Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1881-05-14
WASHINGTON LETTER.
from our Regular Correspondent.

The indications are that we shall
presently know all about the Ameri-
can citizen-numerically, geograph-
ically, phisiologically, 6nacially and
morally. If we do not, it will not
be the fault of the tenth census.
Statistically he has been 81 ttingr
his photograph, and we have him
viewed from every part of the coun-
try, and classified according to race,
sex, age, color, religion and family
relations. Never before has this
country been so inundated with in
formation about itself as it will be
when this remarkable piece of liter
allure goes to press. Every now and
then bulletin is issued from the
census bureau giving a glimpse of
some branch of the work, and we
are made to comprehend in some de-
gree the vastness of the coming ar
rays Of figures. There is something
so grandly imposing about them that
it is well for us perhaps that we are
getting them in sections. In spite
Of the well proved fact that figures
can and do lie, and that when they
lie it is with an audacity and I'M
blushing falsehood which mere words
can never attain, the tradition that
they cannot lie clings to them with
the tenacity of superstition.
The census will be like one of
those valuable books now and then
set adrift on the wide, black tide of
printers ink, labelled ga Thousand
and One Things Worth Knowing.n
We shall find the superfuous woman
neatly tabulated, and ascertain in
which great drainage basin' of the
United States lies the most dense
population besides learning all about
acreage, taxes, bonded Indebtedness,
and the "relation of sexes" All
this will be more or less interesting
according to the mental constitution
of the reader, though as a rule re-
ports of wealth, debt, and taxa
tion," unless it be our own, do not
possess the most absorbing interest.
But when we come to statement of
the distribution of the population
in elevation above sea-level," or
narration of the facts above stem
perature and population" we feel
that we have fallen upon that which
vitality concerns all of us.
The bulletin giving a summary of
the work performed under the direc-
ton of Prof. Gannet, the geograph-
er of the census, is among those
lately issued. The purpose of it was
to show the relations of temperature
and population. The tables indicate.
in brief, the greatest percentage of
gains in population since 1870 is
found in the extreme temperatures,
north and south, though the largest
absolute gains are of course in the
regions ranging from so to SO degrees
mean annual temperature. The
sections having a temperature above
SO degrees contain the entire cotton
region; those above 20 degrees, the
sugar and rice regions; while be-
tween so degrees and so degrees is
comprised most of the tobacco re-
gion. The prairie region of the Mis-
sissippi Valley lies almost entirely
below 55 degrees, while the great
wheat region of Minnesota and Da-
kota is mainly below AZ degrees of
mean annual temperature. The
hottest part of the country is.natur-
ally, the southern end of Florida.
while Southern Texas and South
western Arizona come next in de-
gree of temperature.
Next we come to the question of
attitudes. In that thin old geog-
raphy which was the dream book of
our youth that little phrase, "the
level of the laid violent hands up
on our imagination, and now that it
rises up again among the statistics
OF the tenth census we see the peo-
pie of the United States ranged in
tiers like circus audience. The
American citizen idealiZed and av-
eraged is about seven hundred feet
high. While his feet are planted in
the swampy, alluyial sections of the
South, his head looms pin the Cor
dilleran region. To cut it short,
nearly one-fifth of the population
live below one hundred feet; more
than three-fourths below one thous-
and feet, while nine-seventh per
cent live below two thousand feet
above the sea level. The people in
the lowest tier are engaged in man
ufacturing and the culture of rice,
cotton and sugar. Next above them
come the grain producers and farm
ers, while the aspiring population,
which cannot be content with any
thing lees than six thousand feet ,oc-
cupies itself almost exclusively with
mining. Upward as we'll as