Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-04-11

"An inhabitant of the place (Horshsm)
lately living, remembers when boy to
have heard from person whose father car
ried on the business of butcher in that
town, that in his time the only means of
reaching the Metropolis was either by 60
ing on foot or riding on horseback, the lat
ter of which undertaking was not prGcticG.
Die at all periods of the year, nor in every
state of weather-that the roads were not
at any time in such condition as to admit
of sheep or cattle being driven upon them
to The London markets, and that for this
reason the farmers were prevented sending
thither the produce of their land, the imme-
date neighborhood being in fact their only
market. Under these circumstances a
quarter of a fat OK was commonly sold for
about Is shilliDgs."
The London Quarterly Reriea0 for Janu-
airy, 1873, says that HOrsham, the scene of
this occurrence, is only SO miles from Lon
don. At another small town not much
further from the Metropolis, good mutton
was sold at five farthings pound (28
eents) when there was famine in the
great city. 1t is almost inconceivable
how even narrow lanes could be so bad that
one could not drive few fat sheep, cattle
or hogs through them to feed a starving
city only fifty miles distant. Evidently,
starvation was the restriction on the growth
of London. With steam on al oceans, and
steel rails laid over AID across several con-
tinents, and engines hauling any quantity
of grain and provisions to seaports, can this
restraint on the increase Of population in
London occur in the next hundred years ?
We think not; and if not, what is likely to
be its growth? While its population has
augmented seven fold in a century, its CAPT
tai has increased in a much larger ratio.
Now, London has excellent railways under
ground as well as above ground; and bust
ness men by the ten thousand, live with
their families from twenty to sixty miles
from their offices, shops, and warehouses.
Assuming that children will be born for
the next hundred years very much as they
have been from time immemorial, London
will increase its present population seven
fold in about century, and contain twenty
four million five hundred thousand inhabi-
tants.
What will the London of America do in
ten decades, judged by its growth since
the first United States census in 1870? So
many business men, including mechanics
and day laborers, working in New York
live in Brooklyn and Jersey City and be-
yond, that we regard it as fair and proper
to include these cities as parts Ct one metro
polls. In 1870 New York had 942, 292 peo-
pie; Brooklyn 10000; Jersey City s2,546.
Their aggregate population three years ago
was l,418,997. Incredible as it may seem,
the county of New York, which was prob
ably larger in 1870 than it now is, returned
at that time only 1881 inhabitants. An
increase to million and half in eighty
three years is doing something in the way
of city building on our side of the Atlantic.
What will Young America do IN one humid
red years more? We will not assume that
New York will grow for the next seventy
five years in the ratio it has for the last
seventy-fve; but it is safe to say that its
gain in population will be equal to that of
the nation in the past. If SO, its million
and half Of souls will number three mil
lion in twenty-five years; six million in
fifty years; twelve million in seventy-five
years; and twenty-four million in one
hundred years. 1t is more than probable
New York and its suburbs will contain
more inhabitants than London in century.
New York is some 5000 miles nearer
the industrial resources of continent of
whose value the three hundred million peo-
pie in civilized Europe have no proper con-
ural, when not one man in ten thousand of
our best citizens has ever studied the facts
that lie hid behind oCr having been able to
raise cotton at a cents pound, and corn
so plentifully as to burn for frewood. The
comparatively defective climate of Europe
will never permit agricultural phenomena
of this character. Nor is it at all likely
that our Sea Island cotton and maize will
ever be equaled in Asia or Africa.
When such baby cities as Chicago are
nursed in the lap of plenty, with forty
seven million bushels of corn, and three
and half million fat hogs year, with
wheat and fat cattle in proportion, how can
they help growing, both by rapid addition
from without, and By multiplication with
in? Constructing cities and burning them
has become very comm On amusement for
Americans.