One hundred years ago
The detailed account of the United States' census reveals some curious facts. One is, that the number of males exceeds that of females by 888,298, the numbers being males 25,520,582, and the females 24,632,284. the difference must be mainly due to the larger number of men who emigrate as compared with women, and accounts, in some measure, for the high position women attain in America. Curiously enough, the excess numbers of males is within a few thousands of the excess of females in the United Kingdom. The effort to count the settled Indians involved some extraordinary adventures, one census clerk in particular doing his work in Alaska upon snowshoes, and at the risk of his life. In England, it is said, the only risk is from enraged cooks, who, for some mysterious reason, think employment depends upon their being thirty-five.
Spectator 26 February 1881.
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