Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1875-11-03
Where Two Sundays Come
Together.

From Harpers Weekly, Oct 81.
"Wcli. never did"
~ know you never did, my doar
but you may ono OF these days, wheI
our ship comes IN. and we start on tha
round Of ours. We can't very wei
start until that metaphoric vessel doe
arrive cant go ont until she comes in
You see, the sinews of war are also th,
| muscles of peace, and it needs a vel
developed financial biceps to enabl,
one to strike out effectively on snch .
round"
"What on Garth arc you talkins OFF,
said Mrs Penn, with such jnmblt
Of finance and pugilism and maritime
| affairs? 1t strikes me that your meta
phors are slightly mixed"
"Well, You said yon never"
"Yes, was goiug: 10 say that neve,
heard OF where two Sundays come to.
gcther.'
Exactly. And that ia what l was
talking OF. l was shout to explain i,
to you"
"Do you mean TO say that there il
such a place"
II do
"And timer
"And time"
.'Then should like to know what
becomes of the Seventh Day of the
strict Sabbatarians y
"That is a theological question, my
dear. Wen not meddle with it.
''l,ut how do they make two Sun
days come together"
"jnst in that way precisely. They
make 'em come together. For instance
on board a naval vessel, say, when tho
officer in charge of that dnty finds on
observation that the snn is precisely
over the line Of the ships meridian q.
c., the point or degree of longitude
east or west OF Washington or Green
wich where che then is), no knows
that it is noon Of that day (to a lands
man to him il is the beginning of the
next day, and reports accordingly to
the proper officer. Eight bells, sir,
and receives reply, Make it so, sir,
usually with the agreeable addition,
and pipe to dinner. So il is that the
ships officer, upon occasion, makes
two Sundaye come together, or, for
the matter of that, knocks Sunday out
of tho week altogether, according to
circumstances
"Knocks it out altogether? Only
ono Sunday in two weeks2i
Precisely. He can jump from Sat.
urdsy to Monday If he will"
Worse and worse! Well, explain,
please. Let me understand the cir.
cumstances' under which these nautical
gentlemen 80 coolly double Sunday or
drop it,
"Hero goes, then. We were talking
of that little proposed round of ours.'
ooh. yes! What round? 2"
"Why, ronnd the world. Havn't
We been speculating and castle build
ing on taking one of those through
tickets for the yct-tO. DO. fashionable
tour, with !ay.ovcr coupons for
Chicago and San Francisco and Yoko-
hama and Hong Kong and Calcutta
and Bombay and Suez and Brindisi
and Paris and London? Well, it de-
ponds on which way we take that
ticket, eastward or westward, whether
ws vel less ss .ysaa+fis ssa %sx Ss h h. os as
trip. 1t is usually on the Pacific ocean
that this gain or loss is made. because
Washington or Greenwich being the
the given or governing meridian
from which American vessels calcu.
late their longitude. it ia only on that
ocean that they find the one hundred :
and-eightieth degree, or haif-round-
the-world point. At which they effect
the change.
YES, sec that by the globe. Here
ia the one-hundred- d-and-eigh,ie,h de-
gree west or east OF Greenwich, right
in the middle Of the Pacific Ocean. Go
on with your warm
"Thanks to common schools and tho
electric telegraph, most landsmen now
understand that difference in longi-
tude makes difference in the time OF
day: that a message going westward
arrives at it's destination before its ap-
parent hour of starting; or, as Pat
would say, std rache ST. Louis before
yc sint ii from New York Orreries
have taught the youngsters that as the
earth turns toward tho sun, at the
point which is full-face to that lumin-
Ary IL is high noon, while at one quar-
ter of the earth's circumference to-
ward the west it is inst sunrise. This
difference of time is, at tho equator,
just four minutes for each degree OF
iongitude-equal to six hours uhree
hundred and sixty ninutes) for the
ninety degrees, or quarter circnmfer-
once, above noted. Tins at ST. Louis,
fifteen degrees west of New York, it is
sixty minutes earlier than with us, or
eleven O'clock when it ia twelve here,
and ship circnmnavigating the globe
going westwardly thus galns on APP
parent time Qaps over on 10 the next
day) four minntes for each OF the three
hundred and sixty degrees Of wcsting,
or twehty-tonr hours for the entire
circuit OF the earth. In Other words,
going west. and Keeping her record OF
days from the day OF the week on
which she starts, on arriving back at
hor port on what to her is Monday,
she finds that it is Tuesday on shore,
and she must Jump from Monday 10
Wednesday to set herself right. Max
ing the circuit eastw ardly, the case is
reversed, and arriving from west, il ia
Tuesday on her log, whilc tomorrow
is Tuesday to the boarding officer.
The ship hon doubles Tuesday, and
squares the record.
but most seamen correct this seem.
ing error on passing the halfway
point; j. O., on reaching tho one hun
dred and cightieth degree west or east
Of their governing meridian, day is
dropped or repeated, and chip ar
riyes without being in next week or
last week, when she should be in this.
I4andsmen's ignorance of these facts
has cansed some amusing scenes on
steamers on the Pacific. Some twenty
years ago the New Orleans, the frs,
passenger steamer that ever crossed
the Pacific ocean, was on hcr way
from San Francisco to Sydney, with q
load of gold hunters, including some
Pike county men, whose nautical edn.
cation was limited. Tho purser had
posted his usual daily bulletin Of lati.
tnde, longitude, and distance run since
the previous noon-always an inter.
esting episode in tho history of day
on long voyagc-dated, we'll say
Monday, tho 10th. The next day II
stood Wednesday, the 18th, tho one.
hundred -and-eightieth degree having
been passed mean while, and the inter.
vening day duly dropped. The ap
parenc bnnder caught the eye Of the