The San Francisco call., 1910-11-06
By Marion r. Dewey


STARTED out in search of a man.
I did not know his name nor ad-
dress. nor his place Of business. nor
even his personal description; all
that ] knew was that he lived in San
Francisco, and that 1 was going to
find him.
Several years ago Mr.. Joseph Jacobs,
with an inquiring mind and bent
toward statistics, conceived the idea Of
determining the typical, average Amer
icsn; not by any process Of guesswork,
but by numerical calculation. Not by
- any means a small undertaking, and
many people viii feel like inquiring
how in the world he was going to
do it,
In the first place. what are we to
understand by the expression, middle
Anerican2' It means that man who is
the absolute mean Of our population;
the man who, in effect, If all the people
OF the United States were melted up
together, would be the resultant aver
age. II all the heads of all the families
IN continental United States were stood
Up in a row according to height, the
ta;.ost s-st and the shortest at the
other end, he would stand exactly in
the middle He would also be the
middle man If they were all ranged
according to each mans degree Of
wealth. with the richest at the head
and the poorest at the foot. 1t is easy
TO see what method to pursue in deter
mining his wealth. age. height and
similar characteristics. It is only a
matter Of calculating averages.
The same means will not answer for
figuring out his occupation. religion or
politics. In such a case the occupation
boasting OF the largest number OF fol-
lowers stands at the head. and the rest
follow IN order OF popularity. the oc-
cupation having the smallest number
being at the foot The occupation IN
which the middle number falls is the
occupation Of the middle American.
Mr.. Jacobs based his calculations on
the heads OF all the white families in
continental United States. There were
IN 1905 almost exactly 100000 fani-
lies; what kind OF a man is the head
OF family No. 7.5o0.oo17 In answer to
this query. Mr. Jacobs produces a mass
OF interesting information, which. in
the briefest outline, is as follows: The
middle American is Samuel Twaites
Raggers by name; by occupation a
spinner in a cotton mill. He is married,
having three living children, and re-
sides ct North Vernon City, Jennings
county, Indiana
Now San Francisco is the largest
city on the Pacific coast; a cosmopoli-
tan city whose Inhabitants are gath
cred from every quarter Of the globe.
II would be interesting to know just
what the middle man OF this conglom-
Grafton is like. and how he compares
with his prototype, the middle Ameri
can.
The search was e most absorbing one
felt IKE a detective on the trail Of
well not exactly a criminal; or like an
explorer in some obscure corner Of the
earth where no civilized man has ever
been before: where each turn will re-
veal scenery and conditions about
which he can risk no predictions. and
every step is step in the dark. I
had no previous idea what the charac-
teristics and position OF San Francis
cos middle citizen were, and the
process OF ferreting them out was as
Interesting as a Chinese puzzle.
In investigating the subject found
things not altogether as had expected.
Al.
OF various degrees of accuracy, same
times being obliged to use those Of