File:Boston, the place and the people (1903) (14784142923).jpg

Identifier: bostonplacepeopl00howem (find matches)
Title: Boston, the place and the people
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Howe, M. A. De Wolfe (Mark Antony De Wolfe), 1864-1960
Subjects: Boston -- History. (from old catalog)
Publisher: New York, The Macmillan company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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han half a millioninhabitants stands in the census of 1900 as the fifthcity in the country, the closely contiguous towns andcities included in what is called Greater Boston makeit the centre of a population numbering well above amillion. In a radius of fifty miles from this centrethere Is a population so near to three millions that theterritory about the city of New York is in Americathe only corresponding area more densely populated. Like all American cities, Boston has seen the char-acter of its population undergo extraordinary changes.A careful student of the subject, Mr. Frederick A.Bushee, pointed out, as the nineteenth century wasending, just what had happened since 1845. Of the fourelements in the population at that time, those bornin other parts of the United States, he said, rankedfirst, those born in Boston of American parentagesecond, the foreign born come next, and the childrenof foreigners last. The transformation that had comein 1899 ^^^ ^^^^ summarized: The foreign born
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THE MODERN INHERITANCE 381 rank first, the children of foreigners second, personsborn in other parts of the United States come next,and the old Bostonians are last. The great changebegan with the Irish invasion immediately followingthe Irish famine of 1846-7. The city which made soprompt and generous a gift as that of Boston to thesufferers, and placed the management of it in handsso efficient as those of Captain Robert BennetForbes, commanding the Jamestown expedition,must have seemed a source of all comfort. Accord-ingly, the Irish hastened to its shores. Coming firstas laborers, with sisters and sweethearts in domesticservice, the men soon showed their native aptitudefor politics. It is now more than twenty years sincethe first of the two Boston mayors of Irish birthentered upon his four years in office. The citygovernment, judged by the names of aldermen andcouncil, has long been virtually an Irish organization;and the Boston Religion, if the numerical test beapplied to it, is no

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