practical information, the mastery of which will make a student an intelligent citizen, so far as current history is concerned.'

HENRY WHITTEMORE, Principal of the Massachusetts State Normal School:

"Cne of the immortal indispensables.'"'

C. M. LIGHT, Principal of the New Mexico Normal School:

"It is current history and deserves as much attention by pupils as earlier events.” E. W. WETMORE, Department of Natural Science, New York State Normal College: "In preparing material for lessons in geography, history, literature, and science, it furnishes, in concentrated and available form, needed facts which it would take hours to find in the standard text-books and elaborate encyclopedias. I have both used it myself and have recommended it to our pupil teachers for years as the most efficient and possible. Every teacher and every scholar above the primary grade should have one constantly within reach."

FRED S. ROOT, Pastor of the Park Congregational Church, Hartford, Ct.:

"In a weary mood this evening I picked up a copy of THE WORLD ALMANAC and read, and read, and read until, to my surprise, the evening had almost disappeared, with my work all unfinished. Your ALMANAC is full of the most fascinating information, and is easily superior to anything of its kind in the language. I am almost tempted to study a page a day as an exercise in memory."

J. E. RANKIN. D. D., LL. D., President of Howard University, Washington, D. C.: "When I took my grip-sack for a three months' trip abroad last Summer, the only books I insisted on were the New Testament, Emerson's Poems, and THE WORLD ALMANAC-religion, poetry, statistics."

STEPHEN A. NORTHROP, Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Fort Wayne, Ind.:

"I would not do without it under any circumstances. I keep it on my desk by the side of my Bible, Webster's Dictionary, and Roget's Thesaurus."

The late WALTER S. CARTER; of Carter, Hughes & Rounds, Attorneys, New York:

"A great book is THE WORLD ALMANAC. In congratulating Mr. Leonard, editor of "Who's Who in America," the other day. I told him that his book was worthy to rank with Baedecker and THE WORLD ALMANAC."

Berlin Correspondent of THE WORLD:

"Travelling in the express to St. Petersburg, there sat opposite me Count Muravieff, the Russian Foreign Minister. During the long journey he was completely absorbed in a copy of THE WORLD ALMANAC."

K. Y. FUKUYAMA, Yokohama, Japan:

"It is a wonderful book."

The late A. OAKEY HALL, ex-Mayor of New York:

"The copy used in this club (the Lotus Club) shows by its dilapidation how much it has been used. And what impresses all users whom I have met is the exceeding cleverness and elasticity of arrangement for ready reference by author, journalist, and seeker after 'notes and queries' allied to daily domestic, business, or other conversational life."

The London Standard:

"The American Whitaker.

Inventory of his belongings."

The New York Times:

It is a detailed census of Uncle Sam's people and an

"Its contents have always been what an almanac's contents should be-accurate, concise, inclusive."

Thousands of less distinguished, but just as highly appreciated, readers as those quoted in the foregoing paragraphs write complimentary letters to THE WORLD ALMANAC. One of the most valued tributes is from a prisoner in a great Western penitemary, who sent through the warden of the prison for a copy of the 1907 ALMANAC, and wrote:

"For several years I have studied THE WORLD ALMANAC, and have turned many hours which would otherwise have been dreary and wasted into hours of study. I have acquired from THE ALMANAC quite a liberal education, and when I leave here a free man I will be better fitted to make my way in the world than I was when I entered this prison. It is a wonderful book."

The list need not be augmented. THE WORLD ALMANAC for 1908, without claiming perfection, is nevertheless put forth with knowledge that a vast army will welcome it as the peerless statistical and encyclopedic publication of the year.

A Quarter-Century Record of Events.

THE STORY OF HUMAN ENDEAVOR AND ACCOMPLISHMENT SINCE 1888.

So rapid has been the march of events during the past quarter of a century, and so vital a bearing have those events had upon the world's history, that a mere retrospective glance over the record since 1883, indicates with intensity the certainty of still greater changes by a restless civilization before Father Time's dial marks the passing of another twenty-five years.

When the new regime of The World begun with a wedding to progress, Victoria sat upon England's throne, nearing her diamond jubilee celebration. Chester A. Arthur, of New York, had been elevated, by the assassination of James A. Garfield, to the Presidency of the United States. The German Empire destinies were ruled by William I. The Emperor of Russia was Alexander III. Humbert I. was completing his fifth year as King of Italy. Francis Joseph I. had been for thirty-five years Emperor of Austria, and the veteran Pius IX. was Pope. Alphonso XIII., now King of Spain, had not yet been born. Wilhelmina, Queen of the Netherlands, was just out of her cradle, and her father, William III., was King. In brief, the vast majority of the ruling powers of 1883 have now laid their sceptres before the great monarch Death.

1883

In the United States, the year 1883 opened with eyes centred on Washington, where Congress was debating the House bill to reduce internal revenue taxation, which bill the Senate reported with amendments embracing a thorough revision of the tariff, based upon the report of the Tariff Commission. The bill was adopted by both houses on March 3. In April, May and June political excitement ran high during the trials of General Brady and ex-Governor Kellogg, of Louisiana, for complicity in the Star-Route frauds. They were acquitted. In May the Brooklyn Bridge, from City Hall, New York, to Brooklyn, was opened, after an expenditure of thirteen years' labor and $15,500,000. In June the U. S. S. Yantic and Arctic steamer Proteus sailed from St. Johns, Newfoundland, for the relief of the Greely scientific expedition to Lady Franklin Bay. In September the last spike of the Northern Pacific railroad was driven at Independence Gulch, western Montana. The bi-centennial of the first German settlement in America was celebrated at Germantown, Pa., in October. In the same month the United States Supreme Court pronounced unconstitutional a number of the provisions of the Civil Rights bill. On October 1 domestic letter postage was reduced from three cents to two. In November Lieut-Gen. Philip H. Sheridan succeeded Gen. W. T. Sherman in command of the armies of the United States, General Sherman retiring upon age limit.

In February, 1883, while the English Parliament gravely listened to the "speech from the throne," expressing satisfaction at the "settlement" of the Egyptian struggle, events in the Soudan were really precipitating the great clash less than a year later, when General Gordon was hurried to Khartoum by the Gladstone government to find glory and death in the noted siege. In Ireland the echo of the Fenian troubles which had led in 1882 to the murder of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas H. Burke in Phoenix Park, Dublin, was heard when fell the drop of the gallows on which the assassins were hanged.

The universe, however, was fairly quiet twenty-five years ago, the earth's big family behaving itself in a much more exemplary manner than it has in later days, when the spirit of possession has stalked about with outstretched hands over widespread territory, despite the instituting of international peace conferences. It is an historic fact worthy of record in 1908 that one of the things that has not changed in the two and half decades now under consideration is the appetite of the lion for the lamb.

1884

The year 1884 was one of commotion in the United States, bringing the recurrence of a Presidential campaign in which were crushed the ambitions of James G. Blaine, the nom

inee of the Republican party, through his defeat by Grover Cleveland, of New York, the Democratic candidate. The battle was hard fought and acrimonious, and the triumph of Mr. Cleveland opened freely to the National Democracy the White House doors, which had been closed to it since the incumbency of Abraham Lincoln. In the nominating convention Mr. Blaine wrested the prize from President Arthur, Gen. John A. Logan, Senators John Sherman, Joseph R. Hawley, George F. Edmunds and others. Logan was consoled by being named for the Vice-Presidency. The Democratic National Convention considered the names of Thomas F. Bayard, Thomas A. Hendricks, Allen G. Thurman, John G. Carlisle, Governor Hoadley, of Ohio, and Governor Cleveland. Cleveland was nominated on the second ballot, with Thomas A. Hendricks as running mate. In the election on November 4 Cleveland and Hendricks received 4,911,017 popular and 219 electoral votes, the Republican ticket receiving 4,848,334 popular and 182 electoral ballots. In this campaign Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, was the candidate of the Greenback and AntiMonopoly parties, polling 123,835 popular votes. The Prohibition party polled 151,809 votes for its candidate, John P. St. John, of Kansas.

The month of May, 1884, was marked by a financial sensation which attracted international attention. The failure of James R. Keene, who was said to have lost $4,000,000, was immediately followed by the collapse of the Marine Bank, the Metropolitan Bank and the firm of Grant & Ward, with which firm ex-President Grant was said to be connected. General Grant borrowed $150,000 from William H. Vanderbilt to avert the crash, and lost his savings. The Grants had much sympathy, and mortgaged all their property, declining to let Mr. Vanderbilt cancel his loan. James D. Fish, president of the Marine Bank, and Ferdinand Ward, active member of the firm of Grant & Ward, were arrested for fraud, convicted and each sentenced to ten years' imprisonment at hard labor in Sing Sing, N. Y., prison. Other noteworthy events of the year in the United States were: The funeral ceremonies in New York City of the remains of the victims of the Jeanette Arctic disaster, Lieutenant-Commander George W. De Long, U. S. N., and others, on February 23; the vetoing by President Arthur of a bill to restore Gen. Fitz-John Porter to the army and retire him with rank of Colonel; the ratification of a treaty between the United States and Mexico; the signing of a commercial convention between the United States and Spain; the trial, conviction and twelve years' suspension of Brig.-Gen. D. G. Swaim, Judge AdvocateGeneral of the United States Army, charged with having attempted to defraud a banking firm in Washington; the return of the Greely Relief Expedition from Arctic seas, with Lieut. A. W. Greely and a few of his party alive, and with numerous dead; the laying of the corner-stone of M. Bartholdi's statue of "Liberty Enlightening the World" on Bedloe's Island, New York Harbor, with Masonic ceremonies, on August 5; the opening of the Prime Meridian Conference in Washington, D. C., on October 1; the signing of a reciprocity treaty between the United States and Santo Domingo, and the setting of the capstone of the Washington Monument in December. The New Orleans Exposition was formally opened on December 16.

Abroad, in November, Prince Bismarck opened the Berlin Conference, dealing with important questions anent Africa, and presaging a change in the time-honored foreign policy of the United States. The American representative was John A. Kasson, who contended for and attained in part the neutralization of the Congo and Niger, and who, in conjunction with England's and Belgium's representatives, secured provisions for the suppression of slavery and the slave trade, the amelioration and preservation of native races, religious liberty and the encouragement of many laudable enterprises. If, however, the terrible tales of subsequent Beigian cruelty to the blacks of Africa be at all true, both the letter and the spirit of the conference seem to have had little effect in recent years toward the betterment of conditions. In the Soudan, in 1884. General Gordon was besieged at Khartoum from February 18 by the Mahdi. In October a British expedition set out from Cairo to ascend the Nile and release the beleaguered garrison.

1885

The inauguration of Grover Cleveland as President, on March 4, 1885, was marked by great rejoicing among Democrats of the United States. He named Thomas F. Bayard, of Delaware, as Secretary of State; Daniel Manning, of New York, Secretary of the Treasury; William C. Endicott, of Massachusetts, Secretary of War; William C. Whitney, of

New York, Secretary of the Navy; Lucius Q. C. Lamar, of Mississippi, Secretary of the Interior; A. H. Garland, of Arkansas, Attorney-General; William F. Vilas, of Wisconsin, Postmaster-General. On March 12 the President withdrew the Nicaragua Canal and Spanish reciprocity treaties from the Senate for further consideration; on March 13 he warned, by proclamation, all white settlers off the Oklahoma country. Indian Territory; on March 19 the Senate approved the convention with Mexico for rectifying the boundary and prolonging the term for ratifying the treaty of commerce. On March 20 Secretary Whitney asked for an accounting from John Roach, the noted ship builder, and instituted an investigation of the Navy Department; the suspension of Roach followed this action. The United States Supreme Court declared the Edmunds Anti-Polygamy bill constitutional on March 23. On April 30 Mr. Cleveland named Anthony M. Keiley, of Virginia, as Minister to Italy, which country declined to receive him, whereupon he was appointed Minister to Austria, and when that government followed Italy's course the nomination was withdrawn and the mission left vacant. In June a diplomatic understanding was reached at Washington between the State Department and the British Minister for the extension of the privileges secured by the Treaty of Washington during the open season. In September massacres of Chinamen in Wyoming, Idahc and Washington Territory led to a protest by the Chinese Government; the President issued a proclamation against the outrages, and thirteen ringleaders were later indicted. Six months later he sent a message to Congress expressing his opinion that the United States was not liable either by treaty or international law for the loss of life or property, but suggested that Congress indemnify the Chinese sufferers as a matter of humanity. The first session of the Forty-ninth Congress was opened on December 7, with John Sherman, of Ohio, as President pro tem of the Senate (Vice-President Hendricks having died), and with John G. Carlisle, of Kentucky, as Speaker of the House. On December 19 Congress voted a pension of $5,000 a year to the widow of ex-President Grant. The successful blowing up of Flood Rock, near Hallett's Point, East River, New York, by Gen. John Newton, U. S. A., in October, thus removing a dangerous menace to navigation, was a noted engineering feat of the year 1885. The year also witnessed troubles in Central America. An alliance was formed by Costa Rica, Salvador and Nicaragua to resist the President of Guatemala, who crossed the frontier of Salvador with 15,000 men on March 28. The insurgents burned Aspinwall on April 1, and United States troops and marines were sent there next day to protect the communications between Aspinwall and Colon. Peace was concluded between the Central American republics on April 16, and on May 3 was concluded a treaty between the United States and Colombo for the joint preservation of order on the Isthmus. General Preston was executed on August 25 for the burning of Aspinwall, and thus the warlike incident closed.

England lost her heroic Gordon on January 26, when the Mahdi took Khartoum, and he fell two days before the British troops, under Wilson, reached that city. Wilson, finding his mission vain, returned to Egypt. In Parliament the franchise was greatly lowered, a redistribution of seats was effected, and, by the Parnellite defection, Gladstone was defeated on the budget and resigned June 9, the Conservatives taking office with Salisbury as Premier. On June 12 Bechuanaland was annexed to the British Empire, and on November 13 Great Britain declared war against King Theebaw of Burmah.

1886

The events of 1886 in the United States included serious labor troubles. In March the Knights of Labor boycotted the Gould railroad system in the Southwest, with fatal conflicts between striking railroad men and military and civic authorities. Strikes were general, demands being for higher wages and shorter hours, or both. On May 1, while railroads and factories were paralyzed in Chicago, 40,000 workingmen paraded. Anarchists threw a bomb among the police in Haymarket Square with fatal effects. Rioting continued for two weeks. In August eight of the Anarchists were convicted of murder and seven were sentenced to be hanged. The Cunard steamship Oregon, with 846 passengers on board, was sunk by collision with a schooner off Long Island on March 14 without fatalities. President Cleveland was married on June 2 to Miss Frances Folsom in the White House, Washington, D. C., by the Rev. Dr. Byron G. Sunderland. On June 17 the Most Rev. James Gibbons, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Baltimore and Primate of the Church in the United States, was created a Cardinal and was solemnly invested with the biretta.

in his cathedral on June 30. An earthquake shock on the night of August 31, felt throughout a large portion of the Eastern States, killed sixty-one persons at Charleston, S. C., destroyed many buildings, entailing a financial loss of millions, and making thousands homeless. The Boston sloop Mayflower defeated the British cutter Galatea in two consecutive races for the America's Cup in September over Sandy Hook course. Geronimo and several Apaches surrendered on September 4 to General Miles, on Skelton Canyon, Ariz., and were imprisoned at Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Fla. In October 247 lives were lost in Sabine Pass, Tex., and Johnson's Bayou, La., by inundations caused by a great gale in the Gulf of Mexico. Bartholdi's statue of "Liberty Enlightening the World,' ," on Bedloe's Island, New York Harbor, was formerly unveiled with imposing ceremonies, including a naval parade and land procession, on October 28. At Washington the Senate passed, on January 15, and the President approved, on January 19, the Hoar Presidential Succession bill. On February 1 the House passed a bill to increase from $8 to $12 a month the pensions of widows and dependent survivors of Union soldiers. On March 1 President Cleveland sent to the Senate a message forcibly stating his views as to the rights of that body to demand from the Executive the various papers considered by him in connection with removals from office, claiming such information to be of a strictly confidential character, to be used only for the benefit of the country as an aid to the Executive fn discharging his duty in the matter of appointments and removals. The Senate, led by Senator Edmunds, decided by a majority of one that it had the right to call for all such documents. On March 5 the Senate passed the Blair Educational bill providing for an appropriation of $79,000,000 to be distributed among the States on the basis of the illiteracy of persons over ten years of age, except in the cases of the white and colored schools, where distribution should be on the basis of illiterate persons of school age. In November elections to the Fiftieth' Congress resulted in 2 Republican gain of thirteen members. During this year Secretary of State Bayard tried, but failed, to settle the international question of the right of a foreign country to arrest, try and convict a foreigner who, in a foreign country, commits a crime against a citizen of the complaining country. An American citizen named Cutting had been arrested in Mexico for an offence committed in the United States against a Mexican citizen. Secretary Bayard demanded Cutting's release, and notified the Mexican Government that the application of such a law against an American citizen would not be tolerated. The Mexican Government released Cutting as having been already sufficiently punished by his imprisonment, but did not withdraw its claim.

Abroad, the British Empire, after six weeks' war with King Theebaw of Burmah, annexed Burmah to the empire on January 1. The Salisbury ministry was defeated in Commons in January and resigned, Mr. Gladstone resuming office with a Liberal ministry, remaining in office until August, when a Tory ministry under Salisbury again came into power. Home Rule for Ireland was defeated in Commons in June by a vote of 241 to 311. In France the de Freycinet ministry, formed in January, continued until December, when it resigned, and the Goblet ministry succeeded. The posthumous birth of the present King of Spain occurred on May 17. The "Mad King" Ludwig of Bavaria committed suicide in Starnberg Lake on June 13. The Royal and Imperialist princes were expelled from France on August 24. Between July 31 and August 15 Home Rulers and Orangemen rioted in Belfast. On August 21 Russian conspirators abducted Prince Alexander of Bulgaria from his palace and sent him out of the country. He returned to Sofia in September and abdicated. In October General Kaulbars, Russian agent, intrigued unsuccessfully for Russia in Bulgaria. In November Prince Waldemar of Denmark was elected Prince of Bulgaria, but declined. In New Zealand volcanic eruptions in June caused vast destruction. A new extradition treaty between the United States and Great Britain was signed at London on June 25.

1887

The world's page of history for 1887 records the dissolving of the German Reichstag in January by the government for having refused to pass the Septennate Army bill, which bill was finally passed by the Reichstag on March 11, the parliamentary elections in Feb. ruary having resulted favorably to the government. Canadian parliamentary elections sustained the Macdonald ministry. Attempts were made to kill the Czar on March 14. On March 22 the ninetieth birthday of Emperor William of Germany was celebrated with enthusiastic demonstrations. On March 28 the Salisbury ministry brought in the Irish