COPYRIGHT, 1879, BY THE AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY. SECOND ANNUAL PUBLICATION. S. W. GREEN, New York. PREFACE. THE second issue of this statistical annual, delayed a few weeks by the care so essential in tabulating and combining the great mass of figures it contains, is substantially a new work. Only the most indispensable official tables of the former book, brought up to the latest attainable date, have been preserved. It is hoped that the volume will be found an improvement upon its predecessor, not only in the arrangement of material, but in comprehensiveness, freshness, and utility. Although the edition for 1878 did not meet its expenses, owing to the heavy cost of tabular matter and the comparatively small number sold, the editor has been induced, by the assurances of those whose judgment he is not at liberty to disregard, that the work meets a positive public want, to prepare another volume. Whether the AMERICAN ALMANAC AND TREASURY OF FACTS will be continued must depend upon the encouragement received. The editor here records his thanks to the many correspondents in and out of public life who have testified their appreciation of his labors, to the press, who have given the work unanimous and cordial welcome, to the officers of the National and State Governments, who have supplied him with material, and to the members of his family, for constant and efficient aid. WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 1879. |