Osage Valley banner. (Tuscumbia, Miller County, Mo.) 1879-1881, 1880-08-19

but quite appreoiable, nevertheless.
IL Is not possible to experience within
the limits of Great Britain the peculiar
sensation produced at New York by
hearing which horse has won the Derby
before eleven o'clock in the morning Of
the eventful day. or Of discussing and
paying bets over q Harvard and Oxford
boat race during luncheon by the Hud-
son-the race being set for five o'clock
in the afternoon on the Thames. Still
1t would be possible TO telegraph
speech 10 Edinburgh, before apparently
IL was spoken in London, the diller-
ence OF longitude between Greenwich
and Edinburgh being three degrees
and eleven minutes equivalent to
twelve minutes and forty-four seconds
of time. Greenwich Is specially mem
toned in this place because of a little
difficulty which arises in speaking of
London time" In London Green
wich time is kept, albeit true London
time Is twenty seconds slower, the
great city lying westward of the ruling
meridian. All over the world, how
ever, London time is synonymous with
Greenwich time, the small difference
just noted being of no practical inn
portance.
Edinburgh was Just cited as an in
stance of the difference of time prevail
ing in England, but it would not be
difficult to select large number of
similar instances. Liverpool is twelve
minutes all but four seconds slow of
Greenwich time, and Penzance twenty
two minutes and four seconds in the
rear; while Yarmouth is six minutes
and iifty-two seconds ahead. There is
thus nearly half an hour between one
end of England and the other, varia-
tion sufficient TO cause great annoyance
to those travelling on business, were it not
that railway companies in England and
Scotland have made short work of lon
gitude by decreeng that one railway
time shall be kept in Britain, North and
South, and that that shall be Greenwich
time. AT every great railway terminus
and every little country station through
out the island Greenwich time is exact
ly kept. At Yarmouth, as at Penzance,
the station-master's clock is set by
Greenwich. and the inhabitants are
quite familiar with the difference be-
tween railway time" and i" local
time" On the London, Chatham &
Dover line the time is flashed through
the telegraph wires every morning at
ten o'clock. A minute or two earlier
the lines are cleared, and then at ex-
actly ten o'clock at the meridian of
Greenwich the message goes forth, and
every clock on the line is brought into
harmony. 1t is obviously unnecessary
TO dilate upon the importance of rail
way clocks telling the same story, and
the difficulty which would ensue If any
attempt were made TO keep local time
on the crowded lines of Great Britain.
Severely punctual persons, however,
should recollect the difference in time
between London and Plymouth, for in
stance, when they have appointments
TO keep. Greenwich time thus pre-
walls on English and Scotch railways,
but not in the sister island. In this
respect justice has been done to Ire
land, for if there is no Parliament on
COllege-Green, Dublin time is kept on
Irish railways, the difference between
Dublin and Greenwich time being
twenty-five minutes and twenty sec
onds.
In moving rapidly about Europe, the
necessity of having only one railway
time for each country, is amply recog-
nized. This rule generally obtains,
Paris time, which is nine minutes and
quarter earlier than that of Green
wich, prevails in France; Amsterdam
time in Holland; Prague time in Aus
tria; Pesth time in Hungary; Roman
time in Italy; Mannheim time in the
Palatinate, and St. Petersburg time in
Russia. The latter is two hours and
! one minute before that of London; so
that the watch of the traveller going
eastward astonishes him at Suez, as did
his Passepartout, by being two hours
and ten minutes slow, If he have not
been prudent enough to set it by the
ruling meridian of every country he has
travelled through.
A similar but opposite experience is
made in going from London TO New
| York, and thence across the Continent
TO San Francisco. Ii it were not, how
ever, for the telltale watch, everything
would appear simple and natural
enough. 1t is when the test of the tel
egraph is applied that strange results
are obtained. 1t is curious to note that a
! telegram sent from London to San Fran
| cisco at noon arrives at about four o. clock
in the morning, and that one sent at the
same moment TO Calcutta at about six
o'clock in the evening. Amusing and
odd results, besides the printing of
speeches before the date OF which they
are uttered, arise from the variation
of time and the earth's surface. Greet
ings sent from festive banquets in the
United States by telegraph to England
arrive in the dead Of the night; and an
| afternoon performance of a new drama
takes place in New York simultaneous
ly with the evening performance in
London-a fact not unobseryed by Mr.,
Boucicault and other dramatic authors.
- WDl. COombe- Sand RS, ia Boston IraV-
eiler.