The INTER OCEAN

CURIOSITY SHOP

For the Year 1880.

EDITED BY

THOMAS C. MACMILLAN.

CHICAGO:

THE INTER OCEAN PUBLISHING COMPANY, 85 MADISON STREET.

1881

26 X 35 3

This is the third annual volume of THE INTER OCEAN CURIOSITY SHOP. With each succeeding edition there has been a marked increase in interest toward it on the part of the reading public; and, in anticipation of another issue in book-form of the best material of this unique and attractive department, m'ny inquiries have been received from nearly every State and Territory in the Union in reference to the character, date, and cost of this publication. Now it goes out to tell its own story. It indulges in no ornamentation, it makes no parade of literary merit. The object has been to have the information imparted thoroughly reliable. That the responses which this edition contains have the impress of painstaking investigation and fidelity to fact, we believe every page bears abundant testimony. The reader will observe that where questions involving opinion appear, the views of recognized authorities have been examined, compared critically, frequently recast, and then submitted, by which process we have been able to give the largest amount of information consistent with our limited space.

The compiler began the editing of this department in THE INTER OCEAN about the middle of the past year, when it was transferred from another, who is well known, and to whom acknowledgment is made for the preparation of much that is interesting and instructive in this the third annual issue.

We have endeavored to make this little volume everybody's encyclopedia—a hand-boove of ready reference, a family library of useful knowledge, with information covering scientific, historical, political, literary, and other subjects, which have occupied a large place in the public mind, and which still engage a considerable share of attention in these days of general reading. To assist those who tread these several paths-to "blaze out a trail," as it were, -a guide is added, and this index, carefully compiled and arranged, will be found a valuable aid to the knowledge-seeker.

T. C. M.