Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-03-01

By that wonderful agent, for the first
a. time IN the history of the world, the
~ a population Of . country will be
&SysA enumerated in the year of our Lord
lo.U. Anree months from the present date the
census bureau will have thrown into the field
an army Of $4,000 men, which will sweep the
United States clean of information on pretty
nearly every imaginable subject that has a
statistical bearing. Then deluge Of facts will
begin to pour int the two huge offices here,
where 1000 clerks will be industriously en-
gagged in sitting and resolving them into ntelli-
gble shape. As the superintendent of census
said to representative Of THE STAR, the story
told by the reports of the agents of the bureau
will follow the least important individual in
this vast land from the cradle to the grave.
From them you can estimate your chances in
one hundred before you were born Of being
twin or q triplet and can calculate the prob
| abilities that were in favor OF your turning out
boy or girl. They will show that you had
only two chances in three of surviving your
first year Of life, and from that time on they
will figure upon your lease of this sublunary
| existence, until at length the ghoulish compiler
OF the gathered figures, without bowels or
morse, joyfully tabulates you in his exhibit Of
'causes of DEATH
Not content with discovering the day and
| knowing from what race you are sprung, what
| your sex is, If any, and where your father and
| mother were born. Also it will require infor-
nation as to whether you are married, single
or divorced; how high above the sea level you
| live, in what great drainage basin you dwell,
what the lowest degree Of cold may be from
which you suffer in the winter, how hot you
| find it in the summer when the thermometer
| touches its top notch and how many other Peo-
| pie live with you in your house. As for the
| hOusa. lad
| atty OF a fine of 300, to say whether
you own it or not; il you do own
| it, whether or not there is a mortgage
on 1t, and, supposing that there is one, the rea-
| son why you borrowed the money on the prop
\ erty. The census is much interested in your
private affairs you see, and il you have farm
| around the house you will have to tell similar
| facts about that, even to the value of the cows
and the tools in the barn. All this is merely
the beginning and does not touch upon the
great subjects Of agriculture, manufactures,
| mining, transportation by land and water both
of people and Of freight, fisheries, taxation and
| SO on, all Of which will be gone into in the
| most exhaustive manner, the very processes
employed in at least twenty-five OF the manu-
| featuring industries, for instance, being given
with the fullest detail. And yet all this mass
OF information will eventually be condensed
| into about twenty-five volumes, which will be
entitled the tenth census OF the United States.
HOW THE FACTS ARE GATHERED.
Now, how are all these facts gathered? It is
very simple when the thing is once explained.
To begin with the whole of the United States is
divided into us districts. These districts are
| necessarily OF varying sizes, it being intended
to arrange matters so that the work to be done
| in any one district shall be nearly equal as
possible to the labor required in any other.
For instance. Philadelphia ID one district and
Massachusetts is another district. But, then,
| the census OF the bay state will not be more
| trouble than that of the Quaker city,
| for the reason that Massachusetts takes a
census OF its own every ten years and the ma
| chinery for that purpose is already 80 well Or
| ganized there that the task will be much SIM
plihed. New York city is also a district and.
| likewise, Chicago, the four districts mentioned
being the largest OF all in respect to pOpula-
| ton. Each district has person in charge Of
| 1T entitled supervisor, appointed by Presl-
dent Harrison, and under each supervisor Is a
regiment OF enumerators Each enumerator is
given little district of his own, arranged
as to contain from 900 to 1000 people. 1t is
his business to go personally to every family
in his district and I'LL out the blank schedules
given him by the supervisor with the informa-
| ton he obtains from the households
DISQUALIFICATION, that is, as to the
members which compose them in
all the detail as to personal history, &C.. before
| spoken of. He is allowed one month to do this
work, II 1t Is In rural parts or two weeks in
case it is in a city of 10000 more, the labor
being more easily accomplished where people
| live close together In payment for his SER
vices he receives cents for each live person
reported on and cents for each dead person
who has departed this life at any time during
| the census year, from the LIST OF next June to
| the last day OF the following May. The
enumerator also gets Is cents for each
| factory or institution and 20 cents for
each farm visited An entirely new depart
| ure in census taking made this time
| Is in providing enumeratOrs with ''family
| schedules" keeping the information about each
| household by itself. Finally the completed
schedules are mailed by the enumerators to the
supervisor, to whom they look as their chief.
| The supervisor is responsible for the accuracy
of the schedules and if they are lacking in any
respect he sends them back to the enumerators
But If they are all right he forwards them to
the superintendent Of the census at Wash
| ington.
very much besides data as to population and
vital statistics The latter branch of informa-
| ton is chiefly interesting as showing the age to
which people live, the diseases from which they
| die, and the relation of diseases and deaths to
| race and to climatic conditions.
| THE SUBJECT TO BE INVESTIGATED
| But the subjects for investigation by the
tenth census, apart from vital statistics and
population, will be largely looked into by
| special agents, Of whom the division on manu-
| features alone will have 700 at work within
three weeks. Electricity, silk making wool,
| glass, pottery and newspapers are among the
manufactured products particularly to be found
out about. The agricultural division will de-
| vote its most active attention to grape-grOwing
/ and truit-raisiug matters. Mining and quarry
ing will occupy the largest share Of the mineral
| divisions interest. Even the churches and the
| church goers will be regarded with an inquir-
| ing eye. with q view to ascertaining the num-
Der OF church buildings in the United States,
| their capacity and value and the pay their pas
tors get Whether yeu yourself 60 to church
| or not will be asked. You are expected to i'm
part everything you know about yourself to the
| relentless agent or enumeration. You must
even tell how many fish you catch in year, If you
are lover OF the gentle sport of angling. This
last requirement would seem like serious test
Of the average mans veracity, but whatever
you choose to say is taken for gospel and set
| down such in tabular shape. There is no
Ananias and Sapphira business about the GEN.
| sus bureau. II you are insane, deaf, dumb or
| blind, you are recorded as such, with notes on
the cause of your affection, including mention
Of those relatives dead or living who have been
| similarly troubled. II you were born an idiot
it is so mentioned by the simple word ''con-
genital" or, suppOsing that you are congeni-
| tai pauper, having been born in an aims house,
that interesting detail will not escape. In case
you are in prison your crime, sentence and Q
summary q your past record are quoted.
| COUNTING BY KLECTRIoITY.
The facts in relation to population and vital
statistics upon reaching the census bureau
| hara ali noup cd hv aia wh;ch loo.