Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-09-08
rs TO POPULATION.

ASTO POPULATION.
The Minneapolis papers are much ex-
ercised becaused the recently issued city
directories demonstrate that st. Paul is,
by many thousand, the most populous
city in the state. This is fact which
every one knows and recognizes, and which
every one not reeident of the sawdust
city readily comedies. The only point
which the Minneapolis papers have to fall
back upon is their bogus
U. S. census 1880. That
fraud was very forcibly punctured by the
GLOBE at the time. The st. Paul census
was taken by fool, and the Minneapolis
census by knave, and between the two
st. Paul suffered severely. The scoundrel-
ism of Charley johnson was duly exposed
by the GLOBE, and when wit
nesses and facts were fresh he was duly
denounced in language of the most libel
GUS character Gf false) and invited to
prove his cause in court. The GLOBE was
fortified with witnesses of his villany that
it could have compelled to testify if he
had only accommodated US with a libel
suit, but whose mouths were not publicly
opened. The refusal of Charley johnson
to take legal redress, was an open con-
fession of his guilt.
But Charley johnson was not alone in
his guilt. There was secret cabal in Min
neapolis, which held nightly meetings for
weeks prior to the conclusion of the count,
devising ways to perpetrate fraud sim
liar to that of st. Lonis in 1870. "Sw1ll-
barrel" Washburn contributed the pay
roll of the men at work on the Taylor
Falls branch and all those employed
upon the Minneapolis & st. Louis road
were duly counted. While this
kind of rascality was being perpetrated in
Minneapolis, the most arrant stupidity
was on deck in St. Paul. A hotel with
seventy-fve regular day boarders was
counted out" because the proprietor could
not give street and number where his
boarders lodged. A lady was
employed to take the census in one
of the toughest and most ignorant sections
of the city and stupidity which was fairly
ingenious was displayed in dwarfng the
actual population of st. Paul. By the stu
pidity here and the rascality there, COM
bined, Minneapolis scored triumphin the
official record of the United States CEN
sus, though there has never been moment
when the population of ST. Paul did not
exceed, by many thousand, that of Mime
apolis.
It is therefore characteristic effrontery
for the editorial liars on the Minneapolis
papers to haunt the brazen falsehood Of
1880, as evidence that the St Paul directory
of 1883 Showing fifteen or twenty thou
sand excess Of population over Minneap-
olis) is incorrect. While city directories are
never exact standards of population, they
afford basis for reasonably accurate COM
putation, and the st. Paul directory so
overwhelmingly shows the supremacy of
this city that the Minneapolitan squirms
over the exposure.
This is simply an instance of history re-
peating itself. There used to be a
rivalry as to size between st. Louis and
Chicago. In 1870 the q. s. census gave
st. Louis the lead very handsomely.
Chicago protested and by direc-
tory and school census claimed
the superiority, but st. Louis
complacently cited the official figures as
proof conclusive. In 1880 the official
figures were reversed and Chicago led st.
Louis by $4,000. 1t further transpirea
that st. Louis had perpetrated a fraud of
over 100000 In her count of 1870. The
fraud was squarely admitted ten
years after its preparation, and st. Louis
took second place, in disgrace for her
swindle.
We will not harrow the feelings of the
mad, sore and defeated Minneapolitans
by making the application. Outsiders,
however, can measure their bluster at its
worth, and at their home the vision of
Washburn's greasy darby and noisome swill
barrel in the procession, may bring happi-
ness where, otherwise, all would be
funereal.