White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1860-03-15
HsefllI anS Curious.
Lam Year.

Leap Year.
The occurrence Of Leap Year has called out
many interesting "reminiscences Of the ladiss
Among ether things Of the kind it is mentioned
that:
~ an ancient act Of the good old Scottish
Parliament, passed in the reign OF Magaret'
about 1898, it was ordaint that during ye rsigH
Other maist blsssit majesty ilk maiden ladee
Of bath high and low sstsit shall hae liberty to
speak to 70 man she likes gif he refuses to
take her to be his wife be shall be mulctcd in
the sum Of hundrit poundss or less as his es-
TAFT may be, except sad always gift he can make
il appear that he is bstrothit to another Wenan'
then be shall be free.
From the Sieur de Beauplain's "DescriptioH
ofthe Ukraine, including several provinces OF
the kingdom of Poland" published in Rouen,
in 1862, it appears that at that period the Cos
sack dansels also made proposals Of marriage.
VI. Bsauplain says:
"Here then, contrary to the customs of all
other co1nlries, may be seen young girls making
love to young men, and q superstition, very
prevalent among them and carefully observed,
causes them scarcely ever to miss their object,
and indeed, renders them more sure Of success
than the mea would should the latter attempt
the usoisg. They proceed somewhat after the
following manner:
1.-THE maiden goes to the house Of the father
of the Young man, whom she loves, when she
thinks the family are all together, and says, on
entering, "PonagAbog," which means God
bless you. She pays her compliments to him
who has made 30 great an impression upon her
heart, and tells him she thinks he will know
how to govern and love his wife. "Thy noble
Qualities, she observes, shave led me to pray
thee very hnmbly TO accept me for thy wife,"
She then asks the father and mother to consent
to the marriage. Ifhe makes refusal or some
excuse, as shat he is too young and not yet
rs.dyto marry. she answers, that she will net
depart until he has espoused her. Thus she
penevers and persists in remaining until she has
obtained favorable answer to her demands.
"After several weeks, the father and mother
are not only constrained to give their consent
but also to look upon her more fovorably. At
the same time, the young man, seeing the mai
den Is determined in her affections for him, be-
gins to regard her as the one who is to be mis-
.ress of his desires. Finally he prays his faith
err ahd mother to permit him to espouse her.
Thus she accomplishes her puDpOse, and the
entire family, through fear of mourning the
wrath of God by sxpelling her from their house,
are constrained to give their consent to the an
ion"
Leap year. Dear reader, do you wish to
know how "leap year" first came about7 emo"
We'll, you husband this is the way Of it.
When julius Cesar, that old Roman fllibuster
of whom you may have heard, undertook 10 re-
form the computations Of time, he ordained that
the year should consist Of 365 days-ths addi-
ticnal day to be rsckOned BY twice counting Oath
Of Peb which was the sixth calend Of March.
Hence the name from the Latin words bis twice,
and sertilis, sixth. The cslsnds (whence our
word calendar) or the frat day of the month,
were reckened backward 30 the ides, thus i: the
first day of March was the frat cllend /; the
2sth of February was the second calsnd Of
March; Feb. 9th, the third, and SO on.
The Julian year, which by this rule was reck-
onsd at 1855 days and hours, was found not 10
be accurate, but to exceed the length Of the
solar year by II minutes, which error would in
Isl years amount to an entire day. 1t was
therefore corrected by Pope Gregory, in 1881,
who retrsnshed eleven days from the Julian
computation-bsing its excess or gain over So
lar time. Out Of this correction has grown the
distinction between cid style and new style.
The Gregsrisn or new style was introduced In
to German in ITO, and by act Of Parliament
into England in l752-over one hundred years
ago-ths second day of September 70. 81 of
that year being reckoned as the 18th (N.S.)
under the Gregorisn system. Although the
name Biuextile is retained with its obsolete
import, we intercalate the 18th of February
every fourth year, and for still greater accura-
cy. make only one leap year out of every four
even centenary years, thatis-the years 100
and 1900 were not leap years nor will A. D.
1900 be reckonSd as one, but the year 1000 will
be biSsextils. And that is the way leap year
came to be an "institutiol."