St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-10-16
Communicated.
The Most Astonishing and Uni.
que Town in the World.

Mr.. Editor-The wonderful and phe-
nomenal growth of Rayne, a town
which in few years has grown to such
colossal proportions, should not go I'M
heralded as the banner town OF ancient
or modern times. A few years ago the
site On which this famous town stands,
was but bald, and bleak prairie where
rOamed the unconscious broad horns
and Creole ponies. Situated midway
between VermiliOn and the Mermen-
teau river, on the South Pacific railway,
this town of Rayne, as indicated by the
last election returns, looms up t" such
stupendous proportions as to be ctasscd
as the fou,H City in the State.
According to the published returns
of the late election, Rayne cast SIR mn
,lred and ffy-nine rotes, number IN,
paralleied in so young town, ana
shows it to have attained Il most aston
ishing growth. In fact, it has become
city, far in advance and more popu-
Ions than any town we can boast OF IN
Old St. Landry. Take the returns
sir hundyed and .ftty-nine rotes. Now
if we multiply the number OF votes by
tive-supposing all the voters to 1--we
within the experimentation Is the
established rule i'll all fast growing cl-
ties like Rayne, if there is any such
anywhere in the world, it makes the
population of the city to be 3293-cer-
tainly a smart town for any country
But some enemy of Rayne, perhaps
the lnI,abitant of some rival city, may
claim that some OF these voters live Ill
the country outside of the corporation,
and that such should not be multiplied
by five as showing the aggregate popu,,
lation of the city, but first be deducted
from the aggregate vote. 80 10 pe
liberal for once we will suppose that
tifty-eight who voted For" lived IN
the country. and the one poor, depraved
lost soul who voted Against the al,
vision, we are sure, lived there too, and
probably he was some delnded lnnatic
who owned large piece OF choice land
close to the city and did not want 1t
spoiled by being all covered up with
bnildinss-which makes fftynine, IA
number undoubtedly too large, but we
wish to be on the safe side; and these
taken from the aggregate vote leaves
600 votes, which we will suppose were
cast inside the corporation: This mum
Der multiplied by five. and we have IA
CITY of 5000 Inhabitants, number on y
exceeded by three other cities IN the
State, viz: New Orleans, Shreveport
and Baton Rouge, as indicated by the
last census. At that vote Rayne Is
larger than Lake Charles and NermIl-
Iionville combined, as returned by the
last census, twice as large as st. Mar
tinsvile. as large as Washington aud
Alexandria combined, oDce and II half
as large as Morgan City, larger than
New iberia, burger than Opelousas and
Washington put together. And as
more than week has tranSpired since
the election, surprising the past rate OF
increase has been maintained, Rayne
will be nor hard on to the heels OF
Baton Rouge.
Before me [ have the Acadia Sentinel
of Oct. Cd. In looking over the list of
advertisers of Rayne, l see only four
general and one grocery stores men
toned. OF course either the business
men do not advertise i'll the paper. or
else the paper will not take their adver
tisements In either case it does not
look well for such a thriving town as
Rayne. As Opelousas has 1876 inhabi-
tants according to last census, and has
about 30 general stores and groceries,
so Rayne being nearly twice as popu
lous should contain from so to go gene
raj stores and groceries. But the pa
per before me would indicate that the
city of Rayne does about the same
amount of business as Grand Coteau.
taking out the College and Convent.
OF course here is some mistake which
initiates against RayDe. But figures
won't lie, as general thing, and either
the paper is fraud or the figures must
be mistaken. INQUIRER.