Bellefonte, Pa., May 8, 1903.
THE DREAM OF THE TOY.
The Sandman lost a dream one night—
A dream means for a boy;
It floated round a while, and then
It settled on a Toy.
The Toy dreamed that it stood in class
With quite a row of boys;
The teacher rapped upon his desk
And cried, ‘‘Less noise! less noise !”’
Then, looking at the Toy, he scowled
And said, “Next boy—foretell.”
“0, please, sir,” cried the little Toy,
“I don’t know how to spell.”
‘‘Indeed, I don’t know how itis,
I'm sure I am a Toy,
Although I seem to be in a class,
And dressed up like a boy.”
‘What's that ? What's that ?”’
cried
In awful tones he spoke;
He came with strides across the fioor,
And then the Toy awoke.
the teacher
There lay the nursery very still,
The sheif above its head;
The fire burned dimly on the hearth,
The children were in bed.
There lay the dolls and Noah's ark,
“0 dear me,’ said the Toy,
‘I just had such a dreadful dream !
I dreamed I was a boy.”
—FKatherine Ryle.
A BIT OF BUTTON.
It must have been ten years ago, that
lazy August afternoon, that I read and doz-
ed alternately on the couch, where a breeze
from the south window came in to ruffle
the leaves of the book. I was recovering
from some bit of sickness, and the rest had
gone for a drive; it was full peach season,
and I was left alone in the house. The
bees flew in and out of the hollyhocks un-
der the window ; occasionally some adven-
tarous cavalier would beat against the
screen in a vain endeavor to force entrance.
A shuffling sound came from the steps as
one foot was pulled up after another. If
proved to be Uncle Isaac, the old peddler
who wandered around the village, selling
parsley, pie-plant and other green goods.
I called the dog to the mat, and shouted,
‘‘Come in.’
‘‘The door is shut,’”’ he answered.
I climbed down from the couch, and let
him in. It muet have been a sprained
ankle from which I was suffering that day,
for I remember the pain the movement
caused. Uncle Isnac seated himself in an
arm chair, an old figure, his long white
hair wandering over the forehead, and
tumbling in stray locks about his eves.
‘Meester Ralph,’’ he began, ‘I have
known you a very long time—ever since
you were so high—=so,’’ hesaid, pointing to
the lowest notch in the stick. I nodded
absently. ‘‘I knew your vater when he
was so high, too,”” he continued.
“Yes,”” I said. ““Whatis it?’ Iwasa
little impatient; I knew he wanted some-
thing.
‘Meester Ralph,’”’ he continued, coming
to the point, ‘‘will you let me have a coat
for a day—two days?’ he said. ‘‘A coat
with nice buttons, a good coat—it is of the
society, the lodge.”’
“Where is yours, Isaac ?’’ I said sharply.
‘It is gone,’”’ he shook his head sadly,
‘it went very bad—to drink.”’
I lay and thought a moment, then I re-
membered an old masquerade coat of two
winters before; I had outgrown it; it ought
to fit Isaac. I bave always thought I pos-
sessed a grain of charity,after I climbed the
weary steps to my wardrobe with my ach-
ing ankle, that day. I gave it to the old
man, and he thanked me with the grati-
‘tude of one to whom a present is not an
empty thing. He wore it next day, proud
as a king, simple as a child, at the annual
parade of his lodge. It wandered away
sadly from Isaac's little figure, and possi-
bly some of the outsiders laughed, or the
little boys whose mothers’ presence restrain-
ed them from throwingstones, called names
at him. But the little old man did not
heed; he walked with the lodge, as straight
as any of them.
I know this is retrogression, but the
scene came to me, as pictures sometimes
will, at a word to recall them. I was sip-
ping a late cup of coffee in a restaurant sev-
eral thousand miles from that August af-
ternoon, briefly scanning the morning pa-
per. I stopped short at the name of the
little Michigan home town where I had
lived as a boy. Only a line: .
‘‘Webster, May 9.—Isaac Hills, aged 65,
was run over by the A. C. & C. train, and
instantly killed.’ ;
Just that, bus the paper dropped to the
floor. Outside, the long dusty California
street seemed to fade away, and the holly-
hocks in the old fashioned garden nodded
to me through a distant lattice. My
thoughts went back into the sweetness of
the home time, and my coffee became cold,
as a picture of the little old man in the
masquerade jacket grew hefore me.
A few months later—it was in the sum-
mer time—I went East, not to the East be-
yond where the Mississippi rolls—an un-
derpaid, struggling professor in a little
chapel and dormitory institution could not
afford that—but to Colorado, on a business
trip in the interest of the president. AsI
stepped into the smoker after leaving Salt
Lake, I almost collided with Billy Hutch-
inson. We did not fall on each other’s
necks-after a fashion now several thousaud
years out of date, but we did shake two
sinewy bands, and sat down on one of the
red, dusty seats to talk. It was years since
I bad seen Billy, the day we graduated,
and there was something to talk over. He
pulled out a cigar,handed me one,and reach-
ed in his pockes$ for a match, fumbled oub
a bandful of variegated stuff which. might
have come from the pockets of any school-
boy—a few stray coins, lucky pieces, a col-
ored stone, a jack-knife, a couple of but-
tons, and a match. Hutchinson was about
to push the mass back into his pocket, when
I noticed one of the buttons—a curiously
shaped cross on a golden background—
which seemed somehow familiar.
‘Hold on,” I said, grasping his band,
and knocking the collection on the floor. I
rescued the button from underneath the
seat, and picking up the scattered articles,
returned them tothe owner. He looked at
me with a half puzzled smile. “What have
you taken a faney to now 2’?
But as I held the button up for his in-
spection, he snatched it from my band.
“You can’t have that, it’s from the dead,
poor old-Isaac.”” I knew now why it look-
ed familiar, a relic of my old masquerade
jacket. Hutchinson held it in his band,
stroking and caressing it as if it was a liv-
ing thing.
‘‘It. belonged to him,’’ he said gently.
‘“There is quite a story about it.”’
“Ves,” I replied; ‘‘it was Ikey’s; wasn’t
he killed by a train? Isaw something of
it in a San Francisco paper. T never heard
more, just saw the notice.”
““There is more, much more; but how did
you know it was Ikey’s?’’ I had just fin-
ished telling him about the old masquerade
coat, when there came an interruption. A
big man lumbered through the aisle and
sat town beside Bill. I saw him color un-
der the interruption, but he introduced
us.
“My law partner, Mr. Rogers—my friend
Professor Monroe.” We talked on desul-
tory themes for a few moments, and I
thought he had forgotten Isaac.
Then he turned to his partner. ‘‘Roger,”’
he said, ‘‘you must excuse me; I had just
started to tell a little story when you en-
tered.’ And with that he began.
‘I suppose the button is just as much
yours as it is mine. But that is why I
have it. You know, Ralph, Isaac was al-
ways pretty much, what you call in police
court, plain drunk, and he didn’t improve
with age. He meant well enough, but he
couldn’t hold out, and the young men
around town who liked to call themselves
sporty, used to get Isaac in a saloon, espe-
cially if he had some little coin, and that
was the end of him for the night. We
would find him on some doorstep next
morning, or maybe in a snowdrift, if it was
winter time. Those devils !”” Hutchinson
exclaimed, and from his expression it was
well they were not in the smoking car.
‘After a while,’ he continued, ‘‘they be-
gan to send him to the county jail for ten
days or so, as a public burden. The old
man felt the disgrace terribly as first, but
he couldn’t keep from the saloon, and he
took the trip again and again.
‘Then the lodge got after him; perhaps
there were some among them who were as
bad as Isaae, but they bad money, and it
didn’t matter. The old vagabond drinker
was a disgrace to the organization, so they
said. You know how proud Isaac was of
his lodge ?'’
I nodded, the memory of that afternoon
before me.
‘‘It came up at a meeting, and most of
the members wanted to expel him, but the
old man had some friends, and after he bad
made a plea with tears streaming down his
face, ‘some of us hadn’t the heart to do it.
I—I voted against him. It wasn’t passed,
but laid on the table for a week, to come
up at the next meeting.
‘‘A day or two later, the old man, de-
spite his promises, fell again, and the jus-
tice gave him ten days of meditation. The
marshal accompanied him to the station,
Isaac walking dejectedly beside, his head
bent, his ill fitting suit banging in limp
folds about his figure. My brother Jim—
you remember him, don’t you—and his
little girl were going away on a visit, and
I was at the station tosee them off. The
marshall talking politics with a group of
bystanders never gave a thought to help-
less Isaac there on the edge of the platform.
‘While Jim was looking after the trunks,
the little girl—just four years old that day,
with a mass of tumbling golden curls fall-
ing in disorder about her face—toddled up
to Isaac, and looked up into his eyes. ‘Poor
little man,’ she said and went on with her
play. Possibly it aroused some faded,long
lost memories; perhaps she reminded him
of his little girl asleep in the churchyard,
il of ber father’s deeds—he never
told.
‘‘A moment later it all happened. In an
instant, while we could scarcely breathe,
little Alice toddled on to the track just as
the Chicago express shot around the carve
a few feet away. The engineer frantically
applied the brakes, but the mass of iron
rolled on. I shut myeyes—Icouldn’t bear
to witness the sight—while Jim, who had
just come out of the building, made a dash
for the track, but was held back, where he
couldn’t see.
“Is may have been a confused image of
his own little girl came to the old man and
he thought it was her. They say he never
glanced at the oncoming train, hut stagger-
ed on to the traek, pulled at her dress, and
pushed her over in the gravel and dirt on
the other side. He might bave escaped,
but he stumbled—aud then it was all over.
They found this bit of button after ward.”’
‘Well, it was a blessing to get rid of such
a worthless character,”’ said Rogers, blow-
ing a circle of smoke.
Hutchinson turned on him sharply,
‘‘ask my brother, ask him what he thinks.”’
Then, as he left the car, he added, ‘the
lodge decided they wounldn’t expel him af-
ter all.”’—By Richard Henry Post in The
Pilgrim for May.
The New Road Law of Pennsylvania.
A Matter of Interest to Every Taxpayer—The Road
Law Passed by the Last Legislature.—An Act
Establishing a New Department and Building Pub-
lic Roads Under State Supervision.
Below we publish the entire Act of As-
sembly which is designed to revolutionize
public road making in Pennsylvania. The
change from the old system is so radical
that we publish the law in toto so that
every taxpayer may be conversant with it.
AN ACT.
Providing for the establishment of a
State Highway Department, by the ap-
pointment of a State Highway Commission-
er and staff of assistants, and defining the
powers and duties thereof; authorizing the
State Highway Department to co-operate
with the several counties and townships,
and with boroughs in certain instances, in
the improvement of the public highways
and the maintenance of improved high-
ways; providing for the application of coun-
ties and townships for State aid in high-
way improvement and maintenance; pro-
viding for the payment of the cost of high-
way improvements, made under the provis-
ions of this act, by the State, the counties,
and the townships, and making an appro-
priation for this purpose. j
Whereas, it is of great importance to the
people of this Commonwealth that the pub-
lio highways should be systematically im-
proved, and that the several counties and
townships should be given the aid and en-
couragement of the State in the building
and maintenance of improved highways;
therefore : ;
Section 1. Be it enacted, &o., That im-
mediately upon the approval of this act, a
State Highway Department shall be estab-
lished by the appointment, by the Govern-
or of the Commonwealth, with the advice
and consent of the Senate, for a term of
four years, of a State Highway Commission-
er, who shall be a competent civil engineer-
and experienced in the construoction and
maintenance of improved roads. Said State
Highway Commissioner shall receive a sal-
ary of three thousand five hundred dollars
per annum, and shall be allowed his actual
traveling expenses, not exceeding five hun-
dred dollars, while officially employed. He
shall furnish a bond in the sum of twenty-
five thousand dollars for the faithful per-
formance of his duty, said bond to be ap-
proved by the Governor, and he shall give
his whole time and attention to the duties
of his position. The State Highway Com-
missioner may appoint, as the work of the
department requires it, and subject to the
approval of the Governor, one assistant,
who shall be a capable and competent civil
engineer and experiedoed in road building,
who shall receive an’ annual salary of two
thousand dollars, and shall be allowed his
actual traveling expenses, not to exceed
five hundred dollars, when on official busi-
ness; and he shall alsoappoint a chief clerk,
at an annual salary of fifteen hundred dol-
lars per annum, and may employ an addi-
tional clerk who shall be a competent ste-
nographer, at an expense not to exceed one
thousand dollars per avnum. The State
Highway Commissioner may require the
employes of the Department to give bond
for the faithful performance of their duty,
in suitable and reasonable amounts.
Section 2. The State Highway Depart-
ment shall be provided with suitable rooms
in the State buildings at Harrisburg, and
its offices shall be open at all reasonable
times for the transaction of public business.
The State Highway Commissioner shall
carry into effect the provisions of this act
and all acts of Assembly providing for the
co-operation of the State in the construe-
tion and maintenance of public highways.
Pe shall have charge of the records of the
State Highway Department; and shall each
year submit to the Governor of the Com-
monwealth a full report of the operations
of the Department, the number of miles,
cost and character of the roads built under
its direction. detailed statements of the ex-
penses of the Department, and such other
information concerning the condition of the
public roads of the State and the progress
of their improvements as may be proper.
Section 3. Whenever the county com-
missioners of any county shall represent by
petition to said State Highway Department
that any principal highway in said county,
outside of corporate limits of any city or
borough, is not in a satisfactory condition
for comfortable or economical travel, and
ought to he reconstructed under the pro-
visions of this act, and shall farnish to the
said Department an accurate plan of the
layout, lines, profile and established grade
of such highway, it shall be the duty of the
State Highway Commissioner to examine
such highway, or instruct one of his assiss-
ants so to do; and if in the judgment of the
State Highway Commissioner said represen-
tation is well founded, he shall determine
what changes should be made in said exist-
ing highway, what portion of it should he
improved and in what manner, and shall
prepare accurate plans and make careful de-
tailed estimates of the expense of the work
which, in his opinion, should be done, and
report the same to the county commission-
ers of the county and the supervisors or
commissioners of the township or townships
in which the said highway may lie. If the
said county commissioners and town-
ship supervisors or commissioners then de-
cide that it is advisable to go on with the
work as hereinafter provided, and make the
required agreements as hereinafter specified,
the State Highway Department may, if the
funds at its disposal permit of so doing,con-
tract jointly with the county and town-
ships, in which said highway lies, to carry
out the recommendations of the State High-
way Commissioner; the cost of the same,
including all the necessary surveys, grad.
ing, material, construction, relocation,
changes of grade, and expenses in connec-
tion with the improvement ‘of said high-
way, to be borne in sixty six and two thirds
per centum by the State, sixteen and two
thirds per centum by the county, and six-
teen and two thirds per centum by the
township or townships in which the por-
tions of said highway, improved as herein
provided, may lie : Provided, That the
State aid shall be apportion among the
several counties of the Commonwealth ac-
cording to the mileage of township or coun-
ty road is each county, but the said amount
shall remain in the State Treasury until
applied for under the provisions of this act;
And provided, That any county construct-
ing county roads under the provisions of
the act of June twenty-sixth, one thousand
eight hundred and ninety-five (Pamphlet
law, three hundred and thirty six) and
supplements and amendments thereto,shall
be entitled to receive the same amount of
State aid as if said roads were constructed
under the provisions of this act : And pro-
vided farther, That if the appropriation, go
apportion by the State, shall not be so
applied for a period of two years after it has
become available, the amount so apportion-
ed and seb aside for that county shall be re-
turned to the State Treasury, and added to
the appropriation for the current year, and
distributed anew under the provisions of
this act : And provided further, That noth-
ing herein contained shall prevent any
county and townships from agreeing to ap-
propriate a larger amount for such road
improvement than the amounts specified in
this act : And provided, That counties and
townships may agree among themselves to
contribute their combined proportion of the
thirty-three and one-third per centum of
the total expense of construction, herein
provided to be borne by them, in different
proportions from that hereinabove specified ;
but in no case shall any township or county
pay less than five per centum of the entire
expense of such improvements : Provided,
That the county commissioners shall far-
nish, under oath, to the State Highway
Commissioner the total number of miles of
township or county public roads, by town-
ships, to the State Highway Commission-
er.
Section 4. All bighways improved unn-
der the provisions of this act shall conform
to the standard of construction established
by the State Highway Department, as best
adapted to the locality in which they may
be located, with due regard gto the topog-
raphy and natural conditions and the
availability of road building materials, and
shall be constructed according to the best
engineering practice. No section of high-
way improved under this act shall be less
than one fourth mile in length, nor shall
the improved portion thereof be less than
tweive feet in width. So far as is consist-
ent with the just and equitable adminis-
tration of this act, the State Highway De-
partment shall encourage a general system
of highway improvement.
Section 5. All work done under the pro-
visions of this act shall be by contract, ac-
cording to plans and specifications to be
prepared by the State Highway Commis-
sioner and approved by the county com-
missioners of the county and the supervis-
ors or commissioners of the township or
townships, as hereinbefore provided ; and
in awarding said contracts the work shall
be given to the lowest and best bidder, with
the option upon the part of the State High-
way Commissioner, the county commission-
ers the township supervisors or commission-
ers, to reject any or all bids if they consid-
er the same unreasonable, or if the prices
named are materially higher than the esti-
mated cost of the work as provided for.
Every person, firm or corporation, before
being awarded any contract for the con-
struction or improvement of any highway
under the provisions of this act, shall fur-
nish a bond, acceptable to the State High-
way Commissioner, in a sum equal to the
contract price of the work, conditioned up-
on the satisfactory completion of the same
and to save harmless the State, connty and
the township or townships, in which the
work may lie, from any expense incurred
through the failure of said contractor to
complete the work as specified, or for any
damages growing out of the carelessness of
said contractor or his or its servants.
Section 6. Any township may. through
its supervisors or commissioners, be author-
ized to bid for the construction of such por--
tion of any highway improvement, under-
taken under the provisions of this act, as
may lie within its limits; and any town-
ship submitting such bid shall have the
same consideration as other bidders, and, if
awarded the contract, shall fulfill the same
and be subject to the same regulations as
are laid down for other bidders.
Section 7. Upon the completion of any
highway, rebuilt or improved under the
provisions of this act, the State Highway
Commissioner shall immediately ascertain
the total expense of the same, apportion the
said total expense between the State, the
county and the township, or townships; in
the proportion hereinbefore provided ; and
in case the said improved highway shall ex-
tend into or through two or more town-
ships, he shall apportion the proportion of
the expense, aforesaid, to be borne by each
township among the several townships, in
the same proportionate parts at the cost of
the improvement within each township
shall bear to the whole expense of the im-
provement which has been made according
to the provisions of this act; and the State
Highway Commissioner shall certify the
total expense of said improvement to the
county commissioners and to the supervisors
or commissioners of the township, or town-
ships, in which the improved highway has
been constructed, respectively, specifying
the amounts to be borne by the State, the
county and the township, or each township,
as provided by this act.
Section 8. The State’s share of the ex-
pense of highway improvement or main-
tenance, under the provisions of this act,
shall be paid by the State Treasurer upon
the warrant of the State Highway Commis-
sioner, attested by the chief clerk of the
State Highway Department, out of any
specific appropriations made by the legis-
lature to carry out the provisions of this
act; and the share of the county in which
said highway improvement, as herein pro-
vided, has been made, shall be a charge
upon the funds of said county,and shall be
paid by the county treasurer upon the or-
der of the county commissioners. The
share of the township or townships in
which the said highway improvement, as
herein provided, has been made, shall be
paid by the township supervisors or com-
missioners, as other debts of said township
or townships are paid. The State High-
way Department, the county commission-
ers of the county, and the supervisors or
commissioners of the township, or
townships, in which any highway is being
improved under the provisions of this act,
may, with the approval of the State High-
way Commissioner, make partial payments
to the contractor or contractors performing
the work, as the same progresses; but vot
more than two-thirds of their proportionate
shares of the contract price for the work
shall be paid, in advance of the fall com-
pletion of the same, by either the State
Highway Department, the connty, and the
township or townships,so that at least one-
third of the full contract price shall he
withheld until the work is satisfactorily
completed and accepted. and the exact pro-
portions of the cost thereof apportioned to
the State, county and township, or town-
ships : Provided, That a cash road tax be
levied by each township, where such road
improvement is: being made, to meet the
cost of such permanent road improvement
as is provided in this act.
Section 9. Every contract authorized to
be made by the State Highway Depart-
ment, under the provisions of this act,
shall be made in the name of the Com-
monwealth of Pennsylvania, and shall be
signed by the State Commissioner of High-
ways and attested by the chief clerk of the
department,, and shall be approved, as to
form and legality, by the Attorney General
or Deputy Attorney General of the Com-
monwealth. No contract for any highway
improvement shall be let by the State
Highway Department, nor shall any work
be authorized under the provisions of this
act, until the written agreement of the
county commissioners of the county and
the supervisors or commissioners of the
township, or townships, in which said pro-
posed improvement is to be made, agree-
ing to assume their respective shares of the
cost, thereof, as hereinbefore provided,
shall be on file in the office of the State
Highway Department, and shall have been
approved, as to the form and legality, by
the Attorney General or the Deputy At-
torney General of the Commonwealth.
Section 10. The county commissioners
of any county may, upon the presentation
to them of a petition from the supervisors
or commissioners of any township, or of
two or more adjoining townships, represent-
ing that any principal highway or section
thereof, lying within said township or
townships, is in need of reconstruction,
and setting forth that said township or
townships desire to take advantage of the
provisions of this act to improve said high-
way, pass a resolution petitioning the
State Highway Department to undertake
the improvement of the highway or sec-
tion thereof specified in the petition from
the township or townships aforesaid, and
authorizing the assumption by the county
of its share of the expense of said improve-
ment; accompanying the said petition to
the State Highway Department with a map
or plan showing the layout, lines, profile
and grade of such highway, as hereinbefore
provided : Provided, That where the coun-
ty commissioners petition to State High-
way Commissioner for the improvement of
a public road or parts thereof, they shall
state the kind of material to be used or
available for such road.
Section 11. The supervisors or commis-
sioners of any township in any county of
the Commonwealth may petition the coun-
ty commissioners of said county to make
application to the State Highway Depart-
ment for the co-operation of the State in
the reconstruction or permanent improve-
ment of any principal highway within the
said towoship, or any section thereof which
is much used as a thoroughfare by the peo-
ple of said township and the neighboring
townships, cities and boroughs, agreeing
by resolution to assume, for said township,
the proportionate share of the expense of
said improvement; as hereinbefore provid-
ed. It shall he lawful for any township to
incur indebtedness or to issue bonds, in
the manner authorized by law, for the pay-
ment of the said township’s share of the
cost of any highway improvement under-
taken under the provisions of this act. If
within thirty days after the receipt of any
petition for highway improvement in any
township, under the provisions of this acs,
a petition, signed by the cwners of a ma-
jority of the assessed valuation of real
estate in said township, is received by the
county commissioners of the county in
which said township is located, protesting
against said proposed expenditure upon the
part of the township, then the county com-
missioners shall take no action on said peti-
tion for improvement, but shall return the
same to the supervisors Jr commissioners
from whom it was received. Upon the
receipt of a petition, signed by the owners
of a majority of the assessed valuation of
real estate in any townehip, requesting the
—
application by said township for the im-
provement of any highway in said town-
ship for the improvement of any highway
in said township according to the provi-
sions of this act, is shall be the duty of the
supervisors or commissioners of said town-
ship to petition the county commissioners
in the manner hereinbefore described.
Section 12. In case the county commis-
sioners of any county shall neglect or refuse
to act upon the petition of any township or
townships for highway improvement, as
herein provided, or shall refuse to petition the
State Highway Department for State aid in
such proposed improvement,after said town
ship or townships shall bave complied with
the conditions of this act in petitioning said
county commissioners, the supervisors or
commissioners of said township or town-
ships may, through their proper officers pe-
tition the court of quarter sessions of said
county for the appointment of a jury to ex-
amine into the necessity of said proposed
highway improvement; and upon the said
jury of view making a report favorable to
said improvement, and with the approval
of the court, it shall be the duty of, and
thecourt may by order require, the said
county commissioners to petition the said
State Highway Department for the co-oper-
ation of the State in the said proposed high
way improvement, in the manner herein
provided. Said jury of view to be appoint-
ed and compensated in the same manner,
and to have the same powers, as juries of
view for laying out or changing public
roads have by existing law.
Section 13. The supervisors or commis-
sioners of any adjacent townships, in the
same county, in which any portion of a
principal highway running into or through
said townships may lie, may by resolution
jointly petition the county commissioners
of their county to make application to the
State Highway Department for the co-oper-
ation of the State in repairing or rebuilding
said highway, as herein provided.
Section 14. Advertisements for propos-
als for the reconstruction or improvement
of highways under the provisions of this act
shall be given by the county commissioners
at least thirty days before the contracts
may be awarded, by public notice in at
least two newspapers of general circulation
in the county in which the highway to be
improved is located ; such advertisements to
designate where the plans and specifications
may be had, and the time and place of the
reception of bids and the letting of the con-
tract.
Section 15. Ten per centum of the
amount available for highway purposes,
under the provisions of this act, shall be set
aside for the purpose of maintenance of
highways, as hereinafter provided, and
shall be apportioned by the State Highway
Commissioner among the townships or coun
ties applying for the same, in proportion to
the mileage of improved highways made
under the provisions of this act, or which
bave already been made or may hereafter
be made, at the expense of such townships
or counties, and which are of the standard
prescribed by the State Highway Depart-
went for improved highways.
Section 16. Whenever the supervisors
or commissioners or any township or coun-
ty shall desire State aid for the purpose of
maintenance of improved highways, wheth-
er State highways improved under tbe pro-
visions of this act or otherwise, it shall be
the duty of said supervisors or commission-
ers to file with the State Highway Depart-
ment, on or before the first day of April in
each year a sworn petition requesting State
aid, and setting forth the number of miles
of highways improved according to the
standards of the State Highway Department
in said township, and the cost of .the same
to said township, together with the condi-
tion of said improved highways and the an-
nual cost of maintaining the same. The
State Commissioner of Highways, if in his
judgment the conditions warrant the co-op-
eration of the State in maintaining said
highways, shall proportion to said town-
ships its apportion of the total amount
available for the maintenance of improved
highways, as hereinbefore provided and the
said amount shall be paid to the supervis-
ors or commissioners of said townships by
warrant of the said State Highway Depart-
ment; but in no case shall the amount thus
given by the State for maintenance be
more than one-half of the amount which,
in the judgment and experience of the State
Highway Commissioner, the annual cost of
maintaining improved highways of the
standard of construction prevailing in such
township shall be, nor more than one-half
the sworn, average cost of maintenance, as
‘set forth in the petition of the supervisors
or commissioners of the said townships.
Section 17. All highways, or portions
of highways constructed or improved un-
der the provisions of this act, shall there-
after be known as ‘State Highways,” but,
so far as the same may be within the limits
of any township, shall be kept in repair, so
that they may be maintained at the stand-
ard of condition prescribed for highways of
their class by the State Highway Depart-
ment at the expense of said township; but
the supervisors or commissioners of any
township possessing improved highways
may ask for and receive State aid for the
maintenance of the same as hereinbefore
provided. It shall be the duty of the su-
pervisors or commissioners of every town-
ship in which said State Highways may lie,
to maintain the same generally at a reason-
able standard, prescribed for such roads by
the State Highway Department.
Section 18. The word ‘“highway’’ as
used in this act, shall be construed to in-
clude any existing causeway or bridge, or
any drain or water-course which may form
a part of a road, and which might properly
be built, according to existing laws, by the
township or townships; but shall not in-
clude causeways or bridges which should
properly be built by a county or counties,
or by the State.
Section 19. Where a portion of an im-
portant main highway, traversing one or
more townships, and for the improvement
of which according to the provisions of this
act application has been made by said
township or townships, shall lie within the
limits of any borough or boroughs, and
where the failare of said borongh or bor-
oughs to improve the said highway would
leave a break or unimproved section in a
continuous improved highway, it shall be
lawful for the county commissioners of the
county in which said highway is located, to
enter into an agreement with said borough
or boroughs to bear a portion of the ex-
pense of said improvement of the highway
within the borough limits, in thesame man
ner as is herein provided for co-operation
between the counties and townships; and
the State Highway Department, may, if
the State Commissioner so recommends,
bear a portion of the expense of said im-
provement of said highway within said bor-
ough limits, but in no case shall the por-
tion of said expense to be borne hy the
State exceed one-half of the total expense
of said improvement, and boroughs shall
only receive aid from the State as aforesaid
in cases where failure to receive such aid
would prevent a continuous improvement
of an important main highway, provision
for the rebuilding of which has been made
in the township or township adjoining #aid
borough or boroughs. All improvements
made in borough highways, as herein pro-
vided, shal! be of a character similar to
that specified for the township or townships
through which the highway to be improved
passes in reaching said borough and bor-
oughs and the plan and specifications for the
work shall be approved by the State High-
way Department; and the completed work
shall be approved by said department before
any warrant shall be issued for the State’s
share in such improvement, as herein pro-
vided. It shall be the duty of the proper
officers of said borough or boroughs, charg-
ed with the maintenance of the streets and
highways of said borough or boroughs to
keep and maintain said improved highway,
within the borough limits, in a condition
to conform to the standard established by
the State Highway Department for the
maintenance of similar highways.
Section 20. The Commonwealth of Pen-
nsylvania shall not be liable to any person
or corporation for damages arising from
the rebuilding or improvement of any high-
way under this act, nor shall the State en-
gage to keep such highway in repair after
the same shall have been rebuilt or im-
proved, except to extend the aid in main-
tenance herein provided. In case any per-
Son or persons, or corporations, shall sus-
tain damage by any change in grade, or by
the taking of land to alter the location of
any highway which may be improved
under this act, and the county commis-
sioner and the parties so injured cannot
agree on the amount of damages sustained,
such persons or corporations may present
their petition to the court of quarter ses-
sions for the appointment of viewers to as-
certain and assess such damage ; the pro-
ceedings upon which said petition and by
the viewers shall be governed by the laws
relating to the assessment of damages for
opening public highways, and such dam-
ages, when ascertained, shall be paid by
the respective counties, and afterwards
apportioned by the Commissioner of High-
ways, according to the provisions of section
seven,
Section 21. In addition to his other
duties, the State Highway Commissioner
shall cause to be made and kept for the
State Highway Department a general high-
way plan of the State, and compile statis-
tics and collect information relative to the
mileage, character and condition of the
highways in the townships and counties of
the State. He shall investigate and deter-
mine upon the various methods of road con-
struction best adapted to the various sec-
tions of the State; and establish standards
for the construction and maintenance of
highways in the various sections, taking
into consideration the topography of the
country, the natural conditions and the
character and availability of road-building
material, and the ability of the townships
and counties to build and maintain roads
under the provisions of this act. He may,
bt all reasonable times, be consulted Ly
county, city, borough or township officers
having authority over highways and
bridges, and shall, when requested, advise
and give information to such officers rela-
tive to the construction, repairing, altera-
tion and maintenance of the said highways
and bridges. He shall at all times lend
his aid in promoting improvement through-
out the State, and shall prepare and dis-
seminate useful information relative to road
building and improvement.
Section 22. County commissioners or
county engineers of the several counties of
this State, and the officers of all cities,
boroughs and townships in the State, who
now have, or may hereafter have by law,
authority over the public highways and
bridges, shall, upon the written request of
the State Highway Department, furnish
said Department with any information
relative to the mileage, cost of building,
and maintenance, condition and character
of the highways under their jurisdiction,
and with any other needful information
relating to the said highways.
Section 23. All highways improved un-
der the provisions of this act shall require
the construction of a macadamized road, or
a telford or other stone road, or a road
constructed of gravel, cinder, oyster-shells,
or other good materials, in such manner
that the same, of whatever material con-
structed, will, with reasonable repair
thereto, at all seasons of the yeai be firm,
smooth and convenient for travel. The
county commissioners shall have the au-
thority to select the kind of materials to be
used in improving any road under the pro-
visions of this act. Any difference of opin-
ion that many arise between the county
commissioners and the township road au-
thorities as to the kind of a road to be
built, shall be decided by the State High-
way Commissioner. The State Highway
Commissioner shall furnish to the county
commissioners and township road author-
ities information as to the probable cost of
improved highways, as defined in this sec-
tion.
Section 24. The sum of six millions
five hundred thousand dollars is hereby
appropriated to carry out the provisions of
this act during the next six years. Of this
sum, an amount not toexceed five hun-
dred thousand dollars shall be available in
the first year after the passage of this act,
not more than five hundred thousand dol-
lars shall be available in the second year,
one million two hundred and fifty thou-
sand ‘dollars in each of the two next follow-
ing years, and one million five hundred
thousand dollars in each of the two years
next following.
Section. 25 All acts or parts of acts
inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed :
Provided, Thai the provisions of this act
shall not be construed to repeal any of the
provisions of the road acts approved June
twenty-sixth, one thousand eight hundred
and ninety-five (Pamphlet laws, three
hundred and thirty-six), and June twenty-
three, one thousand eight hundred and
ninety-seven (Pamphlet laws, one hundred
and ninety four), and July ten, one thous-
and nine hundred one {Pamphlet laws,
six hundred and thirty-six). :
Approved—The 15th day of April, A. D.
1903.
SAML. W. PENNYPACKER.
The foregoing is a true and correct copy
of the act of the General Assembly No.
141.
FRANK M. FULLER.
Secretary of the Commmonwealth.
A Quaint Epitaph,
The following epitaph is from a mona-
ment in a cemetery in Newark, N. J.
Here lies the body of
John Black
Aged 46.
That cherry tree of luscious fruit,
Beguiled him up too high;
The branch did break and down he fell
And broke his neck and died.
Also three infant children.
——President Loree announced that the
Balsimore and Obio railroad bad authoriz-
ed the ordering of 100 or 150 new locomo-
tives, to. accommodate the transportation
demands.