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Boston Almanac was printed by John Foster, who published the same year the first book ever printed in Boston. The first Philadelphia almanac was put forth in 1686, edited by Daniel Leeds, and printed by William Bradford. New York followed with its first Samuel Clough issued his first

almanac in 1697 by J. Clapp. almanac in Boston in 1700, which was continued until A.D. 1708, under the title of The New England Almanac, a copy of which for 1703, a dingy little book of twelve leaves, measuring three and a half inches by five and a half, is before us. The title is as follows: "The New England ALMANAC for the Year of our Lord MDCCIII. Being Third after Leap-year, and from the CREATION, 5652, Discovery of America, by Columbus, 211, Reign of our Gracious Queen ANNE, (which began March 8, 1702,) the 2, year. Wherein is contained Things necessary and common in such a COMPOSURE. Licensed by His Excellency the GOVERNOUR. Boston, Printed by B. Green and J. Allen, for the Booksellers, and are to be sold at their shops. 1703." The second page bears the traditional and repulsive wood-cut professing to show what parts the moon governs in man's body, corresponding to the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The weather predictions are curious. For April 26 is foretold "misling weather mixt with some dripling showers." The eclipses of the year 1703, "in the judgment both of Divines and Astrologers," are supposed to "portend great alterations, mutations, changes and troubles to come upon the world." The "Comet or Ethereal Blaze," seen in 1702, is said to have led to " blood-shed, droughts, clashing of armies, and terrible diseases among men."

Of Almanacs which have been published in long series in this country, the following list embraces some of the more notable: Nathaniel Ames's Astronomical Diary and Almanac, started at Boston in 1725, and continued more than half a century, about 60,000 copies of which were sold annually; Titan Leeds's American Almanac, Philadelphia, 1726; T. Godfrey's Pennsylvania Almanac, begun at Philadelphia in 1729; Poor Richard's Almanac, by Richard Saunders (Benjamin Franklin), continued by others as "Poor Richard improved," Philadelphia, 1733-1786; Father Abraham's Almanac, by Abraham Weatherwise, Philadelphia, 1759-1799; Nathanael Low's Astronomical Diary or Almanac, Boston, 1762–1827; Isaiah Thomas's Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Vermont Almanac, Worcester, Mass., and Boston, · 1775-1822; R. B. Thomas's Farmer's Almanac, Boston, 1793-1877 ; the Massachusetts Register and Almanac, Boston, established by Mein and Fleming, 1767-1877; Webster's Calendar, or the Albany Almanac, 1784-1877, the oldest family almanac continuously published extant in the United States; Bickerstaff's Boston and New England Almanac, 1768-1814, continued as Bickerstaff's Rhode Island Almanac, Providence, 1815-1877; Poor Will's Almanac,

Philadelphia, 1770 to 1840, or later; the Virginia Almanac, Williamsburg and Richmond, 1751 to 1829, and later; the South Carolina and Georgia Almanac, Charleston, 1760 to 1800, and later; North American Calendar, Wilmington, Del., 1796 to 1844, and later; Dudley Leavitt's New England Almanac, Exeter and Concord, N. H., 1797 to 1877; Thomas Spofford's Farmer's Almanac, Boston, 1817 to 1845; John Gruber's Town and Country Almanac, Hagerstown, Md., 1822 to 1877; the Maine Farmer's Almanac, by D. Robinson, Hallowell, 1818 to 1877; Daboll's New England Almanac, New London, Conn., 1777-1877; and Allen's New England Almanac, Hartford, 1806 to 1833, or later. Many of these almanacs are preserved in private families, though but few are to be found in our public libraries. It was an early habit in New England to preserve the almanacs from year to year, carefully stitched together, and to annotate them frequently with family records or current events. The generally worthless character which has been attributed to the English almanacs of the last century must be modified as regards some of the American family almanacs. Benjamin Franklin, the illustrious printer and statesman, is justly declared by a French encyclopædist to have put forth the first popular almanac which spoke the language of reason. In truth, the homely maxims and pithy proverbial counsels of Poor Richard, although not all originated by Franklin, constitute to this day a breviary of life and conduct admirable in most respects for the use of the young.

In the later days of the American Revolution, the almanacs put forth by Nathanael Low, at Boston, price "4 coppers single," contained political articles vigorously defending the liberties of the people, and exerted a great influence at the New England fireside in inspiring young and old with the love of freedom.

Virginia was early in the field with Warne's Almanac, printed at Williamsburg, in 1731. The first almanac printed in Connecticut was issued at New London in 1765, by T. Green. The first Rhode Island Almanac was issued at Newport in 1728, by James Franklin, and the first Providence Almanac, by Benjamin West, in 1763. The first in Maryland of which we have any trace appeared at Annapolis in 1763.

Of Agricultural and Medical Almanacs, the latter an outgrowth of the present century, the name is legion. Comic almanacs appear to have been first published in the United States about 1834, and have had an enormous circulation. Of the religious or denominational almanacs, the Church Almanac of the Protestant Episcopal Church was begun in 1830; the Catholic Almanac and Directory (continued under various names to the present time) in 1833; the Methodist Almanac in 1834; the Universalist Register in 1836; the Baptist Almanac in 1842 (?); the Congregational Almanac in 1846; the American Unitarian Register and Year-Book in 1846; the Presbyterian Histori

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.

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