A Subscriber.
Answer.—The gross expenditures of the United States Government in 1791 amounted to $3,797,436.78. This is the lowest sum, and the next lowest was in 1793, $6,479,977.97. The greatest amount any year before the great rebellion was in 1859, during Buchanan’s administration, when his Secretary of War was so busy arming the South, $83,678,642.92. The largest amount expended by the government in any single year was in 1865. Beginning with that year the table below shows the gross expenditures of the government year by year down to June 30, 1882:
| 1865 | $1,906,443,331.37 |
| 1866 | 1,139,344,081.95 |
| 1867 | 1,093,079,655.27 |
| 1868 | 1,069,889,970.74 |
| 1869 | 584,777,996.11 |
| 1870 | 702,907,842.88 |
| 1871 | 691,680,858.90 |
| 1872 | 682,525,270.21 |
| 1873 | 524,044,597.91 |
| 1874 | 724,698,933.99 |
| 1875 | 682,000,885.32 |
| 1876 | 714,446,357.39 |
| 1877 | 565,299,898.91 |
| 1878 | 590,641,271.70 |
| 1879 | 966,393.692.69 |
| 1880 | 700,233,238.19 |
| 1881 | 425,865,222.64 |
| 1882 | 529,627,739.12 |
TRUMAN HENRY SAFFORD.
Aurora, Ill.
What has become of that wonderful mathematician, T. H. Safford? Does he still retain those remarkable powers which distinguished him as a boy? Oblige several readers with a few facts as to his life.
F. Stringer.
Answer.—Truman Henry Safford, once widely noticed as “the remarkable boy mathematician,” was born at Royalton, Vt., Jan. 6, 1836, and graduated at Harvard in 1854. He compiled an almanac when he was 9 years old, making all the astronomical and other calculations. When he was but about 14 he calculated the elliptic elements of the first comet of 1849. He was appointed in 1863 Adjunct Observer in the Cambridge University, and two years later made Acting Director. While at this observatory he determined the right ascension of 1,700 stars and the declination of 450, and made 6,000 transit observations, besides completing Professor Bond’s report of discoveries in the constellation Orion. On Dec. 28, 1865, he accepted the post of director of the Chicago Observatory, where he remained until 1878, making many observations of similar nature to the last above named. He is now connected with Williams College.