The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1890-03-14
A GRAZ
THE weRnp
An Old Poetic Fancy ~ 'Q.O0
by Figures That Are GN ~
Together in a Clear ar
Picturesque Manner. no.

z
That the world is not a vast cemetery
deep laid with human bones is eyidsnt
from the following article by William c.
Prime, LID, in the New York Journal
Of Commerce.
Again and again this old poetic fancy
Of the earth rs one great cemetery buried
several times deep with dead men and
women and children, has been refuted by
figures. But great is error and will pre-.
vail, unless the truth be well and stead
lily upheld,
The population of the earth is now
about one thousand i've hundred millions.
Suppose the human race TO have existed
for 5000 years, and TO have been always
as great as now. In 5000 years you have
sixty centuries. In each century you
may count three generations of mankind,
or $50 generations in all, each being a
generation of one thousand five hundred
millions. Now lay out a cemetery for
one generation. It will be a huge esti-
mate to give to every man, woman and
child grave five feet by two, or ten
square feet. You want for your grave
yard then Is, 900 million square feet of
ground. A square mile contains some
thing less than IS, 600, 600 square feet.
You want then a graveyard not fifty-iive
miles long by ten wide for your whole
generation. Now multiply this by $50
and you have your burial ground for
COCO years Of mankindi That is, a strip
of land 1900 miles long by ifty-iveIailes
wide viii be ample. In other words,
cemetery containing 100, 600 square miles
would be sufficient for the entire human
race to lie side by side.
The estimate which have given you
of continuous population is obviously
enormously 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 ore
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, il 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 lace
for 6000 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. That is a
pure Imagination. and there is not, 50
far as I know, fact on which to rest it. /
But suppose it IS true, and suppose the
population always what it now is. You
have provided for 6000 years oft. Yen
want nearly seventeen times as large a
cemetery for the generations of q thou
sand centuries. That IS you want l.
400, coo square miles in it. Lay It out
wherever You please, 100 miles long by
loco wide. It is but part Of the Uni
ted States. And SO enormously large
have been the rough estimates thus far
used, it's safe to say that if the human
race hiss been IN existence 100, 600 years,
q separate grave could be provided for
every individual Of the race within a
part Of the United States east of the Mis- K
sissippi River e
The fact iiduss friend. Yoa need but {
very small piece Of the earth's surface to T
lie down in. And you occupy but q ser1 !
small space while you live. Stand in 4 I
corner, VITA your back to the wall and {
your shoulder against the side wall. Put
a book against the wall outside your
other shoulder, close to it. Let some
enc hold a stick across IN front of your
body. So you viii measure how. much
room you occupy when standing up in a
crowded isscsssaly- You are a large man
Il you require tR-o square Get. The
average requirement OF 2 m Of
men, women and children he
square foot and hsdf- More -. IS
QUO, 900 persons an stand On square
mile OF surface. Vow, see how small a
crower-..saar al would be an assembly Of
All men out Of all ages and kindreds and
peoples, we've they gathered together Il
= Garry EoaE arithmetic still further. Ii
1cr1-ia1r ems eesuetery for the one
thousand five huRdSSed millions of man
kind now living. Build sl<eity for them
to dwell il. Average families at i've {
persons 70 family, and give each family /
q house aud lot twenty feet by a hundred.
Your cemetery gave I've persons fifty a
square sest Of graves. Their city lot = v
Iorty times as large Your city must b
therefore be forty times as Iarge as your h
cemetery Add twenty per cent for good d
itreeta. I VIII not save YOU or vour a
ehoolgoing child the trouble Of ssdoing a
he figures" Impress the truth on vour c.
mind b three minutes work with pencil b
nd paper, that the whole living human :.
ace could be gathered in a city 50 small Ii
comparison with what you have I'M Of
gined. r
And now remember that all the esti- nj
aates on Ehieh We have gone are too
uge. This city lot might as well be al
ssnty hy fifty. People live in fats Il
ithodt back yards, and IN stories one
oove. another. Your city, modelled sa
1ter 'a't1stest fashionsin cities, need not
Isde It. When sonSs...ts; ssili'ates nave
". inquire and be surprised u !. your
ast space Tor gardens. fields and forests n.
on have left accessible to it, whence u
ould come all the necessities and q,
lxuries Of civilized life.