Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-08-30

Sour Grapes. ta MEtt M
The population Of Cincinnati Is shown by
the census to be about 1900. Some of our
cotemporaries are disposed to feel bad about
il others take il as If ii was an affective dis
pensation, which il was great virtue to en-
dure without murmuring at Providence, or
At sbe cehsus MARSHALL. Il is slightly differ
ent from the quarter Of million which SOME
Of our public speakers have been accustomed
TO talk about, when they felt very metropol-
itan; butisit any calamity, or any evil, pub
lie or private The city has all the indus
trial activity, business, commerce. property,
houses and public institutions that it had
before the census; but instead of being di-
vided among 25o,ooo, or 225, 900, as our mod
crate men have estimated, they are all held
BY $4,000 That which would make l59, 900
people comfortable and comparatively
wealthy, might, If divided among 225, 900,
reduce all to poverty. What true Cincin-
NATHAN would take the property, industry,
business and prosperity of this city, and di-
vide il among horde of 81, 200 outside peo-
pie, to add them to our population2
The city had all these elements of pros
perity before the census. The census could
not increase nor diminish them. II could
only show how many people shared them
and the smaller the number the larger the
average share of wealth is to each: so that
the smaller the census returns, the greater
cause Of satisfaction and pride we have in
our condition and prosperity.
In none Of our estimates of social pro-
gress do numbers count; it is wealth that
counts, except at election time, and even
then wealth governs. A family with
stone-front house is regarded as more Of an
acquisition to society than whole block of
teeming tenements, with four families in
every room, and nine small children and
one at the breast in every family. But the
tenement block is the material to make CEN
sus returns of; yet our contemporaries who
would bow down and worship the stone
front, and who naturally regard all people
who live at the rate of more than one family
in room, as only ct to be 'sent up" talk as
il il was q sore affliction that our census
does not show a greater population.
The desire for great population in city or
country is one of the most unaccountable of
human wishes. The inhabitants of sparsely-
settled countries are always most comfort
able, innocent and happy. Among them
want Is almost unknown; but with density
Of population comes the difficulty of sub
sistence, the extremes of wealth and poverty,
the grinding Of labor under perpetually ac-
cumulating capital the narrowing of the
human affections by strife for selfpreserv-
alton, want, degradation, and crime. In
cities these evils are aggravated, until men
and women, rolling in luxury, become ca
lous to the fact that human beings in their
neighborhood die of starvation. That any
should wish to hasten the inevitable progress
of these evils, without any thing to gain by
il, merely 10 be able to talk of our metropolis
Of quarter of million, or our nation of
one hundred millions, is the strangest of hui
nan desires.
Thus we have demonstrated that in a ma
terial, and in humane view, small popu-
lstiou is blessing, and that we ought to be
devoutly thankful that our census is no
greater. Our city cotemporaries have ex-
hibted avery unreconciled spirit over this
enumeration, very much like that of Rachael,
when her desires to increase the census of
Jacobs family were not gratifed. From
their own complainings they will be able to
appreciate the sin Of David, in numbering
Israel, 70 which he was tempted by God, or
by the Devil-for the accounts in the books
Of Chronicles and of Kings directly differ as
to the. tempter-and for which Israel was
soreS punished. From this they win see
that grumbling at the census is one of the
most grievous sins, and requires to be atoned
for by repentance In sackcloth and ashes.