Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1881-01-29
Something TO Amuse and Instruct.

Editor Standard Il have concluded
to write something which may both
amuse and instruct teachers and pupil
What | now write was told me by an
old gentleman nearly forty years ago.
This old gentleman, if he knew the
dominica letter for any year in the
present century, could, without making
any figures, tell on what day of any
month. in that year the first Sunday in
that month would come. He could
answer any of the following questions,
or any similar question, by making a
count on his fingers What day of
the month was the first Sunday in June,
1882 What day Of the month was
the first Sunday in December, 1917 !?
Ii must be remembered that he must
first know the dominica etlersfor the
year mentioned before he could answer
the question. have never tried to
explain his method in school, nor have
ever heard any teacher try to explain
it, If | do not now make it pain in
this paper, let some other teacher try
to explain it, for it will certaioly be q
source of amusement to many pupil,
in our schools. The calculation is all
made by using the following couplet
"At Dover dwelIs George Brown, Esquire,
Good Captain Fitch, and David Friar."
1t will be seen that this couplet con-
tains twelve words, corresponding to
the number Of months in a year. |
will apply it to the year 1881. The
dominica letter for this year is b.
What day Of the month is the first
Sunday in October, 1881? October is
the tenth month, aud the tenth word
begins with a. Count A one, and B
two; and as B is the dominica letter,
the first Sunday in October will be the
second day Of October. The initial of
the eighth word, corresponding to Au-
gust, is q. Now coant G., ID, E, F,
q, A, B, seven letters, and we find
that the first Sunday in August is the
seventh day of August.
Ali will now perceive that we must
take the initial letter of the word that
corresponds to any month, call that
one, and count in the alphabet as far
as g, come back to A, and count on
until we include the dominica letter.
If we have to count one, two, three,
four, five, six, or seven, the first san.
day in the month will be the day Of
the month that we last counted.
10 find the dominical letter for any
year of the present century, use the
following rule:
Multiply the number of the year
above 1900 by five and divide the plo-
duct by four rejecting the remainder.
Divide the quotlent by seven and sub
tract the remainder from five, if it is
less than five, and from twelve if the
remainder is five or greater than five
If the rule is applied 10 leap year,
it, will give the letter for the
last ten months. The letter for
January and February will be the next
Following letter in the a phabet, except
when q is the letter, then A will he
the letter for January and February.
Illustration. Required the domini-
cal letter for 1881: Multiply 81 by 5,
gives 4O5; divide this by 4, gives lOl;
divide this by 7, give 3 for IA remain :
der; this subtuoted from 3 leaves Il
remainder Of 2, showing that the let
ter is the second of the alphabet, or B.
will here remark that, DUNG the
last twenty-five years, several pelpet-
ual calendars have been made by diff
ferent astronomers, and by them We
can tell on what day Of the week any
day of any month has happened or
will happen during The present centu-
ry. j. p. CLARK.