Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1890-03-01
NOT A VAST CEMETERY.
Figures Showing That the Earth Is More
Than Burial Ground.

buried several Tunes ueep Will Uoau
men and women and children, has been
refuted by figures. But great is error
and will prevail unless the truth be
well and steadily upheld. The popula-
ton of the earth is now about LOU, OOO,-
600. Suppose the human race 10 have
existed for G, 200 years, and to have been
ALWAYS as great as now. In 5000 years
YOU have go centuries. In each century
YOU may cunt three generations OF
mankind. or one hundred and eighty
generations in all, each being gen
Grafton of 800, 600, 00O Now lay out
cemetery for one generation. 1t Will be
a huge estimate to every man, women
and child a grave five feet by two, OF
ten square feet. You want for your
graveyard, then, $4,000, 100000 square
feet of ground. A square mile
contains something less than $4,000, 0OG
square feet. You want, then, grave
yard not So miles long by 10 wide for
your whole generation. Now multiply
this by $50 and you have your burial
ground for 6, 200 years of mankind That
is. strip of land 1880 miles long by 81
miles wide will be ample. In Other
words, a cemetery containing 1000
square miles would be sufficient for the
entire human race to lie side by side.
The estimate which l have given you OF
continuous population is obviously enor-
mouSly large. The estimate of the size
of each grave is very large. A strictly
correct estimate would reduce the size OF
the required cemetery more than one
half But enormous as it is, you could
lay out your battle-ground for all men
who have lived on earth, so that they
could lie side by side, in Arizona or in
California, or you could lay it out in
Texas large enough to accommodate the
race of 5000 years past, and
also the race for 5000 years YET
to come, all sleeping in the soil of that
one State of this Union. But some one
SAYS the race of man has been on earth
100, 600 years This is a pure magma
ton, and there is not, so far as | know,
fact on which to rest it. But suppose
il is true, and suppose The population al
ways what it now is. Yoi- have provided
for 1000 years of it. You want nearly
IL lllllCS do 4d4 SSihNbSAg AOA Ni1N
generations of a thousand centuries,
That is, You want ], roo 900 square miles
in it. Lay it out whenever you please.
LOO miles long by 1,O00 wide. 1t is but
a part of the United States. And SO
enormously large have been tn rough
estimates thus far used, it is safe to say
that if the human race has been in eX-
tstD
could be provided for every individual
of the race within part of the United
States east of the Mississippi river.
The fact is, my friend, you
need but very small piece of the
earth's surface to lie down in. And you
occupy but very small space while you
live. Stand in corner, with your back
to the wall, and your shoulder agains'
the side wall. Put book against thu
wall outside your other shoulder, closf
to it. Let some one hold a stick across
in front of your body. So you will
measure how much room you occupy
when standing up i'll a crowded assem-
bly,. You are large manif you require
two square feet. The average require
.nent of generation of men, women
and children is not one square foot and
half More than 5000, 900 person
can stand on a square mile of surface
Now see how small a crowd aftel
all would he an assem- bly, of all mer
out of all ages and kindreds and PEG
piles, were they gathered together,
Carry your arithmetic still further You
laid out cemetery for the 1900 O00 00o
of mankind now living. Build a city
for them to dwell in. Average families
at five persons to family, and give each
family house and lot 20 feet by 100
Your cemetery gave five persons 81
square feet for graves. Their city lott.
forty times as large. Your city mus
therefore be forty times as large as your
cemetery. Add 20 per cent. for good
streets. | VIII not save You or YOU
school-going child the trouble of ''do
ing the figures" Impress the truth o.
your mind by three minutes work wit
pencil and paper, that the whole livinl
human race could be gathered in
city so small in comparison with
what You have imagined. And now re-
member that all the estimates on which
we have gone are too large. This city
lot might as well be 20 by so. People
live in flats without back yards, and il
stories one above another. Your city
modelled after the latest fashions il
cities need not be a quarter the size our
estimates have made it. When you
have built your city, inquire and be sur
prised to find the vast space for garden,
fields and forests you have left accessi-
BILE to it, whence could come all the ne
cessities and luXuries Of civilized life
w. c. Prime, LID, IN N. Y. journal OF