The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-08-09

of superintendent, who worked under
| the Secretary of the Interior. As the mar
shals were employees of the department of
Justice, the confusion was very great
! The act of 1870, which governed the CEN
sus taking of 1880, and viii with few
notifications apply to that Of 1890 was
properly the work of James A. Garfield,
Representative Cox, General Francis A.
Walker and Eugene Hale. Ii provides for
the centering of the work at Washington
and the enumerations by persons who are
solely appointed, except the supervisors,
by the superintendent of the census.
The house to house count will commence
on the first Monday of next June and will
involve inquiries as to age, sex, nativity,
race, physical condition, and a dozen other
things. Forty thousand enumerators
will be in the 175 census districts and Tor
each of these dis tricts the President will
in February appoint supervisor, who
will receive 1925 per month and in addition
thereto s100 for every 1000 of the popu-
laton in thickly settled districts and sl.4e
in others. The enumerators will be paid
two cents for every inhabitant, birth and
death reported; twenty cents for each farm
and thirty cents for each factory recorded,
and for every veteran of the late war five
cents. In addition to these out door en-
ployes there are many special agencies
which are very coy places for the friends
of statesmen, involving labor and no ex-
penditure of ideas, the duties being merely
to go to manufacturing establishments in
cities and ask pointed questions and put
down the answer.
The amount of information obtained
and the number of subjects treated in our
census are amazing Every field is cov-
cred. Great Britain sends a policeman
around in the evening to each house with
printed slip asking information and in
the morning he carries it away, and the
thing is done. But i'll this country census
taking is invoicing everything on hand.
The work OF the Tenth Census was EN-
braced in twenty-five volumes, and some
of those were not issued until 1887. The
work bids fair to last forever There was
even a volume devoted to forest trees, and
two volumes of long winded essays on So
cial subjects. 1t was a dumping place for
waste information. The new census will
attempt to be less ambitious, though the
projectors of the census of 1880 made the
same promise.
| saw in the corridor of superintendent
Porter's offices on Saturday the veritable
original census Office clerk, at least he was
so considered when the census of 1870 was
made, and l would not be surprised to
learn that specimens of his youthful pen
manship are to be found in the musty rec
ords of the census of 1890, still preserved
in the Interior department In 1870 he
was held in office by Henry Wilson, and in
1880 by Senator Hoar He was promptly
discharged at about the first general re-
duction of clerks after the taking of each
census. and was never seen until the next
one was announced. On Saturday he
seemed as clipper as ever, asked me for
some chewing tobacco and was surprised
to learn that l did not use the
stuff, informed me mysteriously that he
chad Porter down fine'' BORROWED" ten
cents, and drifted away, poor cid wreck.
When the man who wants to know goes
to the Weather Bureau to find out, and
succeeds in interrupting the interminable
fight that is in progress between the Army
officers and the civil alleged experts Of that
Office long enough to get an interview, lie
finds that he has had his labor for his
pains. The other day asked one Of Prof.
Cleveland Able's assistants for kis theory
as to the causes of the heavy rains since
April LIST. 81 will give yon the figures"
he gracefully replied, and his face grew Sc
rious. ''Of course, the occasion for every
phenomenal precipitation is not certainly
known, yet may say in general Of this
case at least, that these recent precipita-
tions of rain have been due to the fact that
the conditions for such rainfalls lave been
astonishingly favorable" And then tie
poor blundercr WHO'S paid 81. 500 for befog-
ging himself and losing himselfin thorough
fares Of words, beamed upon mein delighted
surprise at his own wisdom. So, in other
words, regardless Of expense, the Signal
Service announces that it has rained more
than usual because it has been easier for it
to fall than it was, say, last year. Yon
can procure all the figures you want at the
Signal office-rainfall, Temperature, barom-
eter readings, anything but theories for
forecasting the weather or evading ealam-
tiles from storms.
The Signal Service may be Of some prac
tical value if it is ever taken out of the con-
troll of the Army. 1t goes without saying
that the Army is necessary evil and what
ever can be taken from its charge and put
on sound business basis had better be taken
at once. WESTON.
One of the largest buttonwood trees in
the State stands in front Of Charles Little
fields cottage, in Eatontown. 1t was
measured recently by officers Of the New
Jersey Geological Corps. 1t is fourteen
feet three inches i'll circumference eight
feet from the ground, and eighiy-two feet
high.