Page:1899 The Growth of Cities in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/40

12 windows during the sleeping hours; nuisances are prohibited, and the like. In response to the new wants of the community, the framework of the local government undergoes alteration, the law itself recognizing the difference between urban and rural populations. Not only are new wants to be satisfied, but they must be satisfied by new methods. In the country village, where every citizen knows every other citizen, the town meeting, or primary assembly in its pure form, is the ideal governing body, but with every increase in the size of the town, representation must be given fuller play. Officials are multiplied by the score and hundred, and must be appointed rather than elected, since the voters are unable to inform themselves concerning the merits of so many candidates.

In the United States, then, the law usually provides for three forms of local government: (1) for the township, the primary civil division, (2) for the village, the smallest agglomeration, whose charter of incorporation is granted by the administration in accordance with general laws, (3) the city, whose charter of incorporation is usually a special act of legislation. But as regards the requirements for these grades there is no uniformity of practice. In some of the Western States almost any town may aspire to the dignity of city. Thus North Dakota contained four places which in 1890 severally had a larger population than 2,000 and all were "cities," namely, Bismarck, 2,186; Fargo, 5,664; Grand Forks, 4,979; Jamestown, 2,296. Kansas has no villages or towns ; every place sufficiently large to be incorporated is dubbed "a city." Kingman county has three "cities": Norwich with a population in 1890 of 301; Spivey 205, and Kingman 2,390. The climax of