The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-02-26
Length OF LIFE,
More Old People In New England Than
in Other Sections.

in Other Sections.
The average life of all the babies that
come into the world is only about 3S
years; very few live to be over 80, and
not more than l out of 1000 sees his
hundredth birthday. Is this due to Or
iginal differences in the babies them
selves, or in the way they are brought
up, in the place in which they live, in
the air they breathe, and in their mode
OF iifU @fSOT taCy become full grown :?
To answer these question one of the first
things we want to know is whether
people die equally fast everywhere, and
if not, where it is that they die soonest
or live longest. The answer to this is
that people die much more rapidly in
some countries than in others; for in
stance, they die twice as fast in Hungary
as they do in Sweden. In the year 1889
out of every 1000 persons living in the
following-named countries, there died in
England, Is; in Norway, II; in Sweden,
IS; in Austria, u; In Hungary, 50; in
Germany, %; in France, 81; and in Italy,
35. How many died in the United
States we do not know, because no ac-
count of them was kept in the greater
part of the country, but it was probably
II or Is out of each 1000. We do know,
however, that they died faster in some
cities than in others. For example, out
of each 900 persons there died during
the year ending May 81, 1890, in New
YOrd city, ~; III Brooklyn, %; in Bos-
ton, %; in Philadelphia, %; in Chicago,
81; i'll Detroit, 20; in st. Louis, 10, and
in Minneapolis, 10, while in the country
districts the loss was only II or u out
of each 1000. Also, we know that they
died faster in some parrs of the same
city than they did in others.
What are the causes of these great diff
ferences? In the first place they depend
upon the number of little children
present IN these different places. The
baby'S grasp for existence is at first fee.
BILE; the little flame of life in it flickers
and trembles, and it does not require
much to put it out altogether. The
heavy death rates occur among the child
rem. Thus in the fourth ward in Phila-
delphia, out of each 1000 white children,
under years old, lis died; while in the
thirty-third ward only 80 died, which
accounts for large part of the difference
in the death rates OF the two wards, and
at the same time shows that there must
be some great difference between them
in their influence on child life. 1t is not
quite correct to say that in those places
where the iewest number per thousand
die the people live the longest, but it is
true in most cases, and we may, there
fore, say that people live longer in small
towns than i'll large cities, and in the
country than they do in towns. This is
true not only i'll the United States. but
all over the world.
Let us now see where the greatest
number Of old persons, in proportion to
the total population, are to be found liv-
ing in the United States. An examina-
ton of the tenth census shows that in
1880 this was in New England. OF each
100000 white persons then living-and
over so years old-in Connecticut, 006;
in Maine, LII; in Massachusetts,, 500;
in New Hampshire l,47S; in Rhode
Island, S27, and in Vermont, l,222
These are higher figures than are shown
for any other State,
From a study of these figures it is
very plain that the fact that there are
more people in one State than in another,
depends very much on how long the
State has been settled. In the move
ment from Ohe Eastern States to take
possession of the broad prairles, the fer
tile valleys and the gold and silver
threaded mountains of the great West,
those who went were the young, the en-
ergetic and the strOug, leaving behind
them the fathers and the grandfathers
in the old New England homes. And
that movement has been so recent. it
has been so comparatively short time
in the history of the Nation since the
States west of the Mississippi have been
filled up and pierced with the railroads
now necessary to supply large groups of
people, that there has not been time for
any large number of grandfathers and
grandmOthers to grow up and get their
hairs properly whitened and their backs
bent to the curve which belongs to so
years of age. When another 100 years
have gone we may be sure that there
will not be nearly SO great difference
in the number of old persons in the diff
ferent States but we may also be quite
sure that then. as now, persons will live
longest who live among the wind swept
hills of the Northern and Middle States
of this country.
One of the best means Of measuring
the relative length of life in the different
States is that afforded by the experience
of the thirty different life insurance
of this country previous to
1874; including the records of over a mil
liOE of lives, insured for over twenty-six
hundred millions OF dollars. From these
records we learn that the States where
the loss was greatest and the length of
life least were Louisiana, 176; Texas,
IT'S; Arkansas, 172; Florida, 1877; Mis-
1854; Tennessee, 1853; Alabama,
1874; and Maryland, 1870 The correspond
ing figures for some of the other States
are: California, 81; Connecticut, "a;
Georgia, 06; Kentucky, 1903; Minnesota,
107; Missouri, Ill; New York, %; Ohio,
90; Pennsylvania. 92; South Carolina,
us; Virginia, 1O4. These figures also
show that life is shorter in the South
than in the North, and in flat, low
Nrnnnls than nrnnnm hillc nd mann,