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


| "Wcl'. never dit"
| ~ know you never did, my doar
but you may one OF these DAYS, when
our ship comes IN. and we start on tina,
round of ours. We can't very vel
start until that metaphoric vessel does
arrive; can't go out until she comes in
You see, the sincws of war are also the
muscles Of peace, and it needs a well
developed financial biccps to enable
one to strike ont effectively on snch a
| round"
"What on Garth arc you TALKING Of p
said Mrs Penn, "with such a tumble
Of finance and pugiIism and maritime
affairs? Itstrikes me that your meta.
phors are slightly mixed"
"Wcll, you said You never
"Yes, was goiug;o say that never
heard OF where two Sundays come to-
geiher.'
EXACTLY. And that ia what l was
talking of. was about to explain il
to you"
"Do you mean to say that there is
such a place"
IL do"
Sand time? ?"
"And time"
s.Thcn should like to know what
becomes of the Seventh Day OF the
strict Sabbatarians y
"That is a theological question, my
dear. Wen not NEEDLE with it,"
"But how do they make two Sun
days come together
",Jnst 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 on
observation that the snn is precisely
over the line Of the ships meridian q.
c., tho point or degree of longitude
east or west of Washington or Green
that it is noon ofthat day ito a lands
man to him it 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 il that the
ships officer, upon occasion, makes
two Sundays come together, or, for
the matter of that, knocks Sunday out
of tho week altogether. according to
circumstances"
"knocks it out altogether? Only
one Sunday in two weeks?'
Precisely. He can jump from Sat.
urday to Monday II no will"
Worse and worse! Well. explain,
please. Let me understand the SIR
cumstances' under which these nautical
gentlemen 80 coolly donble Sunday or
drop it,
"iIero goes, then. We were talking
of that little proposed round of ours"
"Oh, yes! What round ?"
"Why, round the world. Havn't
we been specializing and castle bnild-
ing on taking one of those through
tickets for the yct-tO- be. fashionable
tour, with lay-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 wo take that
ticket, eastward or westward, whether
% We, le X as .yaaa- sisa % SSs i, b. o a.
trip. 1t is usually on the Pacific ocean
that this gain or loss Is made. because
Washington or Greenwich being the
tho given or governing meridian
from which American vessels calcu-
late their longitude. it is only on that
ocean that they find the one hundred
and-cightieth degree, or hsif.round-
the-world point. ut which they effect
the change.
Yes, sec that by the globe. Here
Is the onc-hundred- acknowledgement 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 the
electric telegraph, most landsmen now
understand that a difference in longi-
tude makes difference in the time of
day that message going westward
arrives at ita destination before its APP
parent hour of starting; or, as Pat
would say, it'd rache ST. Louis before
yc stint il 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-
airy it is high noon, whilo at one-quar.
ter of the earth's circumference to-
ward the west it is inst sunrise. This
difference OF time is, at the equator,
just four minutes for each degree OF
longitude-equal to six hours (hree
hundred and sixty minutcs) for the
ninety degrees, or quarter circnmier-
enee, above noted. Thus at ST. Louis,
fifteen degrees ives, of New York, it is
sixty minutes earlier than with us, or
eleven o'clock when it ia twelve here,
and ship circumnavigating the globe
going westwardly Tins gains on ap.
parent time (laps over on to tho next
day. four minutes for each of the three
hundred and sixty degrees Of wcsting
or twehty-fonr hours for the entire
circuit OF the earth. In Other words
going west, and keeping her record ol
days from the day of the week on
which she starts, on arriving back al
her port on what to her is Monday
she finds that it is Tuesday on shore,
and che must jump from Monday to
Wednesday to get herself right. Max.
ing tho circuit castwardly. the case ID
reversed, and arriving from west, it Il
Tuesday on her log, while tomorrow
Ia Tuesday to the boarding officer
The ship hen doubles Tuesday, and
equarcs the record.
But most scamen correct this seem
ing error on passing the halfway
point j. O., on reaching tho ono hun
dred and eightieth degree west or eas
OF their governing meridian, a day /,
dropped or repeated, and ship ar
riycs without being in next week OF
last week, when she should he In this
Landsmen's ignorance Of these fact
has caused some amusing scenes OF
steamers on the Pacific. Some twenty
yesrs ago the New Orleans, the frs
passenger steamer that ever crossed
tho Pacific ocean, was on her way
from San Francisco to Sydney, with
load of gold hunters, including som,
Pike county men, whose nautical edn
cation was limited. Tho purser hat
posted his usual daily bulletin Of lati
tude, longitude, and distance run sine,
tho previous noon--always an inter
eating episode in tho history of a da,
ON long voyage--dated, we'll say
Monday, tho 10th. Tho next day i
stood Wednesday, the 18th, the one
hundred -and-eightieth degree havin,
been passed mean while, and the inter
vening day duly dropped. The up
pareno b!nnder caught the eve of tn,