The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-04-03
GROWTH OF GREAT CITIES.
ADVANCE OF POPULATION DURING
THE CENTURY.
More Large Cities Now than Ever re
fore I'm the WORLDS History
Specimens OF Increase.

Notwithstanding the circumstantial
accounts that have been handed down
from past ages in regard to the enormous
size and large population of the great
cities of antiquity, there need not be
any hesitation in asserting that there
were never before so many large cities in
the world as there are at present If
Rome in the time of Emperor Claudius
had, as is alleged, nearly seven millions
of inhabitants, it is remarkable that for
more than thousand years after the fall
of that great city there was no city in
Europe with so many as one million pco-
pie. Indeed, at the beginning of the
present century there was no city in Eu-
rope with that number of inhabitants,
the most populous being London with
500, 600 persons. There are now five
European cities with upward of million
inhabitants, the first two of which con-
tain in the aggregate 1000 900 persons.
In America, at the beginning of the
century, there were no cities that would
now be regarded as more than fourth
class lows; the population of New York
was about 60, 600. At the last census
there were twenty six cities in the United
States which exceeded that figure.
London stands easily at the head of
all modern cities, yet it has added five
times as much to its population during
the present century as it did during the
previous thousand years. There is
difficulty about stating the exact popu-
lation of London, because England's me-
tropolis is not a city in the ordinary
sense, but an aggregation of towns, an
ever spreading, overgrown aggregate of
houses and streets which is constant
ly invading new territory and covering
it with buildings. Thus the old city of
London had at the last census but So
526 inhabitants. London, within the
registrar generals tables of mortality
had 1914, 81 people; the London school
board district had 1889, 441 people,
while the London of the metropolitan
and city police districts had 4, 764, 312
inhabitants, nearly as many as the whole
State of New York. The latter figure
may be taken as the proper population
oil London, regarded as community.
Its increase during the previous ten
years was $50, GOO, or at the rate of
twcnty-three per cent.
Paris, once well abreast of London in
population, now takes second place, and
will have to 90 down to third before many
decades Its population at the last cen
sus was 2, 800, 900, it having increased
about $40, 900 during the previous
twenty years. Its rate of increase is
therefore comparatively slow, and, as
the population of France is nearly sta
tionary, it must necessarily be slow in
the future.
New York is now the third of the
great cities of the world leaving out of
consideration the cities of China, of
whose population there is no reliable
enumeration. The position of New York
as the mart of a vast continent is un.
equaled, but the narrowness of Manhat-
tan Island and the inferior facilities for
rapid transit prior to the era of elevated
railways have been against it, Its popu-
lation of 1,20G,0 at the last census
should have grown to 1 $50, 900 at the
next census, and to 1000, 900 at the sue
ceeding one. If the population of New
York was reckoned on the same basis as
that of London it would take in Brook
Ign, Jersey City and number of small
adjacent towns, with united population
at the last census of 2, $50, 900. The ag-
gregated community thus indicated is
growing at the rate of thirty per cent
every ten years. so that the total popula-
ton gathered here at the next census
will be nearly 5000, 000 and at the fol-
lowing census nearly 1000, 900. The
population of Brooklyn is increasing
more rapidly than that of New York, its
increase being at the rate of fifty per
cent. between 1860 and 1870. and forty
three per cent between 1870 and 1850,
against seventeen and twenty eight per
cent. for the same decades for New
York.
Following New York the great cities
OF the world that have population of
more than one million are Berlin, /, 122,-
600; Vienna, /, JOB, 900, and CONSTANT
nople, 1913, 600. The capital of Russia
has only S75, and the other Euro
pean capitals, not already mentioned,
will fall much below that figure. 70
doubt st. Petersburg will, before thu
next census, have passed the one million
limit and become entitled to rank as one
of the great cities of the world.
OF cities which rank but second in
their respective countries the create st is
Philadelphia, with its S47,O 900 inhabi-
tants at the last census, and which will
probably reach ,060, 600 at the next
enumeration. The United States will
then be the only country in .he world
Win lNO CltlcS " more imam ! million
inhabitants, and by the succeeding cen
sus Brooklyn will be added to the list to
form third, and Chicago also probably
to form a fourth. BY that time, how.
ever, Moscow will have passed the one
million limit and also Glasgow and posi-
bly, Liverpool,
At the last census there were in Great
Britain and Ireland twenty seven cities
and towns with upward of 100, 900 nhab-
itants, an increase of seven over the
number at the previous census. In the
United States there were at the last cen
sus eighteen cities and towns with up
ward of 100, 600 inhabitants, 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, Austria Hungary five, and
Russia nine. British India has eighteen
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