The Boy With the U.S. Census

the map as the last house, and started for the supervisor's office. He was a day ahead of time, and was congratulating himself on his success in having covered the entire district in the

after seven o'clock when he wa

cting to meet any one, and it was a great surprise to him when he heard voices. A moment later he reached a small clump of trees, and came right upon three men, one with a tea-pot in his hand, standing up and leaning a little forward as though ready to show aggress

ys!" he said

cook replied, and waite

ontinued, "and I knew this was a short cut across t

e equally unaware of the unexpected pleasure of this meeting but that we would ha

peaker supplemented jerking

the spirit of the thing, "but tell him that I was unaware that he ha

the response in tones of surprise, an

above all things conscientious, and he could not forget that these men were probably not entered upon the books of the census, and that now, on the very last day of cen

n of tea to spare," he

what we've got, join us an'

Hamilton answ

y, the gentleman sitting down is 'Jolly' Joe Smith-not because of his humor but bec

d by this time returned to his task of preparing breakfast, and was b

the census for this district. I've got all the names in here," he added, tapping h

, so far as I am aware, the rolls of the United States will be l

have seemed to come up in so natural a way and mentally congratulating h

had been enumerated four times, once for every week they played, an' that not a blessed on

ght now," said Hamilton. "I've room on

'Hatchet Ben,' "I'm not loo

air to the country to l

tly. "I calc'late a country that doesn't give a

he same," answered Hamilton, "and yo

ate," the tr

ilton, turning to th

he 'Windy Duke,' "classical tri

Hamilton, "but wh

r Greek? There are some clever scenes from Aristophanes that I can give you, or if you have a taste for satire I yield second place to none in my interpretation of Juvenal. On the pre-Cadmean alphabets I am-in my humb

each," sugge

ire the youthful mind and it bores me. I am informed that I also bore it. Hence I prefer rather to wander than to teach. I do not claim origin

ed Hamilton of t

aised in Ohio. Not a Yankee, not a Westerner, not a

in this country badly enough in all conscience, and we might as well make the strongest showing we can. Two Americ

on paper, these foreigners that live on nothin' and drive a decent man out of a job, I'll do. I'm down on this jabberin' mob

wanting to work directly upon the schedule for fear of rebuffs, "that two of you should be American

ained, "there's a few English, and a few Swedes. Lots

st exclusive circle. For example,

ilton sai

, not unless it is organized and run on a percentage basis. There are a few Fren

hy?" Hamilt

quires more independence and more address than any profession I know. I find that usually those who adopt this unromantic gypsy career are the men who will not drop to the level of the h

e you take to the road?" said Hami

al story. I'm a steel worker by trade, an' when I was

quit it for?"

an' pretty soon gangs of foreigners would start comin' to the West. They seemed to know whe

d Hamilton; "that would be importing contract l

eigners what to say. These men come over in the steerage with the immigrants, advance them, if necessary,

ness if they go

ay is so much larger than anythin' they can get in their own country, an' they live even here in so cheap a way that no matter what wages they receive they

bor that way," objected Hamilton,

machinery, by givin' a man less and less to lear

boy persisted, "for the more a machine does

ecause they promised to give me a better job. But this supposed better job was just bossin' a gang of these foreigners, an' they got after me because I took every chance I got to talk 'uni

t get any more w

s my trade, an' I don't know any other; the men that run that trade in the United States refuse to let me work at it; very well, then, if the c

het Ben,' I don't like work an' I don't do any unless I have to, an' then besides, there's more exercise for my talents in this business. If you think it is

mean?" ask

ickens get lost, too, an' you find them wanderin' about in the woods, belongin' to nobody, an' there's plenty of nests that hens lay astray that the farmers never could find. If you watch the bees clos

way," said Hamilton, touching t

looks aft

a manner suitable to my desires. By adopting this vagrant life, however, I am able to relinquish a part of my very moderate annuity to my sister,

Jolly Joe,' "why you started going on the road. You s

lookin' to be made a foreman on a section near New York. I had a pile of friends

of the road by now, 'Jol

e same way. The foreman knew a little English-not much-an' he tried to give me orders in mixed English an' Italian. I told him I wouldn't do anythin' I wasn't told to do in straight American, an' when he started in jabberin' and abusin' me with every bad na

the boy said, "but there must be a lot of them

me," 'Hatchet Ben' replied, "the foreigners don't get s

nty of the peasants worked in the fields, they usually lived together in villages and went to the fields in the morning. Then the farms are very small,-our average-sized farm here woul

ghtfully; "it would be far less pleasant living in this

r the schedule which he had secured from the three men while breakfast was being prepared, "but I thi

g himself in the saddle, "if I hadn't done some rustlin' yesterday you would have

I don't know when I've enjoyed a meal so muc

have a chance to see more of the three. He could not help admitting to himself that under proper conditions they would be just

tle older than Hamilton himself was stepping out. He noticed Hamil

y, if I

lton, rightly supposing the question to ref

threw up

ed and went on, while Hamilton continued on his way to the supervi

ap who just left, when you were coming

ed Hamilton, and he quote

the enumerators for the Gullyville district-that's away at the other end of the section from where you were-I found an unusual number of applicants. At the examination, however, there were two who sto

ked even as old as tha

enter. On the other hand, the schoolmaster was a graduate of one of the large colleges, had lived most of his life here and in the mountain districts of the State, was prominent in church affairs, and knew e

boy got

n, and I got a letter from the Director stating that Wurtzi should be appoin

htfully, "but I thought that matters of that kin

rything that I've heard, suggestions from Washington seem to have had the knack of being just about exac

ster have to say

visor replied. "Two or three da

has secured the enum

t the papers to Washington to decide, and the Director ruled that the

' he said; 'it all depends on how you look at it wheth

stared

ou in the least,'

est boy in the school. He lives about three miles out of the village, and the only way in which he could secure his father

to want to learn under those c

from her. The school-master told me that two years ago the boy could neither read nor write his own name, and yet, within that time he had learned to rival his teacher in a fair contest! And during those two years he

because it took a higher degree of ability to teach well than merely to answer a set of test questions, and the boy must have been wonderfully well taught to achiev

lton said, "lots of men would have borne a g

sor answered, "Gre

he had been in

a goo

se and the "trying" scholar. "I've got the carving still," he concluded, "and as you probably will see Mr. Sinclair again soon, I wonder i

, "and from what I know of Sinclair, I feel sure he will go back, thoug

t over this afternoon. I'm sorry not to have had the

connection with this poor lad in his school. I happen to know that he rea

the boy wa

ople who will work the ground without exhausting it as reckless landowners formerly have done all through this country. Many a farm has had its soil so robbed of nourishment that its fertility will take years and years to return. These European

that?" ask

st ignorant immigrant that

n't see that,"

iberty into license. The ignorant immigrant comes to work, he gets a job immediately, he finds that there is good pay and steady employment for a man who does work. The

wered. "I thought it might please the Bu

e to the Director to-night, telling him of your work; your schedules are in good shape, and I think you've done very well to cover your district in the

ere he was to dine before starting on the night train for Washington. Immediately on reaching there he went direct

rd he held in his hand. "The Director is very busy right now, but he said when you ca

Mr. Russet," the boy replied, "tell

beckoned to

aid. Then, turning with a smile to the boy

wing the messenger, Hamilton found himself on the main floor with hundreds of machines clicking on every side of him.

you on one of the

oy answered, "I want to

. If you want to begin right away you can start this afternoon. Here," he said, picki

to start now,"

of the room. "You had better try to find out as much as you can from the instructions, and

ting down at the machine, "I think I c

htly colored, giving the arrangement of the keys quite a gay effect. The instructions were very clear, and with the machine in front of him the boy quickly saw its principles. He was so deeply sunk in the book

," asked the boy,

as going to before long. You seem

milton, rightly guessing that this must be the foreman, "and I thought th

about census work?"

cial agent on the manufactures division, and I only l

just when that end of the work closes, but I didn't know, of course, you had been doing manufactures. I

"and I was anxious to have a chance to learn all the various parts of th

what you kn

closed

se first four columns on the card I have nothing t

way. The district and State and all that sort of thing go in th

id, "this list of instructions to the pun

to do with it. But I'll tell you if you want to know. There are about seventy thousand enumeration dist

ard or anything like it," the boy cried, "all told the

ys, five in one hundred and twenty ways, six in seven hundred and twenty, seven in over five thousand ways; ten would give you over three and a half million ways of changing t

now. It would take a sheet of paper a city b

great mathematician, calculated that over six hundred septillions of easily pronounceable words, none over three syllables long, could be arranged. We have room enough to arrange any trifling little matte

the card which corresponds with every district number on

r hole is punche

"I put in a canceled card just now and tried it, but when I

over your keyboard, comparing what might be called your map of depressed keys with the line of the schedule you are copying. If one is wrong, you can release that one and put down the correct one in its place,

nching done, then?

punches which have been depressed by the operator, including, of course, the gang-punch, and these perforate the card. It is then immediately withdrawn, and drops automatica

e and the same operation as the punching of the card," t

punching. At the same time, the schedule, which is held in rigid alignment, has been turned just exactly the right amount to bring the next line in the di

of the card. In what you call the third column-though it is really the fifth-I punch either 'Hd

's ri

gh. In the next section down, but still in the same line is 'W' for White, 'Mu' fo

said, "you're not like

For instance, the way it looks to me is that if a fellow was sixteen, you would first punch the '15' and then

ord made for every person in the United States,

from nine to eleven months old; the first division means under

r every person. For a boy of ten, you would have to punch the '0' as well as t

he reason

"'S' for Single, 'M' for Married, 'Wd' for Widowed, 'D' for Divorced, 'Un' fo

n by the greatest number of its inhabitants. Now the mother tongue of Wales is Welsh, but a large proportion of the people do not speak Welsh. Thus an E

y would have to be punched 'OL' if the person whose census was registered had spoken German as his native tongue, but 'LC' if he had spo

e way in which those are to be punched will be

eal of editing, I suppose," e

e same style, you can see how necessary it must be for some group of persons to go over them to make them all uniform. Besides which, there are a lot of obvious mi

parents, and 'FP' foreign-born parents. Further on, 'Na' means Naturalized, 'Al' stands for Alien, 'Pa' that first papers have been taken out, and 'Un' unknown. Down the column, 'En' seems to mean t

mber the numbers which signify the more common of these and you will need to refer to the list but seldom. All occupation returns not contained in the printed list will be classified and punched later by a special force of clerks. Hole

find it harder, though, if I hadn't been writing all those things jus

e why and wherefore of everything. Now you had better take this old test sched

st the manner in which the schedules had been made up helped him to an extraordinary degree. He was well pleased, therefore, when he came down to work the following morning, to find at his machine a real schedule, not the test that he

ilton, "what difference

e succeeding numbers out? Besides, you never have a chance to see whether a card is right or not, because after you have touched the lever and the card is punched

untered over several times to the verification department to become familiar with the work of the machine used there. There was a fascination to the boy in this machine, for it seemed almost to possess human intelligence in its results, an

day, after hours, Hamilton

mation?" questioned the

oken to one or two of the operators about the principle of it, but they no

although the machine itself is a little complicated. You noticed, of course, that the operator lays a card on this plate which is full of holes, and you probably noti

at this was one of the most important parts of the machine, and

ified and every error prevented, and which also tabulates and n

ose holes in the plate you can see a little cup of bri

e boy responded, "but it look

transmit an electric current, so that if an electrically charged pin comes down into the

what is the idea of the cup of mercury; could n

s would wear away quickly, and the plate would get worn, whereas, by the pin jus

ong arm which comes down every time a card is put on

lly stopped before they reach the mercury so as not to make a contact on every point. Also if a card wer

ds and do not go through where no holes are punched, so that somehow the number of holes in the card is registered. But still, the

"for of the hundred million cards punched, no

the same age should do the same work, be both m

ave the same number of children and a whole lot more things, and even then-the cards would be different for they would represent dif

achine can tell which cards are right among mi

that are right," was the answer, "but

the diff

de the bell would not ring. Such wiring might be highly complex, but you see the idea is simple. For a right group of contacts, all the wires ar

an by a wrong group

o be wrong, and if 'Emp' for employer is punched on the same card as an age punch showing the person to be a three-year-old youngster, the card is wrong. There are

on the same card as 'N' for native-born, and thi

similar character,"

ould be easy to arrange the wires so as to catch really bad inconsistencies, but sup

unch in every field and only one. Any field which does not have a conta

rejected cards?" asked

nched, punches a new card, if only insufficiently punched, punches the missing

right getting all those holes punched in a card, and so forth, I should think it would be

you must remember that the sorting process is done by machinery all the way along, just as the verifying and the

said, "that was to

rough with the verifying, so that all the cards of a certain enumeration distri

exclaimed, "what a s

aving its own place, and every little village in that district right where it belongs in a box of its own, under that State, county, and district. I

xes on the punching machine,

d by village, district, county, and State, as well as sex, when it leaves the punching machine From there it comes to the tabulating machine-which is ju

. Cullern?" t

corresponding with each possible item of information on the card, and for each contact made to each dial, an added unit is registered. The tabulating process is completed by an automatic recording and prin

before

ferent lines. And the sorting device depends again u

boy to another por

a traveling carrier picks it up and runs it along to the point where the wires stop, the top wire extending to the furthest compartment. As the card falls, it is tilted into place against the pile of preceding cards, an automatic receiver holding them together, the operator clearing a

Hamilton wonderingly, "that

s itself with cards, verifies and tabulates at an incredible speed. It took some time to perfect all the adjustments, but it is running finely now, and it will simplify the wo

hich almost magically detects mistakes in any ce

person in this whole country being registered on a card with a lot of little

boxed up and in the storage vaults of the building. But the magician is the Director. He is the man whose spells have woven this web

a share in," the boy de

perior replied "is the chiefest sp