forkintheroadquotes

[forkintheroadquotes]

The Gospel Trumpet, 1923

A fork in the road! How often they are a matter of profound perplexity! If you have ever traveled along a country road and have come to an unexpected fork in the road, seeing no sign-boards and knowing not which road to take, you know just how perplexing a fork in the road can be. Perhaps finally you turned onto the wrong road, and as a consequence you met with considerable difficulty in your travel and failed to reach your goal in the end. As soon as you discovered your mistake you said, of course, “O, I wish I had taken the other road.” And indeed you did wish you had.

How often we got to forks in the road; invisible forks they are, for we must decide on a course of conduct. Perhaps we hesitate, stand perplexed, and, oh, often many of us choose the road that leads us into trouble and far from the goal we fain would reach!

Let me tell you the story of two young men who at one time stood at a fork in the road. It may help you when you come to that same fork.

Fred Ortel and John Cappen and been boys together. The pealing of the church-bell that was wafted to the one was also heard by the other. The same Sunday school beckoned to both of the boys; the same sky smiled over them; and the same wind fanned their cheeks. They were happy boys, as most boys are, playing at marbles, baseball, and other boyish games. But there came a fork in the road.

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Appalachian Mountain Club, The AMC White Mountain Guide, 1920

Page 54: If a path is desired an old abandoned snow plow will be found at the side of the camp site by a fork in the road. Take the L. fork, which leads up an old snubbing road and rejoins the Bald Cap logging road where it crosses the stream able the fall. This rod, after it crosses the stream continues, with several branches, practically to the height of land and by crossing to the W. through this notch, Dream Lake will be found just over the divide. Page 55: For Gentian Pond take the R. road at the camp site mentioned above and pass through the full length of the clearing. A short distance beyond cross a diagonal road, keeping straight head. At a fork in the road keep to the R. near Mill Brook. Soon roads lead off to the R. down to the stream. Avoid these and pass around the L. of a knoll with a scant growth of spruce. The road now passes over flat ledges and through an area with much old corduroy (one long stretch of which is laid across the bed of Gentian Pond Brook), then heads directly for the high spruce covered legs of Bald Cap Dome through a growth of alder. A group of badly ruined camps will soon be reached. At this clearing turn a right angle to the L. and blazes will be found marking the path which leads through thick growth up the old log run to Gentian Pond. Page 56: At a fork in the road avoid the one which goes straight ahead, turn a right angle to R. and head for the stream again. (Avoid a R. fork which follows near the brook but soon joins the road.) Soon Leighton’s Lumber Camps are passed at the L. and the way leads straight ahead. At the branching of the roads keep to the R., and at all turns on the W. bank of Ingalls River. Page 65: From the Little hale place follow the main logging road which leads up the W. bank of Bull Branch. At about 1 1/2 m., immediately after passing a log dam on the R. and before fording Goose Eye Brook, turn to the L. on a login road which leads up into the valley of Goose Eye Brook. The road soon crosses it on a corduroy bridge to the N. bank which it follows for some distance and then returns to the S. bank. At the next fork in the road some distance beyond, keep to the L. as the R. fork crosses the stream to a lumber camp. The L. road becomes rather obscure, crossing and recrossing the brook and finally leading into the floor of the east ravine… As the road ends, strike directly up the N.W. wall of the raven to the saddle or ridge connection the east and north peaks, whence the Mahoosuc Range Trail may be followed to the L. to the E. peak and thence to the summit. The climb by this route is steep but with a minimum of scrub. Water will be found well up toward the saddle. Page 252: Distances. Intervals, via foot bridge, to Lucy Farm 1 1/2 m.; to fork in the road 2 1/4 m.; to summit 3 m. North Conway to fork in the road 2 m. Bartlett to fork in the road 9 1/2 m. Times. Intervals, via foot bridge, to Lucy Farm 35 min.; to fork in the road 45 min.; to summit 2 hrs. North Conway to fork in the road 45 min. Bartlett to fork in the road 3 1/2 hours. Page 399: 3. From Glendale Station. Follow the main highway W. 3/4 m. to a fork in the road, whence bear to the L. on the Gilford road. Inquire for Potter farm. From Glendale to Potter farm 1 hr. From Potter farm follow a wood road opening from the highway on the L. just S. of the farmhouse. This leads to Pasture Hill and follows S. toward Gunstock Mountain, ascending the latter through woods. Thence th route is by cairn line to Mt. Belknap in reverse of the route from Spring Haven. This is a roundabout route, little used and not easy to follow.

[forkintheroadquotes]

Simpson, The Sabbath Recorder: Forks in the Road, 1917

One day I was driving through a strange country when I came to a fork in the road. Which way should I take? Well, I took the road to the left. On and on I drove, and after a while I began to think that I was on the wrong road. So I inquired of the next person I met: “Is this the way to B—?” “No,” said the man, “you should have turned to the right back yonder at the fork in the road.” So I turned around and drove back to the fork in the road. Right there it seemed to make very little difference which road one should take. Both roads run side by side not far apart for quite a long distance. After that they separate and lead farther and farther away. On the highway of life there are many forks in the road. AT many of these places it may seem to make very little difference which way one goes. But the roads lead farther and farther away. Always keep to the “right.” At one of the forks in the road the left leads to bad habits, evil companions, bad living; the right leads to good companions, good habits, good living. The guidepost says: “Walk not thou in the way of evil men” (Proverbs 4:14). The principal fork in the road is one at which one chooses whether he will follow Jesus or not. It is important at that place to “keep to the right.” Of course, Jesus did not have a pleasant path all the way. But his way is right, and it is the only one leading to the place to which we all wish to go. When the disciple Thomas inquired the way, Jesus said, ��I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Text: “Show my thy ways, O Jehovah; teach me thy paths” (Psalm 25:4).

[forkintheroadquotes]

Edwin Monroe Bacon, Walks and Rides in the Country Round about Boston, 1898

A short distance beyond we come to a fork in the road, Bedford Street, at the right, going direct to Concord centre, the old road bending to the left, and going on to Merriam's Corner, there joining the Lexington Road. From this fork, according to the guidepost, it is one mile and a quarter to Concord centre by Bedford Street, five miles to Lexington by way of the old road, and three miles back to Bedford; and Merriam’s Corner is a little less than a mile off. Keeping to the old road, our pleasant walk continues. The next fork is at the junction with the ancient “Virginia Road,” where the heavy granite guide-post, looking like a formal monument as we approach it, informs us in big lettering that we are a mile farther from Bedford, and eight miles from Billerica. Now our road bears to the right, and by a long sweep shortly reaches the historic corner. As we approach we have a full view over “the Great Fields,” on the right, and of the back side of the mile-long ridge around which, by a bridge path through the woods on this side, the Concord and other minute-men hurried to harass the British on the retreat by the main road on the front side. The old house back from the corner and close to the Bedford roadside, is the Merriam house, which witnessed the fight. As we turn into the Lexington Road we observe, set in the stone wall, the tablet marking Merriam's Corner,-a boulder, thus inscribed : Merriam's Corner. The British troops retreating from the Old North Bridge were here attacked in flank by the men of Concord and neighboring towns and driven under a hot fire to Charlestown.

[forkintheroadquotes]

The Virginias: A Mining, Industrial and Scientific Journal, 1885

The pike crosses the Elk Garden anticlinal at a few rods east from the large brick house belonging to Mrs. Smith. The exposures are somewhat indefinite in much of Elk Garden, as the beautiful region eroded by Cedar creek is termed, and there may be more than one crest to the anticlinal as there are both east and west from this place. The disintegrated clayey material, carrying chert and occasionally brown hematite, prevails along the pike until very near the fork of the road leading to Saltville, so that details of structure cannot well be obtained. But on the Saltville road, near Mr. W.A. Stuart’s house, the south-easterly dip is pronounced though comparatively gentle, being only 15°. It becomes undulating just beyond the next fork in the road, and for some distance the rocks are badly twisted. The Loop anticlinal, very well defined, is crossed within a little way north from the road leading to Saltville by way of Rich mountain.

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Commercial Car Journal, 1917

Passing a car at a fork in the road. If the car ahead shows that it is going to take the left fork, it is allowable to pass on its right, if one desires to take the right fork, as in Fig. 2.

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John James Stevenson, Report of Progress in the Greene and Washington District of the Bituminous Coal-Fields of Western Pennsylvania, 1876

Page 99: No other openings were found in this portion of the township. On the Davistown road near the Greene township line, the hills rise nearly 300 feet above the Waynesburg, but without affording any exposures. The Waynesburg “A” is not exposed in this interval indeed it was not seen in this portion of the township. As one approaches Davistown, descending the east fork of Meadow run, he sees at the first fork in the road above that village, a slight blossom which probably belongs to this coal. That is the most south-easterly exposure of the bed. At Davistown the Waynesburg is mined somewhat extensively for local use, and the following sections were obtained at the opening back of the steam mill… Page 126: At one time the Waynesburg was mined here by Mr. W. Flenniken, but the opening has been deserted and no definite information can be secured respecting the coal. Following up the creek; the Uniontown Coal is exposed earn the first fork in the road, where it rests as usual upon a bright ferruginous limestone and is about three feet thick. AS far as one may judge from the blossom alone, it seems to be coal of fair quality, but no openings have been made upon it to test its value. In the immediate vicinity, the Waynesburg is seen in the hill at 95 feet above the Uniontown, and three-fourths of a mile north at the forks in the road. The Waynesburg “a” is shown apparently two feet thick. Page 150: At the first fork in the road ascending this run, limestones V and VI are exposed in a little bluff at twenty-two feet apart. The former is course and breciated on top, but the lower layer is probably good enough to make a strong lime. The Upper Washington limestone, VI, shows the characteristic snow-white surface and the flesh-colored interior. It is seen in the bed of the east fork at the road-crossing, half a mile father up. At the head of this stream the road is 620 feet above the Waynesburg Coal. Page 151: The total interval between Limestone V and the Washington Coal, as ascertained on the hill opposite Waynesburg, is not far from 240 feet. At Waynesburg, Limestone III is thirty feet above the coal, and at the upper part of the village is the interval between that limestone and V is found, by direct measurement, to be 200 feet. At the first fork in the road west from the village, the Upper Limestone V is seen in the hill, with the Jolleytown Coal below it. The same coal is exposed for nearly 200 years in the road east from Hill’s schoolhouse, and is there seen to be 30 feet below Limestone V. At the schoolhouse the limestone is in the road, and at two-thirds of a mile farther up limestones VI and VII are well exposed. Page 155: About half a mile above Rogersville, where the two forks, Gray’s and M’Courtney’s, unite, limestone V is fifty feet above the road. On Hargus’ creek, which enters M’Courtney’s fork less than half a mile above this point, the fall of the stream is greater than the rise of the rocks, so that at the fork in the road near Hopkins’ mill limestone V is barely twenty feet above the road. Thence to the schoolhouse the shale underlying that limestone is constantly in sight. It has a good deal of iron ore, which, if collected so as to be within a vertical range of three feet would no doubt be of some value, but distributed as it is throughout twelve or fifteen feet of shale it is practically worthless. At the schoolhouse limestone VI is in the road. Page 157: Along this creek limestone VII is first seen near the second fork in the road, and remains above the road to just above Wood’s mill. It is in three layers separated by thin shales, in all thirty inches thick. The rock is dark blue, somewhat laminated and contains much earthy matter. Four feet below it is a layer of blueish limestone eight inches thick, weathering very white and bearing much resemblance to the upper layer of VI. Between Vi and VII only sandy shale is seen. Near Wood’s mill there is a calcareous shale at thirty feet above VII, which may represent limestone VIII. From this locality to the township line only shales and sandstones are exposed in the roads, and the hill-sides are so deeply buried under debris that everything is concealed. Page 193: From the summit at the head of Hunter’s Fork to the base of the hill at the first fork in the road the following succession is seen… Page 194: Turning off here and taking the road leading by the steam sawmill to Pleasant Grove, a limestone four feet thick is seen at the first fork in the road. Below this the exposures are incomplete, but give some information respecting the succession of the limestones as follows…. Page 195: This brings the section down to the fork in the road below the sawmill. No. 1 is the limestone referred to as two hundred and thirty feet above VI. In this it is 240 feet. The exposure of it is imperfect, only such as may be seen in a road cutting made many years ago. The rock is dark and very coarse. At the base of No. 2 there are dark shales resting on No. 3, which is a hard, flinty limestone, dark on the fresh surface but weathering dull yellowish white. Nothing could be ascertained respecting the coarse fragmentary Limestone No. 5, but it probably belongs higher up than the level at which the fragments were found, and may represent Limestone X, which if present should be somewhere in the interval four to six. Page 226: Coming down from the hill back of Mr. Patterson’s to the fork in the road at Mr. Rainey’s the following section was seen…. Page 234: The coal of the lower division is good and resembles that from the works already mentioned. The diminution of the roof and the main clay parting is a little curious. Following up the road past these openings, no good exposure is seen though a vast amount of limestone in fragments is strewn over the road. Where this intersects the Ridge road, a coal blossom is shown immediately overlying a yellow limestone and 230 feet above the Pittsburg coal where last seen. This blossom is that of the Uniontown Coal. At a little way north from this fork in the road, a knob rises nearly 100 feet higher and should catch the Waynesburg, but no evidence of any coal was found on it. Northwest from this point along the ridge for nearly two miles, the Uniontown Coal and its associated limestone are frequently seen. Page 237: Limestone VI exhibits its usual character, weathering almost snow-white with a slight tinge of blue. The surface of fresh fracture varies in different portions of the bed, from black to nearly white. Limestone No. 4 is very coarse, somewhat breciated and ferruginous, and the weathered surface is lamellar. The Jolleytown coal is thin. At the fork in the road, nearly a mile from the township line, Limestone IV is in the roadside, showing its characteristic bright yellow color. Turning off southward here, the following succession is seen in the road and ends at the township line below Mr. D. Quail’s house…. Page 239: On a little tributary to the North fork of Chartiers creek flowing southeast along the southern border of the township, the Waynesburg “a” is seen near the steam sawmill. One-third of a mile north the Upper Washington limestone is exposed at the forks in the road, the total interval between it and the coal being 230 feet. The blossom of the Washington Coal is seen brew teen the two points at 160 feet below the limestone. Page 241: On the old Pittsburg road, the Washington Coal continues in view to the first fork in the road. Beyond that, about halfway to Ewing’s station, the road crosses a high shill on whose northern side the following section occurs…. Page 291: Between Buffalo village and the first fork in the road northwest, the Washington, Waynesburg “an” and Waynesburg are exposed, and the interval between the first and last is only 90 feet. The Waynesburg is well shown at the fork, but no opening has been made to determine its thickness or quality. Immediately southeast from the village Mr. S. Work formerly mined the Washington to supply the steam mill with fuel. The Waynesburg “a” is there seen at 40 feet below that bed and underlying Limestone I, which is 10 feet thick. The coal is at least two feet. Two-thirds of a mile west of north from Buffalo village, on land belonging to Mr. Maxwell, the Washington was once opened, but the opening has been abandoned. Half a mile northwest from this locality, the following section was seen near Mr. T. M’Keever’s residence… Page 292: Only No. 7 is mined. The quality here is the same with that at the openings belonging to Messrs. Smith, Morgan and Jones in the vicinity. Some of the coal is good, but the greater part is very bad. Still the farmers who have opened it, prefer burning it to hauling the Pittsburg Coal four or rive miles for, as they say, it burns well enough if enough of it can be got together. This condition requires the construction of large grates. At 97 feet below this opening on Mr. Hagerty’s place, the Waynesburg is seen in the bluff and dark bituminous shale is exposed at 18 feet lower. The Waynesburg is only eight inches thick. The rocks dip east to Bryson’s store, where the direction is changed, and thence they rise. At the second fork in the road above the store the Waynesburg is seen associated as follows….

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Lucius Manilas Sargent, The Life-Preserver as a Medicine: The Prophets, Where are They?, 1839

They had arrived at a fork in the road, which necessarily led apart to their respective dwellings; and the parties accordingly separated, in no very amiable humor toward each other. — “What an insufferable old fool,” said the major to his better half, when they had advanced a few rods upon their way, “to suppose I would consent to drink his vile homemade stuff! It’s strong enough, however, to fuddle a commodore. I’ve seen the old fellow as boozy as a hum-top, more than fifty times, upon his own abominable brewing. Mark my word, that man will be a downright sot before he dies. The habit has been growing upon him for four or five years, very evidently. He seems to think the brandy can do him no harm, because he makes it himself, under his own roof. What an egregious idiot! He takes it clear, or in water as grog, the very thing the pledge is directed against; and, because it is not foreign spirit, he appears to believe himself a consistent member of the temperance society. If he proceeds in this way, his conduct ought to be taken notice of in some way or other. Sooner or latter, he’ll die a sot; you see if I am a false prophet, Mrs. Marquee.

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United States, The Congressional Globe, 1826

The gentleman from Virginia has told us that he considers the political principle involved in this bill as so completely heretical, that those who vote for it will, by that very act, have separated themselves from him “by a gulf, broad, deep, and impassable.” Sir, it is not for me to dictate to that gentleman, either as to the principles he shall support, or the political associations he shall form. I know that on such subjects he always thinks and acts for himself. But, for my own part, I will declare that I know no rule of right but the convictions of my own understanding, and the unbiased dictates of my own heart. To whatever road these may point, there will I travel. Nor shall I be deterred from following these faithful guides by any consequences whatsoever. Sir, on this subject permit me to say to the gentleman from Virginia, that I shall always be happy in my journey through life to meet with much a companion as himself, and to travel with him as far as possible, confident that while in his company I shall be enlivened by his wit, instructed by his knowledge, and, most of all, that I shall have a companion who will never desert me amidst the dangers of the way; but when we come to that fork in the road, (which he there other day described,) if the right hand path should lead to that gentleman’s house, and the left to my house, and if my duties call me there, and the gentleman will not consent to go with me, there we must part — I hope it will be in peace — but I repeat there we must part, though it should be to meet no more in our weary pilgrimage through life.

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James W.C. Pennington, The Fugitive Blacksmith, 1819

At a venture I struck an angle northward of the road. After several hours of laborious travel, dragging through ?, through running vines, I emerged from the ? myself wading marshy ground and over ditches. I can form no correct idea of the distance I travelled, but I came to a road, I should think about three o’clock in the morning. It so happened that I came out near where there was a fork in the road of three prongs. Now arose a serious query — which is the right prong for me? I was reminded by the circumstance of a superstitious proverb among the slaves, that “the left-hand turning was unlucky,” but as I had never been in the habit of placing faith in this or any similar superstition, I am not aware that it had the least weight upon my mind, as I had the same difficulty with reference to the right-hand turning. After a few moments parley with myself, I took the central prong of the road and pushed on with all my speed.

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Richard Macnemar, The Kentucky Revival, 1808

This fork is in the road, he was told represented that stage of life in which people were convicted of sin, and those who took the right hand way quite everything that was wicked and became good. But the left hand road was for such as would go on and be bad, after they were shown the right way. They all move slow till they come here, but when they pass the fork to the left, then they go swift. On the left hand way he saw three houses — from the first and second were pathways that led across into the right hand road, but no way leading from the third: This said he, is Eternity. He saw vast crowds going swift along the left hand road, and great multitudes in each of the houses, under different degrees of judgment and misery. He mentioned particularly the punishment of the drunkard. — One presented him a cup of liquor resembling melted lead, if he refused to drink it he would urge him, saying, come, drink — you used to love whisky. — And upon drinking it his bowels were seized with an exquisite burning. This draught he had often to repeat. At the last house their torment appeared inexpressible, under which he heard them scream, cry pitifully, and roar like the falls of a river. He was afterwards (said the interpreter) taken along the right hand way, which was all interspersed with flowers of delicious smell, and showed a house at the end of it where was everything beautiful, sweet and pleasant, and still went on learning more and more; but in his first vision he saw nothing but the state of the wicked, from which the Great Spirit told him to go and warn his people of their danger, and call upon them to put away their sins and be good.