, 1885-04-17
GREAT CITIES.
THEIR GROWTH AND PROGRESS IN
THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW.
London-Paris New York brooklyn -
PhiIadelphia Berlin - vienna-con-
stantinopIe-st- Pctersburg-The
Advance of.Popu1ation-


London stands easily at the head OF all
modern cities, yet IL has added five times
US much to It's population during the present
century as it did during the previous 1000
years There is a difficulty about stating
the exact population Of London, because
highlands metropolis Is not a city in the or
binary sense, but AN aggregation Of towns,
an ever spreading overgrown aggregate Of
houses and streets. which Is constantly in
vading new territory and covering it with
buildings. Thus tho old city Of London has
at tho last census but 90, sec inhabitants.
London, within the registrar generals tables
OF mortality, had 3,Si4.57l people; the Lon
don school board district had 3.S32, AL poo
pie, while the London OF the metropolitan and
city police districts had 4,76I, $40 inhabit-
ants, nearly as many as tho whole
state OF New York The latter figure may
be taken as tho proper population of Lon
don, regarded as u community. Its increase
during the previous ten years was $4,000, or
at the rate OF 90 per cent.
IL Is easy to figure up what the c%ontinu-
ance Of such n rate OF increase would finally
lead to. 1t would give London at the next
census nearly 6,000. 600 Of inhabitants, and at
the next succeeding one Z, ESQ, 900. OF course
this rate OF increase may not be maintained.
but that is a matter in which no ona can
speak with certainty. When London had
- NINN'f0Nt wei OAo nNAa NlAAN
this wonderful growth must soon stop; but
since then London has been growing faster
than ever and with the vigor OF a young
western town. There, IL any where, will be
solved the problem as to how many people
can exist in one great city.
Paris, once well abreast OF London in popu-
lation, now takes second place, and will
have 10 go down to third before many de-
cades- Its population at the last census
was 2,26o.000, il having increased about
$4,000 during the previous twenty years.
Its rate of increase is therefore compare
lively slow, and as the population of France
is nearly stationary, II must be slow in the
future.
New York is now the third of the great
cities Of tho world, leaving out of considera-
tons the cities Of China, Of whose popula-
ton there is no reliable enumeration. The
position of New York as the mart OF u vast
continent is unequaled, but the narrowness
OF Manhattan island and the inferior facili-
ties for rapid transit prior 10
the era Of elevated railways have
been against it. Its population Of
1,20J.0 900 at the last census should have grown
TO 1880 600 at the next census, and to O.
100000 at the succeeding one. II the popu-
lation OF New York was reckoned on the
same basis az that Of London it would take
in Brooklyn, jersey City and a number Of
small adjacent towns, with a united popu-
lntion OF the last census of $3.50, 0O0. The
aggregated community thus indicated is
growing at tue rate Of 30 per cent. every ten
years, so that the total population gathered
here at the next census will DO nearly 3,O0O,-
600, and at the following census nearly
1000, 900. The population OF Brooklyn is in
creasing more rapidly than that OF New
York, Its increase being at the rate OF 80 per
cent between 1860 and 1870, and 43 per cent.
between 1870 and 1880, against II and % per
cent for the same decades In New York. OF
course, If these relative rates Of increase
should be maintained 1t would only be a
question Of time when Brooklyn would be
the larger city of the two.
Following New York the great cities of
the world that ave a population OF more
than 1000, coo % Berlin, l,122, 900; Vienna.
], lOS, 600, and Co~nstantinople, 1,075, 900.
The capital OF Russia has only s76, 900, and
the other European capitals not already
mentioned will fall much below that figure.
No doubt, St. Petersburg will before the
next census, have passed the / ,000, 900 limit
and become entitlsd to rank as one Of the
great cities Of the world.
OF cities which rank as second in their re-
spective countries the greatest is Philadel-
phia, with s47. 900 inhabitants at the last
census, and which will probably reach 1,O6O,-
wv ht tns next enumeration Inc united
States will then be the only country in the
world with two cities OF more than 1000
600 inhabitants, and by the succeeding con-
sns Brooklyn will be added to the list TO
form n third, and Chicago also probably TO
form a fourth. BY that time, however,
Moscow will have pa ssed the l 1000, 00O limit
and also Glasgow and possibly Liverpool.
At the last census there were in Great
Britain and ireland twenty-seven cities and
towns with upward Of 100000 inhabitants,
an increase of seven over the number ut tho
previous census. In the United States
there were at the last census eighteen cities
and towns with upward Of 100, 900 inhabi-
tants, an increase OF four over the previous
census. No other country in Europe had so
many cities of that size as we can show;
Germany had fourteen, France ten, Aus
tria- Hungary five, and Russia nine. British
India has eighteen cities with 10000 inhabi-
tants and upward. 1t is certainly remarka-
bic that this young republic should be in
advance Of such countries as France, Ger
many and Austria, with respect TO large
cities and so close upon tho heels OF England,
which, however, still retains a good lead
and some Of whose younger towns arr ex-
tremely vigorous in their growth