Omaha daily bee., 1919-09-03
damned AU Together

Maurice Martin writing in ILLUSTRATING
Paris, reports rough estimate, made by some
expert, that five million persons witnessed the
victory parade of July IA in Paris. The write,
crowd. The arplane photographs taken tina
day showed the people grouped in endless rib
bons, thickly fringing the route of the process
sion, while off to their backs spread the vast
ness ofyParis, empty-squares, bouevards. side
streets, parks-like deserted city. And yet
Paris had. five million watching the parade
Here are few figures and comparisons,
says NJ Martin, (which will prove how small
a thing is man here below, Judged as mere
physical incumbrance, in contrast with the his
toric grandeur of the most sensational events
how geographically minute is our restless and
sometimes, so tragic, anthil.
Let us suppose dense crowd. grouped
as frequently it is grouped, in certain places
at the rate of three to square meter. includ-
ing children-which is nothing very excessive
inasmuch as we might figure it at tour to a
square meter at a squeeze.
Then let us consider, on the other hand. the
area of Paris, 1902 hectares, that is, 5000 600
square meters Multiply this figure BY three to
the square meter. Thus: 224,060,000 grouped
persons
Now then-Pars within the Notifications,
on this basis, with all the houses razed-which
God forbid-could contain theoretically in the
neighborhood of five and half times the ac-
tual population of France, placed at 40 mil
lions in round figures, since the restoration of
Alsace-LorraineA
More than five times the French popula-
ton taken in at a round glance from the top Of,
say, the Eiffel tower-or in other words,
nearly the total united population of the five
great allied nations: France, England Gts Eu-
complete, and about half of the Japanese!
But here are comparisons which will
doubtless, surprise the majority of readers still
more. All humanity, according to the geog-
raphes. amounts. approximately, to- billion
and half inhabitants. Figured on the former
cluded, what space in Europe could contain
this population? Cast the question in the faces
of those around you. Most often they will an
swer: France.
"What mistake The department. of the
Seine WHICH is, as we know the smallest de-
provincial cantons, measures 4,550 hectares,
or AIS IL million square meters. Multiply this
by three to the square meter. We have 1885,
100000 human beings. in a group.
Thus all of humanity including the far away
Esquimaux, the inhabitants of the American
praires, of the Asiatic steppes. the savages
and semi-savages of Africa and Oceania, the
teeming Chinese, the masses of Russia, all.
absolutely ALL would be able, in this geometric
suppostion, to group themselves in the minute
sort of hospitable annex for the balance of "a
million inhabitants hanging on the edges, the
Nord de Versailles canton Smallest canton Of
the Seine ct Disc department) which measures
2,725 hectares and which comprises the north
ern part of the city Of Versailles and the COM
mune of ViroAay. This would even leave
place clear for close to eight million persons,
that is to say, for nearly three times the popu-
lation of Paris.
SHOULD it surprise US, after all, that. seen
from an arplane the crowd should, in its ex-
tent, appear even on its heaviest days, so small
thing in our human habitatw