SPRAGUE, Charles Ezra, author, born in Nassau, Rensselaer County, New York, 9 October, 1842. He was graduated at Union college in 1860, and since 1878 has been secretary of the Union Dime savings institution of New York city. During the civil war he served in the army, was severely wounded at Gettysburg, and was given the brevet of captain in 1865. He is the inventor of the "Sprague checkbook," has devised numerous account-books and forms, and also a savings-bank system for testing the accuracy of accounts, and has writ, ten many articles on the subject, on which he has also lectured at Columbia college. Mr. Sprague is the first prominent advocate in this country of the international language that is called Volapiik. Since 1887 he has edited the " Volaspodel," issued as part of "The Office," and he is the author of "Logical Symbolism" (printed privately, New York, 1882), "The Hand-Book of Volapiik " (1888), and "The Story of the Flag," a poem read before the survivors of the 44th New York regiment (Albany, 1886).