Tales of the Long BowChesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
General
Tales of the Long Bow
Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
English fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, English
“For instance, it is a recognized military maxim that armies depend
upon roads. But anyone who had noticed the conditions that were
already beginning to appear in the London streets as early as 1924
will understand that a road was something less simple and static
than the Romans imagined. The Government had adopted everywhere in
their road-making the well-known material familiar to us all from the
advertisements by the name of ‘Nobumpo,’ thereby both insuring the
comfort of travellers and rewarding a faithful supporter by placing
a large order with Mr. Hugg. As several members of the Government
themselves held shares in ‘Nobumpo’ their enthusiastic co-operation
in the public work was assured. But, as has no doubt been observed
everywhere, it is one of the many advantages of ‘Nobumpo,’ as
preserving that freshness of surface so agreeable to the pedestrian,
that the whole material can be (and is) taken up and renewed every
three months, for the comfort of travellers and the profit and
encouragement of trade. It so happened that at the precise moment
of the outbreak of hostilities all the country roads, especially in
the west, were as completely out of use as if they had been the main
thoroughfares of London. This in itself tended to equalize the chances
or even to increase them in favour of a guerilla force, such as that
which had disappeared into the woods and was everywhere moving under
the cover of the trees. Under modern conditions, it was found that by
carefully avoiding roads, it was still more or less possible to move
from place to place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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