The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1893-09-30

than half the city ea-only 81 per cent.
and that 50 per cent. of the population
lives on Manhattan. Four of the down.
town wards, covering total area of only
little over one square mile, have an
aggregate population bigger than that of
Cleveland, Buffalo, New Orleans, Pitts
burg, Washington or Milwaukee. A
review of the data obtained from all the
cities shows that the average percentage
of open space to total area is only twelve.
The percentage is greater in the South
Atlantic group. This is due to the fact
that in the majority OF New England
cities the present limits are the same as
the old town boundaries, and municipal
improvements are confined to wards
where the most people live. The area
occupied by some OF the American cities
greatly exceed that taken up by the prin-
cipal cities Of the old world. Both Chi
cago and Philadelphia, measured by
square miles, are bigger than London.
Each of eleven American cities spreads
over more territory than does Paris. Ber-
lin is exceeded in area by seventeen cities
Of this country.
The Railroad Gazette has collected
statistics Of train wrecking and train
robbing for the first six months of 1898,
which yield some surprising results. One
is accustomed TO think of train wreckers
and train-robbers as infestiDg sparsely
settled Western States, but the statistics
show, on the contrary, that such crimes
are most prevalent in we'll settled States.
The Gazette's figures show sixtyone at
tempts to wreck trains and twenty-one
oft 10 rob oh
Illinois head the list in the number of
attempts to wreck trains, and Ohio fol-
lows. In these three advanced States
were made more than one-half of all the
attempts to wreck trains, and the great
State OF New York follows. The only
explanation offered for this preponder-
ance of train wrecking in well-settled
aud, generally speaking, well-governed
states is that the mileage of railroads is
greater in those States than in others, and
the tramps, who are responsible for most
attempts 10 wreck trains. flourish in
thickly settled regions. The geograph
ical distribution of attempts at train rob-
berry are still more curious, says the
Philadelphia Ledger. Iowa heads the
list; the Indian Territory and Oklahoma
taken together have the same number;
Texas follows, and then comes Kansas
and Nebraska. SiXty-seven per cent. OF
all the train robberies or attempted train
robberies occurred in these four States
and two Territories.
The st. Louis Republic says: To those
who imagine that Christianity is decln-
ing we submit for study the following
summary made by the English historian,
Sharon Turner, and which can be easily
verified At the end of the first century
there were 500,000 Christians; at the end
of the second there were 1000. 900; then
the figures advanced thus: In 500 A d.,
10, 100000; in 600 A. d., ID, 900, 900; in
700 A d., 20.000,000 in 800 A. d.,
$4,000, 600; in 900 A. d., 30.000,00 in
1000 AID, 10000, 600; in LOO A. D.,
80. 600, 900; in 1900 A. d., 10000, 900;
in 1900 A. d., so, 900, 900; in 400 AID,
5000, 900; in 1900 A. d., $4,000, 900;
in 1900 A. D., 100000, 900; in 100 A.
d., 115,O00,000; in 1900 A. d., 155,
600, 600; in 1898 A. d., 250000,000. 1t
thus appears, continues the Republic,
that the century of greatest growth is
this century-the age of intelligence and
progress par excellence. The gain of
100, 900, 900 in such century is sugges-
tive of yet more rapid growth in the fu-
ture, as knowledge and civilization aud
human brotherhood make themselves felt
to the ends of the earth. The age of
steam added 100, 900, 900 to the Christian
roster. The Electric Age, on whose thresh-
old we stand, will bring in the greater
part of the whole human race. A Chris
TANNED earth is no longer an ''iridescent
dream.'