DISCLAIMER The Boy with the U.S. Census, published in 1911, is a historical document presented in its original context. Users are warned that this book may contain outdated terminology or views which, reflecting the authors’ attitudes or that of the period in which the book was written, may be considered to be inappropriate or offensive today. This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. http://books.google.com TheboywiththeU.S.census FrancisRolt-Wheeler LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA Mrs. William M. Forrest The Boy with the U. S. Census BOOKS BY FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER m. S. Service Sertes Illustrations from Photographs taken for U. S. Govern ment. Large i2mo. Cloth. Price $ 1.50 each. THE BOY WITH THE U. S. SURVEY THE BOY WITH THE U. S. FORESTERS LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON U. S. SERVICE SERIES. THE BOY WITH THE U. S. CENSUS BY FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER With Thirty-eight Illustrations, principally from Bureaus of the United States Government BOSTON LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. Published, November, 191 1 1311 519780 Copyright, 191 1, by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. All Rights Reserved The Boy with the U. S. Census Herweob f>ree» Berwick and smith Co. Norwood, Mass. U.S. A. To My Son Roger's Friend HAMILTON DAY PREFACE Life in America to-day is adventurous and thrilling to the core. Border warfare of the most primitive type still is waged in mountain fast nesses, the darkest pages in the annals of crime now are being written, piracy has but changed its scene of operations from the sea to the land, smugglers ply a busy trade, and from their fac tory prisons a hundred thousand children cry aloud for rescue. The flame of Crusade sweeps over the land and the call for volunteers is abroad. In hazardous scout duty into these fields of danger the Census Bureau leads. The Census is the sword that shatters secrecy, the key that opens trebly-guarded doors; the Enumerator is vested with the Nation's greatest right — the Right To Know — and on his findings all battle-lines depend. When through Atlantic and Pacific gateways, Slavic, Italic, and Mongol hordes threaten the persistence of an American America, his is the task to show the absorption of widely diverse peoples, to chronicle the advances of civilization, or point the perils of illiterate and alien-tongue vii viii PREFACE communities. To show how this great Census work is done, to reveal the mysteries its figures half-disclose, to point the paths to heroism in the United States to-day, and to bind closer the kin ship between all peoples of the earth who have become " Americans " is the aim and purpose of The Authob. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE A Blood Feud in Old Kentucky .... 1 CHAPTER II Rescuing a Lost Race 32 CHAPTER III A Manufactory of Rifles 64 CHAPTER IV The Boy Leader of a Crusade 96 CHAPTER V " Don't Deport My Old Mother ! " . 127 CHAPTER VI The Negro Census from the Saddle . 165 CHAPTER VLT Hoboes on the Tramp 210 is x CONTENTS CHAPTER Vin PAGE The Census Heroes of the Frozen North . 256 CHAPTER IX Confronted with the Black Hand .... 292 CHAPTER X Riots Around a City School 322 ILLUSTRATIONS The Statue of Liberty .... Frontispiece FACING PAGE Taking the Census in Old Kentucky .... 8 Kentucky Mountaineer Family ..... 20 Moonshining ........ 36 Bill Wilsh's Home in the Gully ) 48 Bill Wilsh in the School f Alligator-Catching 56 The Census Building ...... 60 Making Gun-sights True 90 "A Bull's-eye Every Time!" 94 Young Boys from the Pit 108 "I 'ain't Seen Daylight for Two Years" . .118 Eight Years Old and " Tired of Working " . 126 The Biggest Liner in the World Coming in . 136 Immigration Station, Ellis Island .... 150 Where the Workers Come from ..... 164 On a Peanut Farm 186 In an All-Negro Town 190 " Way down Yonder in de Cotton Fiel' " . 198 How Most of the Negroes Live ..... 208 xi xii ILLUSTRATIONS FACINO PAGE Facsimile of Punched Census Card .... 240 Tabulating Machine ....... 246 Pin-box and Mercury Cups 254 Over the Trackless Snow with Dog-team . 268 The Census in the Aleutian Islands .... 274 "Can We Make Camp?" } To Eskimo Settlements by Reindeer J.f ... 286 Gathering Cocoanuts ....... 296 Taking the Census in a City ..... 314 Festa in the Italian Quarter 320 The Fighting Men of the Tongs . .340 Arrested as the Firing Stops 346 Work for Americans ...... 352 THE BOY WITH THE U. S. CENSUS CHAPTER I A BLOOD FEUD IN OLD KENTUCKY " Uncle Eli," said Hamilton suddenly, " since I'm going to be a census-taker, I think I'd like to apply for this district." The old Kentucky mountaineer, who had been steadily working his way through the weekly paper, lowered it so that he could look over the top of the page, and eyed the boy steadfastly. " What for? " he queried. " I think I could do it better than almost any body else in this section," was the ready, if not modest, reply. " Wa'al, perhaps yo' might," the other as sented, and took up the paper again. Hamilton waited. He had spent but little time in the moun tains, but he had learned the value of allowing topics to develop slowly, even though his host 2 WITH THE U. S. CENSUS was better informed than most of the people in the region. Although not an actual relative, Hamilton always called him " Uncle " because he had fought with distinguished honor in the regi ment that Hamilton's father commanded during the Civil War, and the two men ever since had been friends. " I don't quite see why any one sh'd elect to take a hand in any such doin's unless he has to," the Kentuckian resumed, after a pause; " that census business seems kind of inquisitive some way to me." " But it seems to me that it's the right kind of ' inquisitive.' " " I reckon I hadn't thought o' there bein' more'n one kind of inquisitiveness, " the moun taineer said, with a smile, " but if you say so, I s'pose it's all right." " But don't you think the questions are easy enough? " asked the boy. " They may be easy, but thar's no denyin' that some of 'em are mighty unpleasant to answer." " But if they are necessary? " " Thar's a-plenty o' folks hyeh in the moun- t'ns that yo' c'n never make see how knowin' their A KENTUCKY FEUD 3 private affairs does the gov'nment any good." " But you don't feel that way, Uncle Eli, surely? " " Wa'al, I don' know. Settin' here talkin' about it, I know it's all right, an' I'm willin' to tell all I know. But I jes' feel as sure as c'n be, that befo' the census-taker gets through hyeh, I'm goin' to be heated up clar through." " But why? " queried the lad again. " The questions are plain enough, and there was prac tically no trouble at the last census. I think it's a fine thing, and every one ought to be glad to help. And it's so important, too! " " Important! " protested the old man. " Did yo' ever see any one that ever sat down an' read those tables an' tables o' figures? " " Not for fun, perhaps," the boy admitted. " But it isn't done for the sake of getting interest ing reading matter; it's because those figures really are necessary. Why there's hardly a thing that you can think of that the census isn't at the back of." " I don't see how that is. They don't ask about a man's politics, I notice," the mountaineer remarked. " No," answered Hamilton promptly, " but the 4 WITH THE U. S. CENSUS number of members a State sends to Congress de pends on the figures of the population that the census-takers gather, and the only claim that any legislator has to his seat is based on their in formation." " I suppose you'd say the same about schools, too." " Of course," the boy answered. " But I hear the Census Bureau this year wants all sorts of information about the crops an' the number of pigs kept an' all that sort o' stuff." " Don't you think the food of all the people of the United States is important enough, Uncle Elif And then the railroads, too, — they depend on the figures about the crops and all sorts of other things which go as freight." " You seem to know a lot about it," the moun taineer said, looking thoughtfully at the boy. " I ought to," Hamilton said, " because I'm going to be an assistant special agent in the Cen sus of Manufactures right away. I applied last October and took the exam a couple of weeks be fore coming here on this visit." " What makes yo' so cocksure that you've passed the examination? " he was asked. " I didn't find it so hard," Hamilton replied, A KENTUCKY FEUD 5 " figures have always been easy for me, and when my brother was studying for that chartered ac countant business I learned a lot from him." " Your dad, he was a great hand fo' figures, so I s'pose yo' come by it naturally enough. An' you're jes' sure you've passed? " " I haven't heard one way or the other," said Hamilton, " but I'm pretty sure." " Wa'al, thar's no use sayin' anythin' if you're all sot, but it's the business of the gov'nment, an' I'd let them do it." " But I'm hoping to work right with the gov ernment all the time, Uncle Eli," the boy ex plained, " either with the Census Bureau or the Bureau of Statistics or some work like that.