The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-03-04
This Is Leap Year-Why?

is the case with 1880. Just about the
time, this, the March number of the
american AgriculturiSt reaches it's
readers, perhaps while thousands of
boys and girls are looking over its
pages, and even reading this very ar
ticle, it will be the 30 of February-the
Leap Year Day, that comes only once
in four years. Nearly a year ago we
saw little girl then about three years
old who had never had an anniversary
Of her birthday; but this year she will
have one, and we hope it will be big
enough to make up for all the misfor-
tunes of being born on the 29th of the
shortest month of the year.
"Leap Year." we have been told,
''is an odd year." but it has just been
shown that it is altogether eUen. Why
is it odd? we may ask, and the reply
comes, "It is the year when the boys
are girls and the girls are boys, and
everything is turned around" o!
yes, we begin to see! They have "leap
year parties," and ''leap year rides"
and "leap year this and that" and the
girls do the Inviting, and driving, and
managing, and many of the 'com.
pany" things which the boys claim
for their own on other and ordinary
years. 1t is said that such matters are
sometimes even carried SO far that the
young lady proposes to the young gen.
tleman of her choice, and he has the
privilege of accepting or refusing as he
sees fit. Well! we will admit it is an
odd year, though it is eUen all the
same. But why do we have leap
years? There must be some good
reason for adding one day to every
fourth year as it comes around to us.
What is it?
The earth moves around the sun
once a year, as you all have learned
from your geography. The time re-
quired for the earth to pass around
and return to the place from which it
started is called a solar or sun year
the year made by the heavenly bodies.
In olden times, men did not know
that the earth moved around the sun.
If there was any moving it was done
by the sun they thought; and it did
seem to move. TO this day we all say
the sun rises and sets. Knowing so
little about the revolution of the earth
it was very hard for men to arrange
the divisions Of time 50 that they
would correspond with the solar year.
The ciUH year is the one made by man
and like many human things, it was
at first very imperfect-tha is, the
ciUiG year and solar year did not cor
respond very closely. In the time of
julius Caesar, the two kinds of years
had got so out of place that the spring
of the civil year came in midsummer.
To use an illustration, we will have
two cog wheels that work into each
other. If both wheels are in all res
poets alike, the same places will
always come together at each revolu-
ton; but suppose one wheel is trilie
smaller than the other the wheel re-
presenting the civil year smaller than
the one of the solar year, then any
points once together will keep getting
farther apart. This was just the trou-
bic between mans year and the nat
ural year. Caesar rearranged the civil
year in 4G before Christ, and introduced
the system of having three years OF
365 days and then one of 366-the adj
ditional day being given to February
The solar year is 365 days, hours, As
minutes 49, seconds, SO that Caesars
year of 3G5f days, averaging the four
is about II minutes too long. The
point is to get these two years th'
year of the heavens which we can no
alter, and the year of the almanacs t.
agree. Matters went on as they hat
been started by julius Caesar, with
loss of II minutes year until 1882
over sixteen hundred years, when i
became evident that the little yearl,
loss was too great and must be RENE
died. How could this be done was til
question. At this time a Pope tool
, the matter up-it was time whel
Popes had great temporal power-anC
{ decreed that the fifth of October b
called the 10Th, and all the interven
ing days to be cancelled. This onl,
, set matters right for the time being
but the same Pope, Gregory XIII
made it rule that the century gear
! not divisible by eight be not leap years
, Thus 100, 1900, and 1900 are no leal
years, according to the new rule
, This omits three leap years in ever.
, 400 years. With this arrangement
the civil and solar years almost coin
eide, the solar, exceeding by only %
seconds, or Il day in about 1000 years
/, a matter too small to need attention.
> Those who followed us through, an
we fear it has been rather dry for tn
! younger readers, will see that it ha
been quite a hard matter to brin
things around straight. The lea
, year comes from the fact that there
I a fraction of day in the solar yea
I which would not be convenient t
A have in the civil, so we put enough {
p the fractions together to make da
p and have the extra one on the lea
! year, or every fourth year.-America
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