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There is hardly a subject not covered by Scharf, which explains why this book is in constant use as a reference on subjects as diverse as, say, inns and hotels, secret societies and orders, manners and customs, houses and parks, mobs and riots, benevolent and charitable societies, and roads and transportation. One minor chapter alone, for example, contains abstracts of the obituary notices of no fewer than 3,000 19th-century Baltimoreans. In addition the researcher will find biographical sketches (most of them illustrated) of nearly 200 luminaries of Scharf's day or their predecessors. Many of the sketches trace the subject's family for several generations.