Tweed’s death caused an increase of five thousand; the death of President Garfield, of seventy-four thousand. Only thirteen thousand extras were sold after the Brooklyn Theatre fire, while the Westfield steamboat explosion sold thirty-one thousand. Twenty-one thousand irregular readers bought the _Sun_ to read about the first blasting of Hell Gate in 1876, while only eight thousand were interested in the fact that Tilden had been counted out by the Electoral Commission. The flare-up of the Beecher scandal, in August, 1874, sold as many extras--ten thousand--as the shooting of Fisk. The beginning of the Crédit Mobilier exposé added only a thousand to the normal circulation, but on the morning after a big walking-match the presses had to run off forty thousand more than their usual daily grist. The resignation of Roscoe Conkling and Thomas C. Platt from the United States Senate hoisted the circulation only two thousand, but the fight between John L. Sullivan and Paddy Ryan meant a difference of eleven thousand. The opening of the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia caused extra sales of three thousand; an international rifle-match at Creedmoor, ten thousand. In 1882 the _Sun_ made the calculation that the average effect of certain sorts of news in increase of circulation was about as follows: Presidential elections 82,000 State and city elections 42,000 Last days of walking-matches 25,000 October State elections in Presidential years 21,000 Great fires 10,000 Notable disasters 9,000 Hangings in or near New York 8,000 The _Sun_ expressed a curiosity to know-- Who are the eighty or ninety thousand people, not regular readers of the _Sun_, that buy the paper after a Presidential election? Where do they live? Do they read the papers only after exciting events? On its fiftieth birthday--September 3, 1883--the _Sun_ printed a table showing the high-tide marks of its circulation: November 8, 1876--Presidential election 222,390 Sept. 20, 1881--Garfield’s death 212,525 Nov. 3, 1880--Presidential election 206,974 July 13, 1871--Orange riots 192,224 Sept. 21, 1881--Second day after Garfield’s death 180,215 Nov. 3, 1875--State and city election 177,588 July 3, 1881--Garfield shot 176,093 In the same article, a page review written by Mr. Mitchell, the reasons for the _Sun’s_ success were succinctly given: