fought juat across the river from Niagara Ni-agara Falls on the Canadian side. It raged from early evening until 1 o'clock in the morning and it x was a fierce little fight, and how seriously it was fought ma;- ba judged from the fact that there Were 858 American soldiera killed and wounded :an(V 80S British soldiers killed and wounded. It rutfed off and on all the night through. When at its height the roar of Niagara was drowned; th tu in the intervals the old roar would come back, a re - minder that though men might stop its volume for a little while, it was there for all eternity. It was a much harder nfeht than New Orleans. The battle t.f New Orleans was great for fhe generalwhip din-played; din-played; the battle of Lundya Lane was great for the fighting that was done. It would be good to connect the two fieldsvith a boulevartl and would be a good way for Americana to get acquainted with ea?A other Americana north and smith, he-cHuae he-cHuae with that boulevard finished every man with an automobile would want to uiake the run down and back. To go without' stopping to visit any point along the road, the trip could e made in two weeks, both ways. It would have another good effect. ef-fect. It would enable the ordinary college graduate gradu-ate to bound half the states in the unicn which he could not do now. It would improve his spelling, too, and the 'final result would be that thosk who .. travel ovt the road np and down and down and np would be better Americana all their lives for it With tha railroada men only consider when thrys nifka a journey the objective points. If a New Yorker wants to do some business hi San Francisco, he geta a sleeper, and aleeps half his time; and nf the towns that swiftly flit by him by day he merely asks where they are and what they are and forgets them in an hour. But this would bring him in clotte contact with the people. As a natural incentive to patriotism, aa an improved study of geography, it -would be good to have finished boulevards to all the principal placea in our country, because the automobile auto-mobile has come to stay and those who own them d not want to go over the same oute twice, and going once they learn more of their country than they would in twenty years living in their own town and on$ traveling by rail.. |