The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1885-01-06
a SINGULAR FACT.
A Presidential Year Which VIII
Not be a Leap Year.

reporter of the American found him
self with party of friends, the con-
versation turned on the fact that this
was leap year. A middle-aged gen.
tleman In the party remarked:
''Thauk goodness, it is nearly over "
"Why ?" inquired the mau of the
pencil.
"Well. to make a long story short.
some years ago, in leap year, a
beautiful, well-educated and altogeth-
er lovely young lady; asked me to
marry her in a jest. l said yes as L
had long entertained secret affection
for her. She meant every word she
said, and insisted that we should be
married at Christmas. / consented
and we were married. A better wife
man never had. But, alas for nv
future prospects, she lived but one
short year and now sleeps In Mount
Olivet. Here is where my aversion
to leap year comes in. [ am afraid
that some designing woman viii pro-
pose to me in some leap year, and
that / will be compelled to accept,
and, instead of getting helpmate for
life, / will get vixen who will make
my life hell upon EARTH"
Then" said The scribe, "you
have to dread leap year for two
reasons. The first you have stated.
The second is on account Of the de-
preston to business caused by reap
year always being presidential year, I"
"There you are mistaken. Every
presidential year is not leap year.
III live till the year 1900, as | have
good prospects Of doing, l will see a
presidential year which is not lesp
year, and still year divisible by four.
This set the reporter to studying
He could not make out how it was
His Informant left him in the dark,
and he finally consulted the authori-
ties, with the following result, taken
from Smiths illustrated Astron-
omy."
at has been found by observation
that the earth revolves on IFS axis
3654 times nearly while it is making
one complete revolution around the
sun, or while the sun moves from eth
er equinox to the same equinox again,
consequently the solar year, upon
which the seasons depend, contaius
nearly 3654 days. It will be seen
from this that the difference between
a year of $50 days and the year as
measured by the sun amounts to one
day in every four years; so that 120
years of $50 days the seasons would
fall back one whole month, and the
season for May would be in June, etc.
In 720 years the longest day would
fall back through the twelve months,
and would again correspond with their
present arrangement. In order to
keep the seasons to the same months,
and to make the solar and civil year
correspond, one day more is included
in FEBRUARY every fourth year. This
would always keep the solar and civil
year together if the earth revolved
upon its axis exactly 365 IA times
while it is revolving around the sun,
or during the solar year; but the earth
revolves from equinox to the same
again in 800 days, 5 hours, 4S minutes
and 49 seconds, which is IL mimi ties
and / seconds less than $50 IA DAYS;
consequently. in allowing one day in
every four years is allowing A min
utes, A seconds to much, and in 1872 |
years it would amount to "a hours, SO |
minutes. 6 seconds. The mode of
reckoning time by making every
fourth year a leap year
was adopted by the council
OF Nice in the year of our Lord, 325,
when the longest day in the year hap
pened June 81, and the vernal equi-
nox March q. This mode of reckoning
was continued until 1852, period of
1, AZ years, when it was found that
the longest day was on June 10 and
the vernal equinox On March 10, the
vernal equinox having fallen back
eleven days toward the beginning of
To restore the equinoxes to the same
days Of the month in which they hop-
pened liz the year 325, eleven DAYS
were ordered by the British govern
ment and the United States, then
British colonies, to be stricken out of
the month of September, 1852, by
calling the Sd the 4th, and it was
that hereafter one leap
year in l32 years, or three leap years
in 100 years, should be omitted that
is, that the years 100, 1900 and
1900, which, by the old style, would
have been leap years, should be COM
mon years of 365 days. This method
gives 397 leap years In every 400 |
years. Thus 400 multiplied by 365,