The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-10-08
300 MILES OF SMITHS.
Eight Miles of Them Live in the City of
New York Alone

New DIX Alone.
Three hundred miles of Smiths, The
figure is appalling, but it is no exaggera-
ton.
There is not Il Smith growing on every
tree in New York, but if there were it is
even chances that there would be Il good
number of them left over.
Nobody who has not made Il study in
some measure of the Smith subject has
any idea of the numerical strength of this
estimable and prolific family. There are
more than two Smiths to every saloon in
the city, and that is saying much. There
are Smiths enough to fill much more than
dozen whole regiments.
There are Smiths enough-man, woman
and child-to populate II good size king
dom, and if they should decide to do it
they would, if past record is any critic
rion, multiply at such an astounding rate
IS would enable. them to supply from
their surplus, in very few years, all de
ficiencies i'll the population of other coun
tries. The gaps in the nations OF the
world, which fire, and blood, and war,
and pestilence, might have made, could
very easily and satisfactorily be patched
out with Smiths. Here are some start
ling figures:
The New York city directory for 1896
contains 40l, 500 names. OF these 1904,
or one in every 1874, is Smith The
Smiths take up nearly twelve and II half
pages of three columns each According
to the last census there are about five
times rs many people in New York city
rs there are names in the directory. 1t
follows, then, that there are in this city
between $4,000 and $1,000 Smiths.
If drawn up in single file at the usual
distance between the people so paraded,
the line would extend from the Battery TO
One Hundred and Twenty frst street, Il
distance of eight miles If the same ratio
holds good throughout the United States,
the Smiths in this country number 52J.-
| 0O0 and would form line 300 miles
long. They would reach to Albany and
back
1t has been popular belief always that
the Smiths, Browns, Joneses and Robin
sons led the world in the matter of fire.
! quency, but these. slatter days have
changed all that. The Smiths are still
| foremost; the sturdy and multiplicativc
Browns are not far behind. There are
$500 Browns in the New York dircc-
| tory-about one Brown to every 135 who
are not Browns. This would give 519,.
| QUO Browns in the United States.
| But there the old quartet OF names is
| broken. The Joncscs and Robinsons are
/ ucC"ucHI 81 ,iir us numbers 80. Inc
! Millers have stepped into the honorable
third place once held by the race OF
I Joneses. But the Millers are only half rs
many rs the Smiths and Browns The
directory only has seventeen columns OF
them, with 1867 names
Then come the Myerses, with ,O64
names; Murphys, 1,0l9; Cohens, 0Sl l[el
lys, Levys and Johnsons, with 966, 06;
and 962, respectively, while William.
and Clark have only Sl5 and S02.
The Smiths are perennial, ever plenty
ana never can be moribund. When tn,
skeletons of nations shall stand around
the lonely last man, he will look out will
II clear eye over the ruins of empires
watch fcarlessly the rising tide which il
to cngulf the world, and on the last rocl
which raises its grizzled, time wenriet
head above that second universal inund;.
ton, write in blood characters his name
and the entry will read, 'John Smith.
New York Journal.