The Boy With the U.S. Census

spare time to the study of conditions in the far North. Indeed, the lad became so enthusiastic about it that every evening, when he reached home, he worked out

ret that he faced the day when the last

wn his pen and glancing round to his companion. "How about

s friend replied, "at least I know that most of i

ed, "although I don't write particularly w

ed," said

wanted some one to take up Spanish with him so that he wouldn't be alone in it; and to keep him company, I hammered at it too.

now Spanish," remarked Barnes, "a

n schedules was turned in, Hamilton asked concerning the Porto

hief, "but still, I suppose Mr. Alavero can

owed him, with a word of farewell and thanks to the editor of

nish is like, but I think he may be of some use to you in getting out the manufactures statistics

ly at the boy and shook

he report. It is going to be fuller than most of them because there is so much Am

hen!" Hamilton said, with a n

editorial work, as you call it, since he is the editor; you a

eau official gone than th

ou can do all yourself, writing and everything else, so that it will be 'r

nd from that day on would have do

tered with maps and drawings of the island, with papers in Spanish and English, with reports and circulars containing p

of the shoulders. "I was in Washington this last

rto Rico yoursel

steamboat until I came to the United States last autumn; I came to show t

hy

h we could sell in Europe at high prices, but now the European tariff against the United States includes us, and our coffee

ried the boy. "I notice that nearly half these

," the Porto Rican answered. "Sugar

" asked the boy. "It doesn't want

e a great deal; but sugar, yes. That's not such an obs

lk of the isl

are pure white, a much smaller proportion of negroes than in some of your Southern States. The negroes

ico had to wait for his figures until the head of the

n the Philippines; you certainly couldn't call the Filipinos peaceful

he frequency of his gestures and the volubility of his explanations was busily wor

as I see that most of these tables are compared wit

uring which he had been working over a column of figures,

me," Hamilt

he War Department, because the fighting was hardly over. You think the census difficult? You should hear my uncle! The D

hostile natives?" asked H

places where the census was only estimated! The blowpipe and the poison arrow are most dangerous. Even with t

ally wild?"

he most savage, are in those jungles. My un

n't know that the Stars and Stripes floated over

and the woman two or three inches shorter; they use their toes like fingers, they wear only a

the Red Indians as a part of the United States races, but the Pygmi

few have rough huts, but most

re do th

he gr

uld be afraid of wild b

w in the Philippin

kes, then?" qu

er strike unless alarmed or attacked. No snake will bite a sleeping man. Wi

? And a python could easily

out; "rabbits are more his size, or a young fawn.

o they

get all they want with bow and arrow, or with a stone. They

n. "But it really must have been an awful job enumerating them. And when it comes to p

e aboriginal tribes all over the world are doing. There ar

es than that in the Phili

ginal tribes are the Negritos, perhaps as close to primitive man as any people on earth; those are the ones I have been telling you about, and t

e head-h

the forests, and occupying the coasts themselves. These tribes, the Igorots, the Ilongots, the Bilans, and so forth, are of the same general type as the head-hunters of Bor

never thinks that sort of thing can be going on

alay archipelago and its submission to Mohammedanism. The Moros are haughty and assume the air of conquerors. As the Igorots drove the Negritos to the forest and thence to the wild interior, so the M

the same questions that United States citizens were asked, writing the answers on the s

ven now considering what will be the best way to attack the problem should it have to take the next Philippine census, as it pro

nd his informant

could grasp the idea of ten groups of ten. So a bundle of sticks was sent to each village and each man was made to cut notches in these sticks up to ten to show how many children, or pigs, or chickens he h

king," the boy said. "I thought some of my up-country negro farmers were barbaric-especi

ion," said the Porto Rican. "The slums of a great city are little less d

it especially?" asked

to start soon for some of the larger cities, where reports of census frauds had b

. Burns I was wi

to have you as his as

milton, his eyes shining, "but how abo

eavoring to suppress a smile, "and the chapter th

swered, "I can finish

or assured him. "I don't think Mr. Burns i

gaged in compiling a big tabulation on the proportion of breadwinners per age and sex for one of the provinces of th

tedly, jumping up and shaking hands,

of the time," was the reply "and I'm going away on the ele

ut

if you wanted to com

we going,

w Y

at

ing to the boy, "it's just this: there are always some cities that aren't satisfied with the census. I believe of the cities of over thirty thousand inhabitants at this census there has been something like nine, decimal-eight-one per cent protests, and the most necessary of

" said Hami

be on th

boy answered. "Eleve

ve covered almost the entire ground of the field-work of the Decennial Census, and while he was sorry to leave his Porto Rican friend, st

on Station at Washington, "whether there would not be a very large number of protests about cen

d. "I think something like a hundred pl

he taking of the census, in which it was suggested that some enumerators-who we

n or city to make the place appear larger and more important. Tacoma, Washington, was the most flagrant example of this, why, they padded 32,527 names t

his gr

self might have an opportunity to check the correctness of its methods. The

it come out?"

s, indeed, a wonderful object lesson in showing how sma

fraud among the enumerators

as having permanent residences, by numbering citizens both at business and home addresses, and the constant difficulty of the floating population. Deliberate frauds were very few; where trouble was found it was usually discovered to have b

nsus is to make it seem that there are more

ures are an understatement, probably of about one per c

ilton said. "But do towns never wi

Association wrote and demanded a recount on the ground that the figures were too big. The r

of statistics in New York carefully. Personally I believe the work has been as well done as possible, an

but it was quite a home-coming when, after passing through the great tunnels under th

ngs more in New York than anywhere. In Washington there always seems lots of time to do everything you want, but New York is just made

estless; I can't say I like the nois

iastically, "the low houses and poky ways of older and smaller cities look

, in other places, even in Euro

y themselves; they mean something, they have a use, while a spire just sticks straight up, pointing at nothing and being of no service unless it is to hang bells in a belfry. I don't care what people say about those crazy old tu

iastic, Noble,"

but I want to be a game sport and try my strength with the rest of the crowd in the current, sink or swim. It's all right to say that the heart of the nation is Washington, and the backbone is the farm, but its nerve center is here,-right here in New York. America's the wonder of the world, all right, but all there is to it

de of these great s

of windows; lightning speed elevators make the top floor easier to get at than the second story of a dark, old-fashioned staircase building; and I've heard that the marble mosaic entra

looked at th

s of thousands of families who live in rooms with nothing but court windows; if you could find out in how many thousand families children are toiling under sweatshop conditions till far into the night; if you were to ask the tuberculosis dist

on, a little taken abac

a 'Seeing New York' trip of a new kind." And turning off sharp

able. He had one of the schedules that had been filled out during the enumeration of the city, and the Inspector had bidden him verify certain portions of it which were either confusing or slightly incorrec

n one tenement, and in each he found three or four people working over ostrich plumes, working nervously at high speed, afraid to stop, even for a moment. He noted con

lthough it was morning and a brilliant, sunshiny day, the light within was so dim that it was hard to work by; yet with characteristic shiftlessness the window had not been washe

ator at a doorway, entering in his

he boy, noting on the schedule a

al-perhaps

which had fallen to the floor.

ce," and was signed with the nam

go?" aske

n shook

ood. Two hours' work means twe

he matter

n, next year, perhaps.

at room, and all-even the youngest, a baby four years old-were knotting th

as cheerfully as he could. "With so many l

lessly, "we get along. Some da

h of

only sometimes, when I am not too sick. We can get a litt

d everything correctly reported and relieving his conscience by giv

fur, every one of them with hacking coughs

," was again the unan

several of the members had a bad infectious skin disease. Chancing to meet a health

ed," the health officer said, "and I suppose I o

asked

ork away, they will starve t

f you

h, I'll have to put a stop to it, of course, bu

o to a hospital,

officer sho

han they can get in a dispensary, and every hospital to which they applied would tr

ould they ge

akes no difference to the middlemen where the work is done

g open to the same

nspector sho

es which need hand embroidery are sent to sweatshops to be done. Not all, of course, but enough of them to keep thousands of women and children working day and n

ho was working had moved out of the slums, or that the family had progressed sufficiently to find better quarters. Everywhere the children from these fearful homes seeme

ure of the poverty behind him. His next district was a section of the Italian quarter, and Hamilton knew that while he would find poverty of a certain kind there, there was e

dows was in Italian, but Hamilton's Spanish enabled him to make out what the phrases meant, and he went in. At a table not far from the door, a man was sitting with his back to the entrance. He did not hear the lad's step until Hamilton was just behind him, then, with an Italian cry, he turned upon its face the p

m, and seeing the Italian standing there, broke into a passio

ed to the boy, "that I not wan

an I have some dinner?" he added, laying on the table a book he had just

d off a string of dishes from which the boy

ll of grit as he was, felt uneasy. Casting his eye down to where he had laid his book, he noticed the piece of paper sticking from beneath it, and noticed moreover, a heavy shadow

ger carefully as he spoke, "that gentl

put a question in Italian, to which

r the paper which lay on the table, only half-hidden by the

the Bla

e Italy, New York, preparing for one of the