The Irish standard., 1890-05-17

wei, ~ WaS uos dleei AOtAA F." <SS eS'Ae
| up
".How long was he ina' say, jumping
| at the clew.
"'Five years
"sAnd when did he get out?'
"sLast Christmas
""Then the child's almost Skip
"'I guess So
"sAnd how old's your husband?
s.. I dunno
"sThink now; did you never hear him
say?'
We'll, heard him say once he was
born in the year Of the big wind in Ire
land
more people in this generation were
born during, or after, or just before the
| big wind in ireland than in any ten
years before or since, I believe, but
pcrsevere.
'''Is he older than your
's.Sure.'
".How much?
Not much
"sHow old are you?'
! "'lt's none OF your business, young
| man; DON'T askin neutrality-suspicious..
">But must know. na'am, II don't
ask you ri be fined myself, and II you
don't answer youth DO fined
well, I'm thirty-nine.'
''It's truly wonderful how many won-
EN- there are who are either nineteen, or
twenty-nine, or thlrty-nine, or forty
zine. DO they hate to acknowledge shat
they have at last left tho decade In
which they have tarried for ten or ff-
! teen years or is there an amazing but
hitherto unnoticed decrease in the birch
| Of Cir, babies one year out Of every ten?
Still hold my peace and pat down this
| woman as thirty~nine. though she is
| forty-tive If she's day, and put down
her man, who is not much older, as forty
two. This Is about as near as you can
come with these people, and the woman
has done as we'll as tho average in the
| way of being willing 60 tell the little
she really knows.
"Isut then there is another class of
questions that generally causes more
trouble than the ages, because the peo-
pie are generally quite unwilling to tell
the truth with respect to them These
are the questions about the dependent.
defective and delipqucnr' classes, as tho
last census sheets tabulated them. 1t
| takes some gall to ask a big, fiery wo-
mann, whom you have been Fostering for
a quarter Of an hour about her age, If any
of her family are idiots, Or dcformed. or
criminals, and If SO, how many and what
! are their special forms Of disease or ras-
! cality. Only a hardened book agent,
iife~insurancc canvasser or lightning
rod peddlcr can do it every time with
out quailing or minding the shower OF
indignant abuse that comes thickcst
and fastest from a mother who really
has a weak-minded son, Or a hump
backed daughter, or q jail-bird husband.
I fancy that we get correct answers
in the affirmative to these questions
about once In fifty or 80.
*'But great deal depends on how you
put the question. Only a greenhorn
| would say: Any Of you crazy?' Your
expert book-agent says: 'All their minds
correct? Speech all right? Can every
body see? Is che hearing perfect with
all Of you?' tell you tact is what All
enumerator chiefly needs ii he is going
| to get through his work quick enough
to make any money out Of It, It's no
soft snap. The temptation to sit down
! and ill in the blanks, 70 the best OF your
own Judgment, sooner than spend half
! an hour with an abusive and ignorant
family, is almost irresistible at times,
yeta heavy penalty attaches to such
| work, and justly, too.
Sat the last census many men applied
! for the place OF onumerator, thinking it
| a picnic, but when they received their
grasp the size OF the job, they resigned
! in large numbers. This year, to guard
against any such monkey business, an
enumerator who accepts his appoint
n1ent and then backs out without giving
! satisfactory reason to the superinten-
! dent, may be fined and imprisoned.
1.-THE city Is so divided that each
enu,ncrator is supposed to have about
two thousand individuals to inquire
about But he often finds that his dis
| trict is much moro thickly populated
than he supposed. remember last
| time I got into room in wretched
! house where four families dwelt togeth-
er. The room was partitioned of into
| four rectangles, but not in the usual way,
| with wooden walls, but by chalk lines
on the floor.
"'How do you all manage to live in
such crowded quarters?' asked. logged
out OF my routine questions by their un-
usually sardiae-like arrangement.
'.Oh. we'd geton we'll enough, growled
one man, If them Joneses wouldn't per-
sist in keepin' boarders. IN. Y. Trib-
une.
| Not for Twopence.
I Two Harvard youths making a pedes-
]. trian tour in the Scottish Highlands
were In the habit Of stopping at small
| farm-houses and asking for milk, the
| charge for which was invariably penny
glass. Calling one Sunday at q ro-
manufacturing cottage in beautiful Glen
Nevis they were sourly received by the