The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1873-05-21
roruLArIoNAL METERS.
Nebraska Increment ir Two Years, 0s,035 !
Total In 1879, 10i ,D2S. m
BY PROF. ]. D. RurLER

LINCOLN, 1873.
Hume speaks Of a Roman Emper.
or, who, wishing to learn something
about the population Of his metropo.
Iis, issued an edict requiring every
body to bring to his place all the cob
webs they could find. There were
enough TO prove Rome very large
city. When Arthur Young wished to
compare the different French depart.
ments, he could devise no better meth.
cd than to cut them out one by one
from map, aud then ascertain their
comparative weights in a scale.
One of the earliest modern exam.
pies of accurate enumeration through
out a wide country, was the United
States census of 1891. Each new de-
cade some now specifications have
been added to those before made, ,-i.
The prosperity Of State is new
measured, by all political economists,
by its populational growth. Hence
all States are prone to over-estimate
the rapidity Of their increase, and SO
at every census are mortified that
their number are proved so few. So
ehagrined were several cities in 1870,
that they paid for taking second
census in hopes to show that their in.
habitants had not been all included
IN the government returns.
The biennial census which was long
taken by the State of Iowa, furnished
to every Iowa editor an exhaustlcss
treasury of items-never in the way,
and never out of the way.
In the absence of an oft rereated
census, there is an infinity of un.
checked guessing and gassing, especial
Iy in new States where growth is
most wondered at, being a transition
from nothing to something.
Accordingly, on the Atlantic slope,
there is great distrust of all reports
concerning western progress, till they
are confirmed by an official census.
Ihe Nebraska superintendent of I'm
migration has estimated the influx in.
to that State at 10000 persons year.
his estimate has been much ridiculed
as wild exaggeration, Of a piece
with Yankee DCodle's reconning of the
continental host when his father and
he went down to camp.
"And there was Captain Washington
Upon astrapping stallion,
a giving orders to his men,
IgueSS there ,ras a milion."
But it can be proved mathemati.
cally, that Mr.. Ntteware's estimate is
very nearly correct. Thus in 1870.
the school children numbered 32,762,
and the population 122,993. But, in
1872 the school children had increased
to 5l,123. Therefore, as all those
scholars who have reached the Rule of
Three can demonstrate, the Nebraska
population in 1872 amounted to 191,-
92S, showing a gain of 6S,935 within
two years. aF-1l
The lists of school children, besides
showing the growth Of the State at
large, are meter Of local progress.
Look, for instance, along the main
line of the Burlington & Missouri
River Railroad. 1t runs through
eight counties. Adams, Case, Clay,
Fillmore, Kearney, Lancaster, Saline
and Saunders, Their school children
in 1870, we're 5,912, and their popula.
tion 23,247. In 1S72ttheir school
children had multiplied to 11,2lO,
therefore their population then can
not have been less than 44,079s.
Nebraska, at large, has been excep.
tlonally prosperous, for its population.
al'incremeHt in two years has been
56.04 per cent. But even this pei
centage falls far below that Of the
eight counties traversed by the b. &
NJ. railroad line. Their populational
advance between 1870 and 1872 ha.
been at the rate of 1916 per cent. In
the next two years their growth will
be still greater than in the last two
for half of them had no school chill
dren two years age, and Locomotives
net yet having traversed them all fol
more than four months, have but Jus
begun to put forth their magical in
huences in making solitLdes populous
Yet the railroad abeve mentioned
within thIrty-three months after put
ting its land in market, had sold 47S,
908 acres to 4, ,525 purchasers, on tel
years credit six per cent. interest, an,
on sales since 1872 nothing of tn
principal is payable till the end Q