The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-24
THE ROMANCE OF STATISTICS.
The Dry Science Made Interesting NV
an English Authority.


From the London News.
cry few people realize the Importance
of statistics" began Mr.. Holt-ScbooIing
with whose curious articles most of US are
well acquainted, "anl yet their use lies at
'he bottom of all social movements or leg
Islation. Fewer still realize the romance
that is often concealed beneath their dry
and uninvlting exterior. To me II Is
pleasure to find the picturesque and ro-
mantle in these things. Government paws
an immense sum TO have Blue Books COM
pied, ana the pity of 1t is that they are not
done in more interesting fashion l have
peeh engaged In this statistical and dia-
grammatic work since January 1895, my
hrst signed article on this subject appear
ing in the Strand. My father was stopping
with me some years ago and he happened
10 take up the paper and read paragraph
concerning the weight of the earth; enor-
nous hgures, which gave the reader no
idea of what he read. There said l. is
an article FOR me. The Illustration of such
an article was immensely difficult. In The
VISION of Gold, which was published as
serial IN 1898 in the Strand, / conceived
some very curious IDEAS for illustrating it
which caught on we'll Some time ago
wrote an article on 'Hdtches Matches and
Dispatches for the Pan Mall Magazine.
The figures 1 obtained from the Registrar
generals report, ana to Illustrate some re-
marks in it / had my own baby boy photo
graphed as coming out of a broken egg
shell DO you remember an article l wrote
for the jubilee number of Pearson's Maya
zine on England and her dependencies?
That was a very successful piece of work
81 find" continued Mr.. Schooling, that
the schools are taking up some of these
articles as teachers have written to me 10
ask permission to use them for their
classes The illustrations 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
Versus Sea in order that the children
might see at a glance how the sea ia
practically nowhere in comparison to tho
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, 100. is another article
which has been very popular with teach
ers during the late epidemic of imperialism
the contrast between our dependencies
and those of the other five powers, I'm
which | have represented each power with
It's colonies hanging from It. My work
is capable Of almost any amount of var-
i
am an actuary and statistican. The
correspondence l get is very interesting.
Many people write 10 me as an expert in
handwriting. Witness the Dreyfus case.
Their solicitor came over and gave me a
fac smile of tho document said to have
been found in the German embassy waste
paper basket, and also letters written both
before and after the accusation, in order
that / might give my opinion. l gave /,
as my opinion that these papers were not
written by Dreyfus, and which is a very
rare thing, eleven other experts came TO
the same conclusion. Then, again, great
firms have put their advertising agents In
to communication with me. There Is one
poster l designed in which I compare the
sale of a certain celebrated cocoa with the
hight of the monument.
Some time ago was engaged in some
articles dealing with secrets In cipher. /
went down to Hatfield and spent many
hours in going through manuscripts of
every description. One of the most Gu
rious ciphers l discovered in connection
with this subject was the string cipher,
and which consisted of string that had
been marked with ink and then wound
round specially prepared cards with ex-
actly similar marks upon them. ] nVad-
ed the foreign office only to learn that reg
ularly after the lapse OF forty years the
papers relating to cipher are stored in the
public archives. How few people are
aware of the extensive use Of cipher from
time immemorial by the governments of
great countries? How few realize the ro-
nance that is hidden away among those
gloomy records. And the immense guam
THY of them To my dismay the porter at
one place brought up the ciphers IN a
great trolley. ! may tell you that It is
impossible for an outsider to decipher for
eign office cipher documents.
ut is curious" continued my host. as
we returned to his special work, how
almost anything will lend itself to this
fantastical and statistical treatment. Only
the other day had 70 prepare an article
for National Righteousness, dealing with
figures and statistics regarding the opium
traffic"
How do you get the primary idea for
these fantastic articles of yours?" / asked
"Ah. that is difficult to answer. ! sup
pose each one has its birth In some sort
of friction among the brain cells. But I
get suggestions sent me from all over the
world Here IS one l had from the North
west provinces of Canada Put two grains
Of wheat wrote my correspondent, on
the first square Of a chessboard how
many, by squaring each one, will you
have on the last checkY This IS of course
an impossible task 10 tackle, by reason
of its yastness. No." he went on. IN re-
ply to a question ! had put to him, Il
never did this kind Of thing at school. but
/ was always inventing and making
things. And it struck me one day that
this same capacity for inventiveness might
be turned to account from literary point
Of view Here, for instance, Is a little
conjuring box" And as he spoke Mr.
took his watch, PUT IL into the
box. and then gave me the box, a very
small one, minus the watch. A very clev-
er trick, but quite beyond my finding out,
until ITS extreme simplicity was made
plain to me. That was one Of my little
Inventions at school," he said.