Litchfield enquirer., 1873-03-27
CENSUS STUDIEs..-l.

1Ae1c 10 ldScIHaGtOn or Figures as W6u as of Poetry or of Fiction. Not that mere addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, are interesting in themselves, but ill the results to which they lead. When they tell tine merchant whether he is business success or business failure; when they tell the househoIer whether his income can Of cannot meet his expenses when they tell the great corporation whether 1t is to live or die, the uncertain ty and the importance of the work arouse an excitement that make accurate footing hard work for the coolest head.
 The Census Is the balance sheet of the Nation, disclosing results of vast import ance, throwing light on problems that have long puzzled statesmen. and telling us all we can expect to know accurately of the condition and prospects, of the na- tion till another inventory is made and another balance struck, at the end of an- other ten years. When, therefore, a new census report comes out we know no more fascinating work than that of rambling over its tables, browsing" here and there Q conclusion from that rich confusion of facts presented even by the best tabula. ted volumes of statistics. Now and then we cipher out g satisfactory solution of problems that have long bothered us, and regarding which "able editors" have been guessing wildly for years. Oftener we get only glimpse of truth, mere approx imation to result, and one question sug- gests another so rapidly that the middle aged examiner becomes regardless of meals, and of hls natural rest, and grows mentally dissipated to an extent he has not known since his years of novel-read- ing immaturity. We shall not pretend that it is other than wicked, especially Tn the latter days of Lent. to indulge in Gen. sus Statistics to any such excess Still the enchanted days that follow the arri- val of a new volume of new census pro- duce their occasional grains of profit mix ed with the chaff of enjoyment. ..'.
 Such of the results of our desultory pencilings on the census as seem of. value we mean to present to our read CTS, warning them that our figures will appear in a dry and detached form, like those Beauties of Dickens, Thackery, or the immortal Crabbe, which ornament so many parlor tables safe from the soiling process of perusal. ..'.l tt T-.4
 YANKEES DECREASING? .-
 The primary work of the census is of course with population. The general re- suits, on this head, have been so long be- fore the public, and SO frequently com mented upon, that We pass over them to examine the Iong-vexed question of the increase or decrease of the Yankee race. Until the publication of the present cen- sus the facts were wanting that would show with any reasonable certainty %heth- CT the genuine old Yankees of Connecti- cut are gaining or losing in numbers. The volume before us furnishes the infor- nation we have so long wanted and We present the following facts which bring us to tolerably accurate if not very satis- factory results:
 In order to answer the question propos- ed we must first find from the census of '50, 50 and TO the number of natives of Connecticut living in this and other States of the Union. This information We find in the Compendium of the Census of 1850, p. IA; in the Census of 50 (population) p. 616; and at page BPS of the Census of TO. We must then ascertain (and here is the only difficulty of the computation the number of natives of Connecticut of foreign pa:;entags in- cluded in the foregoing estimates. The census of 1870 at page 3O5 enables us to obtain accurately the figures for that census. The best We can do for 50 and '60 is to adopt the estimate of the Con- pendium of 1850, page 119, which figures the increase of foreigners at half their to- tai number. This gives us 1900 as the natives of foreign percentage in Connecti- cut in 1850. The proportion must have increased to 60 per cent in 1860 making our natives of foreign descent 48,O in that year. We have. therefore, in the fol- lowing table the total number of natives of Connecticut living in other States, and of natives and "Yankee" natives living in this State, in the years 1850, 50, and 70, respectively:
 ''Yankee" Total
 Natives in Natives in Natives s!Yankee"