Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-11-04
where I've SUNDAYS Come Together.

sinews of war are also the muscles OF
r,eace. and IL needs well-developed finan
cial biceps TO enable one to strike out ef-
fectively on such q round"
What on earth are you talking OF, !"
said Mrs. Penn, with such q tumble Of
finance and pugilism and maritime affairs :
II strikes me that your metaphors are
slightly mixed"
well, you said you never
"Yes. / was going to say that / never
heard OF where two Sundays came togeti-
er."
aExactly. And that Is what / was
talking OF. was about TO explain 1t to
you"
q place Z"
"And timer"
And time"
"Then I should like 10 know what be-
comes OF me seventh Day OF the strict
| Sabbatarianss"
That Is a theological question, my
dear. Wen not NEEDLE with it,"
"But how do they make two Sundays
come tOgetherf"
"Just in that way precisely. They
make 'em come together. For instance,
ON board naval vessel, say, when the
officer In charge Of that duty finds by an
observation that the sun is precisely
over the line Of the ships meridian Il. g.,
| the point or degree Of longitude east or
| west Of Washington or Greenwich where
she then Isl, he knows that it ID noon Of
that day TO q landsman; To him IL Is the
beginning Of the next day., and he re-
ports accordingly 10 the proper officer:
Eight bells, SIR and receives re-
ply: Nuke it 80, sir, usually with
| the agreeable addition, and pipe
To dinner 80 it Is that the ships
officer. upon occasion, makes two Sundays
| come together, or, for the matter OF that,
knocks Sunday out Of the week altogether,
| according TO circumstances.
Knocks il out altogetherf Only one
| Sunday In two weeks?"
Precisely. He can jump from Satur-
day To Monday II he will.
Worse and worsel Wen, explain,
| please. Let me understand the circnm.
stances under which these nautical gen.
tlemen so coolly double Sunday or drop
| It,"
"IIere goes, then: We were talking Of
| that little proposed round Of Ours"
80 yes! What roundYn
| Why, round the world. Haven't we
been specializing and castle-building on
taking one OF those through. tickets for the
yctto. he fashionable tour, with lay-over
coupons for Chicago and San Francisco
| and Yokohama and Hong Kong and Cal
ctitta aud Bombay and Suez and Brindisi
and Paris ard London Well, 1t depends
on which way we take that ticket, east
ward or westward, whether we lose a day
Sunday IL may be as well az any other
| or make one ON our trip. IL IN usually
| on the Pacific Ocean that this gain or loss
IL made, because, Washington or Green
witch being the given or governing me.
ridian' from which American or English
vessels calculate their longitude, IL Is only
| on that ocean that they find the one hun
bred and eightieth degree, or half.round-
the world point, at which they effect the
change"
"les, see that by the globe. Here is
the one hundred and cightieth degree
west or east Of Greenwich, right In the
middle Of the Pacific Ocean. Go on with
your yarn"
Thanks 10 common schools and the
electric telegraph most landsmen now I'M
| derstand that difference in longitude
makes difference In the time Of day I;
that message going westward arrives ut
Its destination before Its apparent hour OF
starting; or, as Pat would say, it'd rache
St Louis before We sint II from New York
Orreries have taught our youngsters that,
as tine earth turns toward the sun, at the
point which is full-face 10 that luminary
II Ii high noon, while at one-quarter OF
the earth's circumference toward the west
IL Is Just sunrise. This difference of time
Is, ut the equator, just four minutes for
each degree OF longltude--equal to six
hours $3.50 minutes) for the ninety degrees,
or quarter circumference, above noted.
Thus at 1T. Louis, fifteen degrees west of
New York, 1t IL sixty minutes earlier than
with US, or eleven O'Clock when 1t Is
twelve here, and n ship circumnavigating
the globe going wcstwardly thus gains on
apparent! time flaps over ON 20 the next
day. four minutes for each OF the 800 de-
grees OF westlng, or twenty-iour hours for
the entire circuit of the earth. In other
words, going west and keeping her rec
ord OF days from the day OF the week on
which she starts, on arriving back at her
port on what to her Is Monday she finds
that IL is Tuesday on shore, and she must
jump from Monday to Wednesday to set
herself right. Making the circuit east
wardly, the case Is reversed, and arriving
from the west it Ii Tuesday on her log,
while tomorrow is Tuesday TO the board.
ing officer The ship then doubles Tues.
day and squares her record.
| But most seamen correct this seeming
error on passing the halfway point; i. g.,
on reaching the lS0th degree west or east
of their governing meridian day Is
dropped or repeated, and the ship arrives
without being In next week or last week,
when she should be In this. Landsmen's
| ignorance OF these facts has caused some
amusing scenes on steamers on the Pacific.
Some twenty years ago the Nee Orleans,
the first passenger steamer that ever
crossed the Pacific Ocean, was on her way
from San Francisco TO Sydney with load
of gold-hunters, including some Pike
County men, whose nautical education
was limited. The purser had posted his
usual daily bulletin of latitude, longitude
and distance run since the previous noon
always an interesting episode In the
history of a day on long voyage--dated,
We'll say, Monday, the 10th. The merit
day II stood Wednesday, the 18th, the
lS0th degree having been passed mean
while, and the intervening day duly
| dropped. The apparent blundcr caught
| the eve of the eager readers nj once