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Show HARD TO ESTIMATE CROWD Few Civilians Are Able to Give Numbers Num-bers of a Gathering Army Officers Of-ficers Tell Secret. It is remarkable how the average civilian overestimates the number of persons in a big procession. Take, for example, the recent demonstration in London. It was said that there were 15,000 men in line and some enthusiasts enthusi-asts put it even at 20,000. But it is easy to estimate such numbers approximately, approx-imately, says London Tit-Bits. Here ! is the rule as laid down in the "Field Service Regulations" of the United States army: "The strength of a body of troops may be estimated from the length of time it takes to pass a given point. Assuming As-suming that infantry in column of fours occupies half a yard per man, cavalry one yard per trooper and artillery ar-tillery in single jlumn per gun or caisson, a given point would be passed in one minute 'iy about 175 nfantry, 110 cavalry at a walk, 200 cavalry at a trot and five guns or caissons." Allowing for spacing between companies, com-panies, battalioi c and regiments, all of which is according to mathematical rule, it takes a regiment of 1,000 men divided into battalions just ten minutes min-utes to nass. or at the rate of 6.000 an hour. And this supposes no breaks in the line. These rules, it must be remembered, are for trained soldiers used to a long step and to keeping up without straggling. strag-gling. No civilians, even militant suffragettes, suf-fragettes, ever ker$ -r could keep up this pace. |
