Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-11-15
LIE TO THE CENSUS TAKER.
Many Women and Boys Misrepresent
Their Ages from DiGrer-
ent Motives.


Feminine vanity, as it is related to
the desire to be esteemed young, and
boyish ambition to attain the manly
and voting age of 81 years are plainly
shown in census figures. This is no new
revelation in the taking of the twelfth
census, but it is an old tendency which
has been shown by the figures of the
past censuses of the United States, as
well as of other countries. 1t has again
been exemplified in the figures relating
to the census of Cuba. study of the
statistics of Cuba has shown an ex-
cessfve number of females between the
ages of Is and 10 years, inclusive, when
compared with the number of males of
/ that age. 1t looked, in fact, as if there
were a good many thousand girls of
that age in Cuba who would never find
mates in life and who would end their
days in single blessedness simply be-
cause there were so many of them,
compared to the youths who were
| growing up with them. That is what
| the figures would appear to indicate to
| the layman, but to the census expert
they mean something else. They sim
! ply mean that girls below the age of
Is wish to represent themselves as
older than they are, while those who
have passed their teens cling to the
age of youth to the extent of even de-
ceiving the census enumerators. Young
ladies who are sensitive on the subject
of their ages fear that the enumerator,
who generally lives in their neighbor-
| hood and frequently knows them, will
| "blab" their ages to all the marriage
able young men and perhaps interfere
with some attachment that bids fair o
ripen into mellow love. The fact is, the
enumerator, as rule, is perfectly
cailous to the significance of the census
Egures and forgets them as soon as he
records them. In Cuba 10 is equivalent
to % years in the age of young lady
living in the northern portion of the
United States.
The last census, says the Chicago
Chronicle, showed that in the United
States there was an excess of girls be-
tween Is and 10 years, but this age. as
the favorite of young ladies, is the gem
eral average of north and south. IL
the statistics could be compiled separ-
ately it is thought by census experts
that the northern states would show
the favorite age to be two to three
years older, while in the south it would
probably be year or so younger.
The census statistics of England
show an excess of women between 90
and "a years of age, which indicates the
favorite age of ladies in that country.
The degree of error which is introduced
into census figures by this systematic
fibbing of young ladies about their ages
is readily and unmistakably detected.
In the case of the young men the
number of those who are shown by the
statistics of the United States to be 21
is far in excess of what it could be, ac-
cording to the number of those who are
under and above that age. This is SIM
ply the result of ambitious youth to
reach the voting age. In Cuba, where
expectation of voting has not been
nourished by the boy all his life and in
duced a preference of 81 as desirable
age, the last census showed no excess
of men of that age.