The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-01-16

Desist for mercy's sakeI
Else, piling in those griddle cakes,
Youth get the stomach cake,
And then, Melinda, loaded down
With griddle-cakes, you'd see
That viands doughnot ease the soul
How waffle that would be.
ST. Louis 7S,nes,Joarndl.
The Gregorfan Calendar.
1t is generally understood. accord
ing to certain profound calculations
and differences, more or less reliable,
that the world enters to-day upon the
5879th year since the creation; or, pos
sibly, according to the Julian period,
the 6592d year; but, of course. the
certainty that this is something about
which, we may say, we know nothing,
makes one number answer our purpose
quite as well as the other. But one
thing, it is believed, we do know. ap-
proximately, if not with absolute GER
tainty, and this is recognized and
adopted by the civilized world, namely,
that we begin to-day the 1879th year of
the Christian era, Ammo Domini, or year
Of our Lord. 1879. The new year will
stand in history as
Ammo mundi year of the world. .-........... 6879
Ammo Domini, year of the Lord 1873
Jnlian Deriod 6s92
Heeira, or fight of Mahomet. 1875
Independents of the United States. ........1s
Reign of Queen Victoria 4z-3
The Jewish year is based upon the
calculation that the world was created
3,76O years before Christ was born, and
that number of years, added to the sum
since the birth of Christ, gives 5639 as
the Jewish year of the world. The jew
ish year consisted of twelve or thirteen
months of twenty-nine or thirty days
each, by which we may infer that it
consisted of one or the other at differ
ent periods.
The Roman calendar divided the year
into ten months, comprising 304 days,
about 738 years before Christ. This
year was fifty-one days less than the
lunar year, and sixty-one days less than
the solar year, and, of course, did not
correspond in any degree with the sea-
sons as now. At somewhat later
period Numa Pompilius, in 713 B. c.,
added two months to the year of
Romulus, namely, January and Feb
ruary, and this, it would seem, contin-
ued until the time of Julius Cesar, 45
B. c., or more than 600 years, when
that Emperor, acting upon the evidence
and advice of the astronomers, no
doubt, adopted the solar year of 365
days hours as the basis of what is
known as the Julian calendar, and
made provision for the excess OF the
solar year over the number of days, by
introducing bissextile, or leap year,
when the year was of 500 days, the
name being derived from two skies.
But the true solar year, it was known,
was composed of 365 days 5 hours and
49 minutes. This slight difference, it
was found in the sixteenth century
1582-had amounted to ten days, and,
to obviate this error, Pope Gregory XIII.
ordained that that year (1582) should
consist only of $50 days, by which order
the 5th of October became the 18th of
October; and, in order to prevent any
further Irregularities, it was deter
mined that the year which was the first
in each century, should not be bissex-
tile, or leap year. excepting every fourth
century; thus the first years OF the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, or
the years 100 and 1900. were not leap
year, and the year 1900 will not be, but
the year 1000 will be leap year. So
that it may be reasonably believed this
matter is fully determined, as it has re-
manned undisturbed since the time of
Pope Gregory, nearly 800 years.
The question of dividing the solar
year into months of different number
of days has, no doubt, often been con-
sidered, and the question asked, how
the division, as now existing, was de-
termined upon; but it will be seen at
once that, with S65 or 366 days. they
could not be made Of equal length.
r. L. kho Aov
was reformed and first arranged upon
a proper basis, gave to the month OF
January thirty-one days; the next month
thirty days, and SO on, alternating
through the whole number, when the
deficit found in December was supplied
by taking two days from the second
month, and giving to this month the
extra day in leap years. This arrange
ment gave to January, March, May,
July, September and November thirty
one DAYS each, and to April, June, Au-
gust, October and December thirty days
eacn, and to February twenty-eight.
This continued until Augustus Cesar,
for whom the month of August had
been named, frivolously determined
that his month should not be less than
the month of Julius Caesar (July), and,
therefore, added one day to the month
of August, which was probably taken
from the month which followed, Sep
tember; and this action had the effect to
derange the system of his predecessor
by increasing the number of months
with thirty-one days to seven, and max
ing the arrangement as it now stands,
being altogether arbitrary. The only
case in which any one month has the
same number of days as its previous
month is the month of August, caused
by the order of Augustus.
This is concise history of the calen-
dar, now adopted by most Christian ma
tions. under which the new year COM
mences to-day. recognizes the order
of the universe by the adoption OF the
solar system, approximating as nearly
as possible to the lunar system, and
also tho coming of Christ upon the
earth as the Savior of mankind; and it
seems as if no further changes will
ever become necessary. The reform
established by Pope Gregory was
adopted by France, Italy, Spain, Den
mark, Holland, Flanders and Portugal
in 1882; Germany two years later;
Switzerland and Hungary in 1888 and
1871; and by England in 1912, by
leaving out eleven days, making the Sd
of September the 14th of that month.
In Russia, Greece, and throughout the
East, the old style is still retained, with
q difference now of twelve days.-Bos-
ton Herald Jan. I.
The Atlantic cable is being "du-
plexed.', a process which will increase
its working capacity 20 per cent.