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10
ping through the traps and pitfalls of the bridge
into the great tide that flows beneath. But faster
than in the dream of Mirza is the falling through
of the crowd that struggles to pass over, for thicker
and closer are the hidden traps and pitfalls that
beset the way. Of the thousands who emerge from
the dark cloud that hangs about the bridge's entrance,
only one or two will reach to the hundredth
arch; more than a third of them will have dropped
through before they have traversed the twentieth
part of the way; more than half before they have
got to the summit of the thirtieth arch; and by the
time the remnant of the crowd has reached to the
middle of the bridge, there will be but three-tenths
of all the number tottering on. In the fourth table
of the Appendix I have endeavoured to represent
these facts more clearly than I can describe them.
There you will see that the mortality of young
children is as high as 435 per 1,000 of all the
deaths, or 93 per 1,000 of the living. In the West
London Union it is 363 per 1,000 of the deaths, or
101 per 1,000 of the living; and in the City Union,
it is 327 per 1,000 of the deaths, or 64.5 of the
living. In all England it is 398 per 1,000 of the
deaths, or 73.6 per 1,000 of the living; and in
France it is just 80 per 1,000 of the living. The
proportion of deaths at other ages are shown in the
fifth table of the Appendix; and the general results
are that in all cases, except from ten to thirty-five