MERCURY () will be at its greatest western elongation April 15, August 13 and December 2, and its greatest eastern elongation March 2, June 28 and Oct. 24. The first three dates will be the most favorable times for seeing this planet in the evening, and the last three in the morning.

VENUS (9) will be morning star until Feb. 23, and then evening star until its transit over the Sun's disk, December 8. Its greatest brilliancy is when evening star, November 2.

MARS () will be quite near the Sun during most of this year. It may be seen about sunset until its conjunction in July, and then before sunrise until the end of the year, when it rises about five hours before the Sun.

JUPITER (2) will be visible during the first half of the year. It rises about 11 P.M. the first week in January, and sets about 8 P.M. the last week in August, and can therefore be seen every clear night before midnight for eight months.

SATURN (h) rises about 9 P.M. on the 1st of July, and can be seen every clear evening afterward until the end of the year.

The conjunction of the Moon with the planets as it passes round the heavens each month will serve to point them out. These conjunctions are all given among the Phenomena, and are indi

10.14 P.M Ant. S.

7.58 P.M. Arct. S.

9.33 P.M. sets. 10.31 P.M. Reg. sets. 9.07 P.M. s. N.W.by W.

cated by the sign 6, followed planet and Moon.

JUNE.

2.27 A.M. gr. el. E. 8.23 A.M. in 8. 9.26 P.M. h rises.

by the signs of the

I THINK Philadelphia may well be proud of the Public Ledger and the manner in which it is conducted. It is truly gratifying to see how fast it is gaining in favor under the energy, enterprise and successful management of Mr. Childs, whom I am most delighted to call a warm personal friend. The independent and manly tone of the Ledger, its absence from all personality and malicious defamation, its upholding the cause of humanity and religion and its advocacy of the interests of the masses, are facts that should commend it to every good citizen.—Major-General Meade,

Newspapers, circulars and other printed matter (except books), seeds, cuttings, bulbs, roots and scions, in packages not exceeding 4 lbs. in weight, for each 2 oz. or fraction...... Books, in packages not exceeding 4 lbs. in weight, for each 2 oz. or fraction Merchandise and samples, in packages not exceeding 12 oz. in weight, for each 2 oz. or fraction.... Newspapers, circulars and periodicals not exceeding 2 oz. in weight, deposited for local delivery.... Exceeding 2 oz., for each additional

2 OZ..

For every

2 OZ.

I ct.

2 cts.

2 cts.

I ct. each.

I ct.

All matter not prepaid at letter rates must be so wrapped that it can be examined without destroying the wrapper, and must not contain any writing whatever, inside or outside, except the address; but samples may be numbered to correspond with the numbers in a descriptive letter. Liquids, poisons, explosives and other dangerous matters are excluded.

MONEY ORDERS.

Rates on money orders in U. S.: Not exceeding $20, ten cents; over $20 to $30, fifteen cents; over $30 to $40, twenty cents; over $40 to $50, twenty-five cents. No fractions of cents to be introduced.

Money orders to Great Britain and Switzerland: Not exceeding $10, twenty-five cents; over $10 to $20, fifty cents; over $20 to $30, seventy-five cents; over $30 to $40, one dollar; over $40 to $50, one dollar and twenty-five cents. Money orders to Germany: Not exceeding $5, fifteen cents; over $5 to $ro, twenty-five cents; over $10 to $20, fifty cents; over $20 to $30, seventy-five cents; over $30 to $40, one dollar: over $40 to $50, one dollar and twenty-five cents. The postage charges must also be paid on the letters in which the orders are transmitted.

Brazil..

Canada, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, etc.....

Canada and Newfoundland, U. S. postal cards to require extra stamp..........

Central America..

Chili, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru

China, via San Francisco....... do. via Southampton.

Denmark, via England.

do. via Bremen or Hamburg...

East Indies, via San Francisco do. via England...

via Brindisi

do. France, direct..

German States, via North German Union

German States, via England..... Great Britain.

Holland..

Newspapers.

Not exceed'g oz.

10 cts.

2 cts.

#6

Italy, via England...

Ireland, England and Scotland Mexico

#6

ΤΟ

18

*10

#16

#12

Spain,

Switzerland, do.

Turkey, Syria, etc., via England..

West Indies, direct.

do. (British), via St. Thomas or Havana. West Indies (not British), via St. Thomas or Havana...

8

The asterisk (*) indicates that the postage may be paid or not, at the option of the sender of the letter.

There being no postal treaty with France, the following explanation is necessary: The postage set down in the table applies only to letters sent by the line of French steamers sailing from New York. French letters may also be sent as follows: Open mail paid only to England, 4 cents for oz., prepayment optional, via England; for oz. and under, 10 cents; over and not over 1⁄2 oz., 16 cents; over and not over 3 oz., 20 cents; over not over 1 oz., 26 cents, prepayment compulsory.

and

THE Public Ledger Almanac is an annual sentation to the numerous subscribers of Mr. Childs' newspaper, the Public Ledger of Philadelphia, a journal which deservedly holds the foremost rank in the United States. The Almanac is full of most interesting scraps of information, and forms an excellent guide to the city of Philadelphia. It contains a beautiful illustration of the

AT the corner of Sixth and Chestnut streets is the splendid pile of the Ledger Building, which Mr. George W. Childs, while thinking he was only providing himself with a handsome and commodious place of business, was really erecting as a lasting monument commemorative of his untiring energy and enterprise. The Ledger is a great institution here. Families take it and read it as religiously as they say their and the very prayers, remarkable feature of newspaper business is shown in the fact that nearly the entire circulation of the Ledger-amounting to eighty-five thousand copies daily-is delivered by carriers at the houses of regular subscribers. Few copies of the paper are sold at the news-stands, simply because all have their family copy at home. I asked Mr. Childs the other day what is the secret of his great and unprecedented success. "It is this,"

|

O 54

7 18 7 46 5.9 I 19 8 13 8 38 6.2 I 43 2 8 9 29 276.3 2 56 9 52 10 15 6.5

9.05 P.M. sets.

2.32 P.M.8 5. 1.02 A.M. Arct, sets. 3 19 3 41 10 3811 06.510.07 P.M. Fom.rises.

he replied: " Reliability, respectability and advertisements as advertisements. We prefer to suppress news rather than publish matter which we are not sure of. I will not allow a line to go into the paper that is unfit for the eye of the most refined woman. We never insert advertisements as general reading matter." Thus Mr. Childs gives his fellow-citizens a newspaper that they can swear by, and place in the hands of their children without fear. He has his reward. Beginning life as a poor boy, he is to-day one of the wealthiest and most influential of Philadelphia's citizens.New York Times, Dec. 27; Special Correspondence from Philadelphia.

THE DEBT OF PENNSYLVANIA. ACCORDING to the report of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund of Pennsylvania, there was a balance in the Treasury on October 1, 1873, of $1,707,658; during September the debt was reduced by the redemption of loans $209,800; the whole debt of the State is $25,871,716. On the 1st of December, 1872, the debt of the State was $27,303,594, so that during the last ten months there has been a reduction of $1,431,878. In the last four years and ten months the State debt has been reduced $6,941,824.

PHILADELPHIA CHRONOLOGY

FOR 1872-3.

1872, December 5. Jos. Pallatte died at 1015 North Second street from the effects of blows upon the head, which the Coroner's jury found were given by Wm. H. Worrell. January 31, 1873, Worrell was tried for the murder, and acquitted. December 7. Corner-stone of the building of the Penna. Academy of Fine Arts laid at the southwest corner of Broad and Cherry streets. December 8. Roman Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception at Front and Canal streets dedicated.

December 14. John Tweedie died from compression of the brain, caused by blows received in a cell of the sixth Police district station-house, December 11. Police Sergeant John A. Rodgers, charged with the murder, was convicted on January 25, 1873, of murder in the second degree, and sentenced June 14 to an imprisonment of ten years in the Eastern Penitentiary.

December 15. Lehigh Avenue M. E. Church, corner of Lehigh avenue and Hancock street, dedicated.

Roman Catholic Church St. Bonifacius, corner of Mascher and Diamond streets, dedicated. German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Peter, Forty-second and Myrtle streets, West Philadelphia, consecrated.

-

December 16. The Grand Jury came into court with a special presentment stating that the Girard avenue bridge was insecure, weak and unsafe for travel, and recommending that it be closed against further use.

December 19. Lamb's patent street car, propelled by an engine having a boiler charged with steam, was run over the Frankford end of the Fifth and Sixth Streets Passenger Railway track, a distance of seven miles and a quarter, with a pressure of one hundred and seventy-seven pounds at the beginning, which was reduced to fifty pounds at the end of the experiment.

December 22. German Methodist Episcopal Church, York street above Frankford avenue, dedicated.

Roman Catholic Church St. Elizabeth, Twenty-third and Berks streets, dedicated. - Grace Mission Presbyterian Church, Twentysecond and Federal streets, dedicated.

December 24. The Grand Jury found a true bill of indictment against all the members of Common Council of the city for maintaining a nuisance in permitting Girard avenue bridge to remain open for travel.

December 26. An exceedingly cold day; great snow-storm; thermometer ranged from eight to eleven degrees above zero; snow-drifts deep. Many of the passenger railways were not able to run their cars. The roof of the foundry of A. Whitney & Sons, at Seventeenth and Willow streets, four hundred feet long and sixty-five feet wide, fell in by reason of the weight of the snow; two men were injured. Also the roof of Winch's spike factory, corner of Canal and Pollard streets; six persons injured.

December 30. Protestant Episcopal Church St. James, Hestonville, West Philadelphia, con

secrated.

1873, January 5. City Councils were organized; W. E. Littleton elected president of Select Council, and A. Wilson Hensżey president of Common Council.

January 7. The Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania commenced its session in Philadelphia, in the building formerly Sixth Presbyterian Church, Spruce street between Fifth and Sixth.

January 9. Rev. W. H. Hare, D. D., was consecrated Protestant Episcopal Missionary Bishop of Niobrara at St. Luke's Protestant Episcopal Church. Ten bishops participated in the ceremonies.

-The ship Tuscarora, of Cope & Brother's Liverpool line, bound from Mobile to Liverpool, foundered off the coast of Portugal. Capt. R. M. Dunlevy, Jr., and fourteen of the crew were drowned; first mate and nine men were saved.

January 17 Heavy freshet on the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, caused by great rains and breaking up of the ice. Much valuable property carried away and destroyed on those rivers, and also upon the Wissahickon, Frankford, Pennypack and other creeks.

January 20. Meeting of the committee of three hundred on Centennial Celebration in Common Council chamber. $212,150 subscribed in addition to subscriptions previously obtained.

James Neely tried for killing his wife at 1420 Fitzwater street, October 14, 1872; found guilty of murder in the second degree, and sentenced April 12 to six years' imprisonment in the Penitentiary.

January 21. Owen Quirk tried for the murder of his brother, Lawrence Quirk, at 2044 Reeves street, September 12, 1872, was acquitted. January 22. Patrick Callahan, tried for the murder of Charles Carnigan, September 16, 1870, at 402 North Water street, was acquitted.

The boiler of the locomotive " Edge Hill" exploded at American and Norris streets, North Pennsylvania Railroad; killed one man, wounded several, and did serious injury to adjoining prop

erty.

January 29. Patrick Smith, charged with the murder of William Spellissy, November 9, 1872, was found guilty of murder in the first degree. New trial granted June 13.

January 30. Matthew McCully, charged with the murder of Hugh Graham, September 13, 1872, was tried in the Court of Oyer and Terminer, and acquitted.

-An exceedingly cold day. In the morning thermometers at Germantown, Bridesburg and other places, and in the city of Philadelphia, marked the degree of cold at from ten to fifteen degrees below zero. In some parts of Pennsylvania the mercury sank to thirty-six degrees below zero.

February 5. Fourth annual convention of the "National Association for Promotion of the Interests of the American Trotting Turf" met at La Pierre House.

February 6. City Councils passed an ordinance appropriating $500,000 in aid of the Centennial Exposition.

Wm. Siner, member of Common Council from the Sixteenth Ward, was impeached before Select Council upon the charge of keeping a gam bling-house. The impeachment was withdrawn February 20, in consequence of Siner's resignation having been accepted by Common Council.

February 8. Indignation meeting held at Horticultural Hall. Resolutions adopted against the action of the Legislature in passing the bill giving the Union Passenger Railway Company the right to lay tracks on Market street from Front to Ninth. February 10. Meeting of colored persons at the

On the 20th the occultation of & Scorpii, 31⁄2 magnitude, takes place at 7.16 P.M., about half an hour after sunset, while the Moon is near the meridian. The emersion takes place at 8.42 P.M. On the morning of the 13th, Mercury reaches its greatest distance west of the Sun. It will rise on that day at 3.40 A.M., about 25° north of east.

On the 12th, Jupiter and Venus may be seen within 1 of each other, and their combined light and beauty will no doubt attract much attention. The Moon will be

7° 11' north of Mercury on the roth.
4° 2' north of Mars on the roth.
1° 19' north of Jupiter on the 15th.
2° 15' north of Venus on the 15th.
4° 17′ south of Saturn on the 25th.

In a sketch like this I have no space to do more than allude to the Ledger under the management of Mr. Childs, to the palace, which cost, with the ground, over $500,000, in which he prints and publishes it, and to his circulation of 85,000 copies a day. But there is one aspect that must not be omitted as I close these Anecdotes. I mean the perfect independence of the paper in regard to local and general corruptions. It does not hesitate.

6 58 7 56 8 19 6.1 8 429 46.2 9 28 9 50 6.4 3 17 10 13 10 36 6.5 3 38 4 1 10 57 11 20 6.5 4 24 4 48 11 43)

...

16.5

7.16 P.M. OC. & Scor.

8.08 P.M. h sets. 8.21 P.M. Arct, sets.

1.29 P.M. Óh_l. ...... A.M. gr. H. 1. N. 10.23 P.M. h south. 1.57 A.M. OC. Aq. 8.16 P.M. 7.56 P.M. Vega S. 5.47 A.M.

sets.

It strikes out bold and quick. Its rhetoric is not so trenchant as that of Russell Jarvis, when he took "the bull by the horns," twenty and twentyfive years ago, and when he stirred the sensibilities of the medical students and the pro-slavery mobs; but it is more effective, because more moderate.-Col. Forney's Anecdotes of Public Men.

GREAT CITIES.

PHILADELPHIA is the twelfth city in the world in the number of its inhabitants, and the first in the number of conveniences which it offers to all classes of working people. The population of London is estimated at 3,252,000; of Paris 1,684,000; of Pekin 1,648,000; of Jeddo 1,554,000; of Canton 1,236,000; of Constantinople 1,075,000; of Calcutta 1,000,000; of New York 942,292; of Berlin 828,000; of Vienna 825,000; of Bombay 816,000, and of Philadelphia 726,144. Of the thirty-five cities of the world having over 300,000 inhabitants, six are in China, five in the United States-viz.: New York, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, St. Louis and Chicago-five in Great Britain, four in India, three in France, three in Japan, and one each in Turkey, Prussia, Austria, Russia, Siam, Brazil, Spain and Egypt.