The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-04-19

was paying IN rent, and asked him what
AS rents amounted to- He replied that
The census paid $4,000 . rear and
thai the government could make big
interest By constructing its own building
ne building in which the census clerks
co their chief work Is = narrow, tail. cheap
affair constructed for fats and another
building is McDoweIls' mill, near the cap
EoL This building Is more like cannery
O factory than government warehouse
Upon entering il / found ITS walls un-
piasfered and great rows Of tin cans packed
IN piles one on top Of the other, 50 that .
h4l as big as the average town council
room was filed with them Each Of these
cans Vas twenty inches long, seven inches
high and three inches wide. There we're
500 Of them in that room and they are
made for the storing OF these record cards
for the use Of the electrical counters
While Was looking at them. terrible din
was going on over head 1t made me
think Of boiler factory. and asked what
was being done
That" said Nr Porter, as where the
cards are being numbered Each one Of
these 65. GO cards has 70 be Numbered
SO that we can tell where TO find it and
where ii belongs There are only two big
patent numbering machines In the United
states, and the owners Of these wanted the
JOB OF numbering these cards. They said
thai one man with hand machine could
number only 3O cards day, and that il
was impossible for the government TO get
along without their machines They asked
an exorbitant price, and they thought We
would have TO pay IL / tired the hand
machines and found that instead of 80. q
smart workman coald number 5000, and
we have some who number a 600 a day
The result Is that We can number 1. so. go
day. and we do IL for bagatelle COM
pared with what the other men wanted
But let US go mp and see"
AT this moment We stepped upon an e,e-
vator of the kind you End In the mills for
the raising OF wheat and we're pulled Ep TO
the second floor. The din increased as we
vent up and the noise was that OF nail
factory when We stepped out- About no
men sat at long, rough tables ali in their
shirt sleeves and each having q heavy
metal stamp in his hand These they
brought down on the cards for ali the
world just ike the postofhce clerks cancel
the stamps on the letters, save that each
stamp fell on . card and gave ii number.
and this numbering was consecutive and
the cards were then ready TO be taken up
10 the census Office Tor use
NINE MILLION TALES OF NOE
Taking cab, we next drove 10 the big
gest chamber of sorrow in the United
States Imagine room about fifty feet
long. twenty feet wide and fifteen feet high
and pack this with long tiers Of shelving
running in aisles through the center of the
room and reaching from the floor to the
cesling. Make the walls of this room of
iron and vault il at the roof
shelves with great packages of tiles
50 that they burst out into the aisles ard
let the files consist Of thin slips of paper
not much bigger than postal card. but
each covered with notes and figures These
are the records of all the mortgages of The
United States. The name of every man
who has 3 mortgage debt Is recorded on
one of these files The date Of his mort
gage Is there, the rate OF interest he pays
and In some cases the reason for which It
was given There are 8, Oh. 90 of such rec
ords, and it is safe 10 say that S.j0D. 90 of
them keep the men who gave the mort
cages awake at night and worry them
from day 10 day. Each one OF those slips
could tell story Of hope and misfortune
Each one of them is full of pashos, and the
collection Is the most remarkable that has
been ever gotten together by census or
anything else When Mr.. Porter suggested
it he was laughed at, but the more
congress thought of his suggestion
the more interested they became
IN Is and the result Is re have now Gree
ord Of the personal Indebtedness of the
whole United States II took small
army of special agents TO get Is but these
agents overhauled the records In every
ssste and territory, they travelled on horse
hack and On foot through the most
sparsely settled parts of the country and
you can get the exact number and amount
of mortgages In the different states. the
rate Of interest paid and the number OF
published this bureau VIII bring forth
some very astonishing facts. II viii show
for instance. fhst nine Per cent OF the
lands in Iowa are mor1gaged and that the
farmers pay from 10 % per cent for the
use of their money. while In Alabama the
inseres. rate ranges as high as % per cent.
HOW THE TOWNS ARE GROWING.
TELL me. Mr.. Porter, said I, '-some Of
the most striking things you have dis
covered in your collection Of the census"
well one, " replied Mr.. Porter, lis that
the people are leaving the country and
going 10 the cities. and another Is that orr
native American women are decreasing In
numbers year by year as mothers of chill
dren- The largest families in the United
States. and especially IN New England, are
those IN which the mothers are OF foreign
birth. and l believe that the growth Of
cities has decreased the rate of increase
la our population The birth rate In our
10 small families. especially among the
well-to-do. During the past zen years the
cities have been growing 81 the expense Of
the country and IN Massachusetts,. for in
stance. fully 20 per cent. Of the people live
In cities In lS30 only one man IN twenty
lived In town. and IN 1870. fwenfy-nine
people out Of every thirty IN the United
sr~x-
villages In 1850, one man II six was Inv
ing IN the cities. Ten years later one man
IN every i've lived IN the cities and NOW
ont Of every ten men. women and children
in the United States. three Of these are
living in critics or villages TIE change Is
astonishing and the tendency seems 10 be
increasing the city population right along
There are number OF causes for IL The
people want life for their brains They
Ike the society OF their fellow men and
the tendency Of modern civilization Is 10
combination. The success THAI men who
60 from the country have IN big CONNER
cial enterprises, IN manufactures and IN
public affairs of the CITY tempEs their fel-
lows 10 leave their farms, and the result IS
as have stated
TIE BOOMING VEST.
Where has teen our creates: increase
during the past ten years >"
In the West" replied Mr. Porter
1.-The Pacific states and territories grow
very rapidly, and the increase IN the West
ern states has been about 60 per cent The
North Atlantic states have grown about 10
per cent. and the North Central states
about = per cent believe THAI The aver
age percent2 &c Of increase - N round
numbers about - per cent, and the coEiT-
try Is growing rlgnt along We are giving
very fall SET OF statistics this year OF al