The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-12-31
WANT TO BE CENSUS TAKERS.
Applications Pouring in by the Hun
dred-A Story of the Last Census.

0IcA-A CbOEy VI LLc 4<t5G OouSu6s
There was a rumor yesterday that Isaac
Beckett. Esq, whom Superintendent Porter
has promised the supervisorship of the
census for the Fifth district OF Georgia, had
received his commission. Mr.. Beckett was
seen by MORNING News reporter, but be
could not confirm the report. He does not
expect to receive the appointment until
after the holiday season is over.
Mr.. Beckett says that the applications for
the position of enume -ator ara pouring in
on him Ia such volume that he cannot
undertake to answer them. The questions
asked him by the writers, he says, in some
instances. would require three-page letter.
Mr.. Beckett says If be is appointed, as he
has 20 doubt that he will be, that he will
endeavor TO select only known residents of
the different subdivisions, of ability and
integrity. The enumerators under the Law
must be selected solely with reference to
fitness, and without reference to their party
affiliations. He will not consider the per-
sonnet of applicants until April, and then he
will endeavor to select the best men on the
list OF those who have applied, with view
TO getting correct census of the district.
The district is composed of twenty nine
counties, as follows: Appling, Berrien,
Bryan, Bulloch, Camden, Cnarlton,
Chatham, Coffee, Dodge, Echols, Bingham,
Emanuel, Glynn, Irwin, Johnson, Laurens,
Liberty, Lowndes, Mcintosh, Montgomery,
Pierce, Pulaski. Screven, Tattnall, Telfair,
Ware, Wayne, and Wilcox.
The district will be divided into about 100
subdivisions, with an enumerator for each.
The supervisor designates to the superin-
tendent of the census suitable persons for
enumerators. The census taking will begin
about June next, and with the large num-
Der Of enumerators, with small territories,
akoA NfNa or
district in months time.
No bond is required of the enumerators,
and the pay will be 2 or 5 cents per name,
according to the population of the district.
The pay cannot, under the law, exceed Sc
per day for each working day Of ten hours
Referring to the census of 1870 Mr.
Beckett told, in reminiscent way, how
taken, the last time under the supervision
Of Mr.. Beckett, who was then United States
marshal.
A sharp and exceedingly shrewd and
plausible Baltimorean, the agent of the
Freedman's bureau, was the enumerator for
Liberty county, and he conceived the brill
liant idea of taking the census without the
trouble of perambulating about the country.
SO providing himself with a list of bio
graphical and proper names by tearing
them out of Webster's unabridged diction-
airy and FASTING them on the wall in front of
his desk, and with copy of the tax digest
before him, he sat down and proceeded to
take the census Of Liberty county, which,
when completed, showed the population to
be II, 700.
There were some amusing blunders in the
report. To an elderly gentleman by the
name Of Arson, who was an avowed cell
bate, and decidedly offish with the tender
sex, he gave a wife and six children, with
two deaths of children during the year. To
teacher in the schools of the county, who
is well known in Savannah, and
the father of but one child, he
assigned five children. He proportioned
the number Of children to the age of icti-
tious parents whom no one ever heard of,
and the names he gave the children often
were that of distinguished confederate gen
erals, and he even invaded the realms of
ancient times to fiEd names for children
yet unborn. To children of colored parents,
the names of Cuffee, Sambo, Pompey,
Dinah, and such familiar ma mes were well
distributed throughout the report.
The agricultural products were well pro-
| portioned, and were all guess work, but
| there were many ludicrous blunders, where
men on the tax digest who would hardly
know a cotton boil from ball of floss, and
| as little about farming the late Mr..
| McGinty, were set down as having raised
elegant crops of cotton and corn, whose
pens were crowded with Berkshire and
| Jerseys, and in whose rich pastures the best
| blooded stock waded in clover, when the
| alleged farmer didn't own enough ground
| for pig to stand upon.
| The deception was detected by Mr..
| Beckett and the versatile genius was in
| die ed in the United States district court.
He impressed his friends with the belief
that it was a case of persecution, secured
bondsmen, and the week before his trial
was to come off he borrowed the overcoat
from the late Judge Schley, and skipped for
parts unknown, leaving his bondsmen in
| lurch.
The second census under the direction OF
Mr.. Beckett showed the population Of
Liberty county to be but 400.
ibid they ever hear of the refugee?n Mr..
Beckett was asked.
"Yes, some years after I learned from
| Lieut.. Sherman that the Baltimorean had
been taken into the employ of his brother
as paymaster'S clerk in the navy, and had
robbed his brother"
"What was done with the census taken
by himg'
II think that one copy of the report is on
file in Liberty county, and I do not think
the other was ever forwarded to the census
| bureau. The original enumerator was never
paid for his work, as the deception was dis
covered in time to save the government
from being defrauded of the money which
he claimed in the bill he accompanied with
his report
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