The Hazlehurst signal., 1884-02-07

he made the months Of the year TO bo
of thirty-onc and thirty days alternately,
except February, which. in ori nary
years. had twcniy-nlnc days, and only
every fourth year thirty days. The
only stupid thing was that the extra
day was not placed at the end Of Feb
ruary, but between the 9th and 18th OF
the month. where the iniercalary period
used Ia be-. The fact of its leng thus
inserted gave rise TO the term II BsscNtilc,
common name for Lcap-icar. The
18th of February was, according To the
Roman way of (backwar,D reckoning.
the sixth before the KalendS of March
Ssr'uS dd h'dlcHidS .Mrii,iS. The adj
diiional day was put in 10y repeating
this Scri,tm, and was thus called biSSer-
ttDi. hence Bis,extilc.
Thus Ccsay introduced Leap
Year But. n in his Leap-lcar Febru-
ary had thirty DAYS. il did not CORE
spond exactly with our present year.
The difference consists not in the length
of the year itself. but in the Individual
Lengths Of the months. This ncccsSitat-
cd further change. by which Fcbru-
.
Leap.Ycar. and twenp-eight In other
years.
That the name Of julius CTsar might
forever be associated with the calendar,
a month was called after him. and that
in which his birthday occurred was
chosen. II had before been called
QuintilliS. But men are very Jealous of
anv favor shown to their ncighbOrs-at
least most men are, unfortunately. so
Augustus Caesar. the successor oi
Julius. on his army achieving some
victories. not of much moro impor-
tance than France boasts of at present
In China. succeeded In getting the
month in which these were won called
after him. This was the ono after
Julius. and il was named Augustus IL
SO happened. however, that this latter
month had thirty days, whereas July
had thiriy-one days. Augustus cOuli
not brook that Julius month should be
longer than his own. 80 he made Au-
gust Ot thirty-Onc days. also. Thi>
stupid yanjtyOf Augustus brought much
confusion into tie calcn lar. The length
of the las, four months Of the YEAR had
To be- changed tu preserve the alternate
length system Of the months. And
furthcr-thc change which bears on the
subicct-by adding day to hi own
month. August hal. of course, added a
day To the year. To correct this he
made February day shorter. Fcbru-
ary. therefore. became of twcnty-cight
days in ordinary years, aud twenty
nine in Lcap.Icar, and the other
months ~ they are now.
So that julius simple mode Of hav.
ing the months ot thirty-one and thirty
days alternately was completely de-
stroycd Let Us bear in mind. too, that
Augustus made mo- alteration in the
length of the year. though he intro.
ducrd such an irrcgulari,y into the
lengths of the months. All his changes
were ma le merely TO suit his personal
ends. To remember Julius way of the
months required no effort, but now,
what with February and it, out Of the
way length. aud what with other al'cr'
ationS. il became necessary, in order 10
remind US of the length of the months,
tn construct the well-known ridiculous
rhymc Of our schOol.days:
Thirty days hath September,
April June an November.
All the rest have thirty-oue,
Excepting February alone.
Which hath hut twcnty-cight davs clear.
And twenty.nine In each Leap-fe1r.
-BroolfyH Eagle.