OCR Text |
Show I Enumerators Encounter Queer People; Have Wonderful Experiences. WOMEN GUAKD THEIR AGE WITH DESPERATE SECRECY One District Canvasser Tells of Curious Things That Fell to Him. IV Doubtless (hero will be more columns col-umns written nbont l.hincs connected wif.h rho tnkinp of Die l.hirtoentli c)u-sus c)u-sus than on any topic or ovene that has como to public attention for many years. Every enumerator will havo untold un-told numbers of experiences. These ho will unfold to his friends from time lo t.imo, and the' will make interesting f-tories. One of the enumerators in .Salt. Lnko talked with a representative uC The Tribune- Tuesday, and Mio following, fol-lowing, in substance, was the burden of his romarks; "Generally, when T would no to a door and Hup, and, after having lold my nils- nlon to t tic person who answered. I would be Invited In, given a chair and sometimes some-times a good (able to write on, and told to go ahead with my questions. Some of iho pooplc who had been reading all that the newspapers had to say about the census were greatly surprised at the small number or questions, remarking that they thought they would ho pumped dry with every kind of n question that ' man could make up. Others, who hnd read llttlo or nothing concerning the ccn- Isos, were almost taken oft their reel by tho Mot of foolish questions, and personal, too, that you have no right In asking, but the majority of people by far were hind and helped in every way to give all the information In a correct way. Some even would get down the big family Bible and give with absolute precision the year, month, day and sometimes even the hour of birth of Iho ohildrun. Oth-orv Oth-orv of course, as wo expected, would look at us as if to say, 'I won't.' Then wo would hnvc to use all our tact to get the right ago from the woman or girl, as the case might bo. One girl, thinking that the name and ago would go in the city directory, said she w.is but IS, but after It was explained to h?r that the census had nothing to do wlih the directory, she said her age could be put down as IP. I Women "Sidestep" Ago Question. "At one place a young woman was sitting sit-ting on the porch when 1 called, her mother in the house by an open window. Taking iho namo of the mother llrsl, 1 asked her how old she was. Sho plainly and ilnnly said, Thirty.' Her daughter, although having heard, said, "How old did you say, mother?' This time sho plainly and firmly said 'Thlriy-llvc.' J lowever, I lert a blank space for her age, resolving to get this- answer last. Iter daughter gave her age at 22, and after getting all the information I needed, 1 stopped up to the window and said: '.Madam, there seems to bo a slight mistake mis-take somewhere In your age. Could you please give me your correct age?" And this time- she most firmly and positively faid. "Yes I can, but I won't.' But after J talked to her for a few minutes, shoeing shoe-ing her the necessity of it. she came through wltli an age well beyond 45. "One woninu declared she would nor glvp her age or even her name to be published to Iho world.' She, too. after being told how send all information was ' Kept, told all that was needed. : No Race Suicide. "Of couinc, we occasionally ran across feiinic peculiar name. At one place, where the young couple's only child was a boy of S months, horn about the lime the airshhi craze was raging over Europe and the east, carried the notablo Christian Chris-tian name of 'Air Ship. "There certainly was no race suicide in some of the families we visited. J le-llovc le-llovc 1 .enumerated seven sets of twins in my district. Others J spoke to went even higher than that, but imagine my surprise at one place where I was asking 1 a young woman how many children her mother, who was living with her, had had, when she said Twenty-two." I could hardly believe my cars, thinking at first ' sho had given the years of her mother's marriage. But she finally convinced me ' that her mother lind had twenty-two children, most of thfim twins and triplets. , All. however, were bom in .England. She said their neighbor In England had twenty-one living children. I left the I house thinking that there was something j in the world big anyway. The Servant Girl, I "At one place, after having received j all the Information from tho head of the I family except that of the servant, ho , told mc he would send the girl In herself and she would give it. She came in herself. her-self. Tes, 1 should think she did. And f with her all the ire and blazo that she j had collected for years. Sho sot herself firmly In the doorway, and said, with J anger and scorn In her .Irish brogue, ' 'Whnat do ye want av me?' U asked her name first and got It. Then 1 touched oft the bomb by asking her age. She blazed up In a fury and screamed out, 'Mc name Is Mary O'Hara an' I toll me , age to no wan I' and stamped out of the room, the head of the house bravely following fol-lowing her up to the kitchen, and from ,i tho weight and quality of the words I i heard coming from that place 1 was glad , 1 had a good-sized wall between us. "Tho man soon came back and said she refused to tell. I could tell that through the si.zling sentences I had caught from c the kitchen. 1 then told tho man Hat there was a law that would force her to J tell under penalty of $100 fine. Fortified with this law. he again bravely stormed j her In her fortress. Her first refusal wns ' tarno compared to this. one. Her words i fairly burned through the Intervening wall, and sho had gained her second wind, i so that she kept, it up until he had lo retreat In utter defeat, saying, as a sort ' of an apology, that they were .not going to keep her long. He finally persuaded me to return in the evening, when she would be in a butter humor. When I i ' called that evening her anger had 'but slightly abated, but we learned she was born In Ireland, and then, asking tier yr warily how old she was when she came to the United Slates and in what year, ' wo finally deducted how old she was. but . of course never told her we had It or t even wanted it. I i "It was surprising to see how many ' people came from Pennsylvania. This I slate had by far more people from there ,1 thnn from swy other state. Ul "Another curious fact was that I met throe persons who had been enumerators, 1 respectively, ten, thirty and forty years ; ! ago." |