cal Almanac in 1858; and the Family Christian Almanac in 1821. Most, if not all of these are still continued annually.

The class of Political almanacs, or almanacs issued by public journals, began with the first Whig Almanac issued by Horace Greeley in 1838, continued since 1855 as the Tribune Almanac. The chief feature of this publication has been its full tables of election statistics. The World Almanac was first issued in 1868; and the New York Herald Almanac in 1872. The Evening Journal Almanac of Albany dates from 1860, and the Public Ledger Almanac, Philadelphia, from 1870. Many other journals east and west publish annual almanacs.

Of more extensive publications under the name of almanacs published in this country, The National Calendar, edited by Peter Force, was the prototype. This work was published at Washington from 1820 to 1836 (with a three years' interval from 1825 to 1827, when no calendar was issued), and was a useful official register of the Government, with abstracts of public documents and other valuable information. The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge, first published at Cambridge, Mass., in 1830 (two years after the first issue of the British Almanac), was continued annually under various editors and publishers till the year 1861, when the publication ceased. This carefully edited publication embodied much astronomical and meteorological information, that department frequently extending to one hundred pages. The official statistics of Congress and the general government, and of the various States, with a chronicle of events and obituary notices, made up the remainder of the work. The United States Almanac, or Complete Ephemeris, edited by John Downes, appeared at Philadelphia for the years 1843, 1844, and 1845. It was nearly one half made up of astronomical matter and tables, valuable chiefly to those versed in the higher mathematics. The National Almanac and Annual Record for the years 1863 and 1864 was published at Philadelphia by George W. Childs, and contained a vast amount of useful and thoroughly digested information. The American Year-Book and National Register, edited by David N. Camp, appeared from the Hartford press for the year 1869, in an octavo of 824 pages, and was the most extensive attempt to combine a work of general information and reference with the calendar which the country has seen. It has not been continued.

Many almanacs are printed in this country in foreign languages. The pioneer of the German Almanacs was issued by Sower of Germantown, Pa., in 1738, and continued by him and his successors to the present day. Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac was translated into German by A. Armbruster, who was in partnership with Franklin from 1754 to 1758. German almanacs are now printed and circulated in large editions in nearly all the Middle and Western

States of the Union. In French, the Almanach Français des États Unis, established in 1848 in New York, is still published.

Of Nautical Almanacs, the class of Ephemerides which are indispensable to the navigator and astronomer, the first was published by the Bureau of Longitudes at Paris in 1679, and has been continued to this time, appearing since 1788 under the title of Le Connaissance des Temps. The British Nautical Almanac was commenced in 1767, and now forms a large volume published by the Admiralty. In Germany, the Astronomisches Jahrbuch, founded in 1776, still continues to be published by the Royal Academy of Sciences, at Berlin. The first number of the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac, published at Washington, was for the year 1855, by the late Admiral C. H. Davis, under the authority of the Navy Department. These publications are still continued annually, each being issued some three years in advance, with full calculations of eclipses, planetary motions, fixed stars, occultations, etc.

HOW INTEREST EATS.

ONE of the causes of bankruptcy is that so few persons properly estimate the difference between a high and low rate of interest, and therefore often borrow money at a ruinous rate that no legitimate business can stand. Very few have figured on the difference between six and eight per cent. One dollar loaned for one hundred years at six per cent, with the interest collected annually and added to the principal, will amount to $340. At eight per cent it amounts to $2203, or nearly seven times as much. At three per cent, the usual rate of interest in England, it amounts to $19.25; whereas at ten per cent, which has been a very common rate in the United States, it is $13,809, or about seven hundred times as much. At twelve per cent it amounts to $84,075, or more than four thousand times as much. At eighteen per cent it amounts to $15,145,007. At twenty-four per cent (which we sometimes hear talked of) it reaches the enormous sum of $2,551,799,404.

One hundred dollars borrowed at six per cent, with the interest compounded annually, will amount to $1842 in fifty years, while the same $100 borrowed at eight per cent will amount to $4690 in fifty years. One thousand dollars, at ten per cent, compounded, will run up to $117,390 in fifty years.