Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-01-09
GsEAT CITIES.
Some Statistics On Their Growth and Pro
gress.

4
| gress.
Notwithstanding accounts thst have been
been handed down from past ages concern
ing the enormous size of the great cities OF
antiquity, il Is safe 10 say that never In the
| history of The world was there SO many cities
of immense proportions as there are at the
present Tina. If Rome, in the days of the
Emperor Claudius, had, as is alleged, nearly
seven millions of inhabitants, il is rather
singular that for more than one thousand
| years after the fail of that great city, there
Was no city in Europe with SO many as one
| million inhabitants. At the beginning ct
the present century, there was no city in
Europe wi h that number Of inhabitants, the
most populous being London with $4,000
| people. There are now five European cities
with upwards of one million inhabitants, the
frs. two Of which contain, in the aggregate,
| seven million persons. In America, at the
beginning Of the century, there were no
cities that would be regarded as more than
four,h-ciass towns. The population Of New
York WIS about sixty Thousand At the last
census, there were twenty cities in the
United States that exceeded that figure.
London stands easily at the head of ali
modera cities, and it has added five times Ms
much to its population during the presen,
century as it did during the previous thous-
and , ears. Il j. difficult to get ut the exact
population of London because that great
metropolis is no: .city in the ordinary
sense, but an aggregation of towns, and ever
SPREADING. over-grown aggregate Of houses
and streets. which is constantly invading
new territory and covering it with buildings.
Thus the Old city Of London had at the last
census but 50,526 inhabitants, while the
whole city under police regulation was
4,764.3l2. nearly as many as the whole state
Of New York. Its increase during the pre-
vious ten wears WINS $4,000. When London
had > 000 900 people every one thought her
growth must stop, but since then it has been
more rapid than ever. There, if anywhe.e.
will be solved the problem OF how many
can exist in one great city.
Psri-, once well abreast Of London in popu-
la,ion, now takes second place, and will have
to step down to third, probably in the next
fifty years. Its population at the last sensus
Was about 2,269.Oo0, it having increased
about $4,000 during the previous twenty
years. It's rate OF increase is therefore COM
p,r-tively slow, and as the population
Of France is Iearly stationary, it must nee
| essarily be slow in the future.
New York is now the third of the great
cities of the world, leaving out of considera-
,iul the cities of China, Of whose popula-
ticn there is no reliable enumeration. The
position of New York rs the mart Of a vast
continent is unequaled, but the nsrrowness
OF Manhattan Island, and the inferior fscili-
ties for rapid transit prior TO the era OF
elevated railroads has been against her. Her
population is now over 100000, and if il
WAS reckoned on the same basis Is that Of
London, j; would take in Brooklyn, Jersey
| City and number Of adj sceut towns that
would swell the total nearly million more.
I
The aggregate community thu. indicated
is growing at the rate Of of thirty per cent
every ten Years, SO that the total population
of these adjacent cities at the next census
would Mt that rate be in the neighborhood OF
100000. Following New York the great
cities of the world that have population of
more than a million, are: Berlin, l.l22 600,
Vienna, l,103,0 COO, Constsntinople, 1915 orc
and Saint Petersburg, has only about I.000,-
900. No other capital Of Europe exceeds
Philudelphia in populs;ion. and indeed that
city at this time probably has million peo-
pie. No country in Europe can chow as
many cities with population of over 100,
600 rs there are in the United States.