The southern press., 1850-11-04


must DC hard run for wit and for fancy, when he
gets down SO low ms to make a false statement
that ne tnay Introduce worn ont Joke He i.
precisely the character described in the ccle
brated retort Of Sheridan: he stakes his f,ets
from his imagination and his Jokes from his
memory" did not cite the city of New YorH
alone, but The official returns of Massachusetts
showing the longevity of city empoymeuts IL
all her cities, The model cities Of The North. Anc
the returns Of Massachusetts were the mos
careful and exact Was not this course th,
most favorable to cities! Nor did | take, a.
Justice" says, the mortality of New York il
lS47 only, the year of ship fever and great NOR
taty, as he complains. aeoided thaI rery vea,
on mat rery account, and took the year IS4S
and SO The lecture says. Ii refers to the NOR
tality OF New York "Laa year" and the lecture
was delivered in l849. And the year 1913 was
much less mortal in New York than lS47, fol
the causes stated but the mortality was never
theless, as stated, over $4,000, or one person
in twenty-eght;" !" and IT, as also stated, "was
not a year of uncommon mortality" Preferred
to the mortality Of New York in 1886 and S47
to show that its excess was not due to foreign
Immigration, and to the latter year particularly
because IN that the proportion of immigrant
deaths WAS the greatest, thus taking great pains
to avoid any injustice to New York or to cit,
vitality. "Justice" also makes another blunder
instead OF exposing one of mine, when he says
"As proof Of the destruction of life in New
York, he cites further tho fact that there is q
much less proportion Of children than there
ought to be-" | said New York had $50 OO(
children less than her share" and stated the fac
: to show that such mortality MS hers, in popu
latlon unusually adult, indicated more mortalit
or sickness than in one having its natural pro
portion OF children, since the latter are usualll
! the most sickly ... 80
: "Justice" notices the citation made of NOR
taty in town and country employments in Mas
sachusetts, and refers, in all the emphasis OF
Italics, to the facts also shown by those tables
that Paupers in Massachusetts live longer than
farmers and hence, if longevity be conducive to
wealth, :" 1t ought to prove the paupers to be
rich" There is such thing as being too smart
The pauper in Massachusetts is Il slave. He is
worked under an overseer and gets u mere sub
sistence. Now if the cute assailants of Southern
slavery should be betrayed by their wit into the
proof, that even in Massachusetts and among the
white race, slavery is so much more comfortable
and wholesome than all 9th r pursuits, as to pro.
long human life to Il more reasonable old aye,
why Twill accept the argument and give them
credit for the wit-such us it is. | must how
ever, do "Justice" the justice to acquit him of
this conception He borrowed it from the la
borlous srrigbtlincss and exact ciphering of his
friend Musscy. The only exploit of "Justice"
in this case is that, for the sake Of appearing
with Il poor joke, and that borrowed he inno-
Gently supplied an argument that ruined his case.
1t has been objected do not give the mortality
of Southern cities. Why so-thc proportion of
Southern people in cities compared with North
ern is TOO small to affect the argument Gus
tlce derides the lecture for its facility in deter
mining the mortality of cities from few in
stances, and dogmatises himself into an opposite
conclusion without adducing one-telth part OF
the data furnished by the lecture. And that, too,
after telling the story of the English tourist and
y-innkeeper lie gives us, however, the
opinion of the 'writcr Of popular statistics" who
admits the country to be healthier than the
towns, but thinks sit appears larger than it really
is And having occupied so much room in
vaunting his knowledge and materials that he
has not "space" enough to exhibit them, he
cooly tells us, ~ is sufficient for our purpose to
state that the elaborate returns of the British
registrations are sufficient fully to refute all Mr..
Transactions" Now that is very selfsuffciem
mode OF retuting an adversary but, after what
We have seen of the great antipathy between the
assertions OF /" Justice" and his evidence, our
rei ders will not only excuse us for declining to
accept the statement Of Justice" as sufficient,
but also for showing that, as usual, it is destitute
OF foundation. The first report of the registrar
| general Of England was made early in 1889 for
the years lS37--3S. The report compares the
mortality Of the 80 Metropolitan unions with the
five counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Som
erset, and Witts-the population OF the Metropo-
lis being computed at l,79O,15l, on lst Octo-
Der, l837--that Of the counties l,723,770. The
mortality of the former was 2.l,959-of the latter
1920. The mortality of London exceeds the
rural counties "a per cent; that is, for every 100
persons who died in the latter l64 died in the
former. 1.-The second comparison is between
the districts Of Astor, Bath, Birmingham. Bristol
Cambridge, Carlisle, Clifton, Derby, Dudley,
Exeter Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester,
Maidstone, Newcastle on Tyne, Northampton,
Nottingham, Stafford, Sheffield, Soke-on-Trent,
Sunderland Wolverhampton, and West Derby,
embracing all tie princ'pa! toacns in The kingdom,
and the counties of Essex, Gloucester exclusive
of Bristol and Clifton), Hereford, Norfolk, (ex-
elusive Of Norwich), Suffolk, Sussex, and West
moreland." The population of the former was
l,762,7l0-of the latter l,776.98O. "The area
OF the cities was 617 square miles, with popu-
lation of 2,603 each mile; the area of the conn-
ties 1912 square miles, witha population of 90
to each square mile" In the cities, the mortality
was 22,994; in the counties, l4,473-that of the
cities being 5S per cent. the greatest-Journal
Stat. Society Of London, pp. 27l, 272.
In 1916, the registrar general compiled some
tables of mortality for the seven years of 1888
1874. According to these, the average annual
deaths in the Manchester town districts wes
nearly three and a half per cent, Liverpool three
and third, London two and half per cent
(McCulloch's Brit. Empire, vol. 2 p. 55l), show
ing a mortality in London nearly oue-third
greater than in the rural districts, and in the
other towns nearly double! In Manchester and
Liverpool the mortality is about that of New
York; i'll 80 annually. And be it remembered, |
that great cities possess more than their proper
tion of young adults, who flock thither for for
tune and employment, and among them the NOR
tality is not great as is the case both with the
younger and older classes. So much for the
of "all Mr.. F.'s assertions" from "the
elaborate returns of the British registrations"
which "Justice" had space enough TO declare, but
not space to show.
Both "Justice" and his friend Mussey make |
liuht of the effect Of n hirh rate of ,nort,Iity