The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-10-26
THE ROMANCE OF STATISTICS.
The Dry Science Made Interesting
by an English Authority.

From the London News.
Very few people realize the import
anCe of statistics" began Mr.. Holt
Schooling, with whose curious articles
most Of us are well acquainted, "and
yet their use lies at the bottom OF all
social movements or legislation. Fewer
still realize the romance that is often
concealed beneath their dry and unin-
viting exterior. To me it is pleasure
to find the picturesque and romantic
in these things. Government pays an
immense SUM to have blue books COM
piled, and the pity of it is that they
are not done in more interesting fash.
ion. I have been engaged in this sta
tistcal and diagrammatic work since
January, 1895, my first signed article
on this subject appearing in the
Strand. My father was stopping with
me some years ago and he happened
TO take up the paper and read a para
graph concerning the weight of the
earth; enormous figures, which gave
the reader 10 idea of what he read.
There, said /, is an article for me-.
The illustration of such an article was
immensely difficult In The Vision of
Gold which was published as a serial
in 1895 in the Strand, l conceived some
very curious ideas for illustrating it,
which caught on well. Some time ago
l wrote an article on 'Hatches, Mat
ches and Dispatches for the Pail Mall
Magazine. The figures l obtained from
the register generals report, and to il
lustrate some remarks in it l had my
own baby boy photographed as COM
ing out of a broken eggshel Do you
remember an article i wrote for the
jubilee number of Pearson's Magazine
on England and her dependencies?
That was very successful piece of
work.
II find" continued Mr.. Schooling,
that the schools are taxing up some
of these articles, as teachers have writ
ten to me TO ask permission to use
them for their classes. The illustra-
tions are reproduced, greatly enlarged,
either for lantern or on canvas. For
instance, one lady gave q lesson to
her class on my article on Land Ver-
sus Sea in order that the children
might see at a glance how the sea is
practically nowhere in comparison to
the land. The depth of the sea, as you
can see by this diagram, is shown by
that thin black line, while beneath
that line you have that immense depth
Of something which takes you to the
very center OF the earth. Here, too, is
another article which has been very
popular with teachers during the late
late epidemic Of imperialism-the con-
trast between our dependencies and
those of the other five powers, In which
l have represented each power with
its colonies hanging from il. MY work
is capable of almost any amount of
variety. Professionally, as you may
know, l am an actuary and statis-
tician. The correspondence I get is
very interesting. Many people write
to me as an expert in handwriting.
Witness the Dreyfus case. Their So
licitor came over and gave me a fac
simile of the document said TO have
been found in the German embassy
waste paper basket, and also letters
written both before and after the accu-
sation, in order that might given my
opinion that these papers were not
written by Dreyfus, and, which is q
very rare thing, eleven experts came to
the same conclusion. Then, again.
great firms have put their advertising
| agents into communication with me.
There is one poster l designed in
which ] compare the sole of a certain
| celebrated cocoa with the height of
the monument.
Some time ago I was engaged in
some articles dealing with secrets in
cipher. I went down to Hatfield and
spent many hours in going through
manuscripts of every description. One
OF the most curious ciphers l dis
covered in connection with this sub