The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1885-10-22
RUssELLyILLE. POPE CO.. ARK, OCTOBER 22, 1885.

The difficulty now arose how to make
all subsequent years of the proper
length, and 1t was Caesars attempt to
do this that brought about the intro
duction Of Leap Y ear. Previous to this,
as we have noticed, the months were
made to correspond as nearly as possible
with the length Of the moons revolu1
tions. Cesar, however, being no luna
tic, abolished all reference to the lunar
revolution, which reference had pro-
duced nearly all the confusion. and did
away with the intercalary months.
The mode of arrangement which he
now adopted was a very simple one:
he made the months of the year to be
of thirty-one and thirty days alternately.
except February, which, in ordinary
years, had twenty-nine 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 oath and 25th of
the month, where the intercalary period
used to be. The fact of its being thus
inserted gave rise to the term Bissextile.
q common name for Leap-Year. The
25th of February was, according to the
Roman way of (backward) reckoning,
the sixth before the Kalends Of March
sertsts ad KaiendGs MartidS. The ad-
ditional day was put in by repeating
| this serts1as, and was thus called bisser-
tnm, hence Bissextile.
Thus Cesay introduced Leap
Year. But, as in his Leap ear Febru-
ary had thirty days, it did not corre-
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 necessitat-
ed a further change, by which Febru-
ary came to have twenty-nine days in
Leap Year, and twenty-eight in other
years.
That the name of julius Caesar might
| forever be associated with the calendar,
month was called after him, and that
in which his birthday occurred was
chosen. 1t had before been called
| Quintillis. But men are very jealous OF
any favor shown to their neighbors at
least most men are, unfortunately. So
Augustus Caesar, the successor OF
Julius, on his army achieving some
victories, not of much more 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 one after
julius, and it was named Augustus. II
SO happened, however, that this latter
month had thirty days, whereas July
had thirty-onc days. Augustus could
not brook that julius month should be
longer than his own, so he made Au-
gust of thirty-one days, also. This
stupid vanity of Augustus brought much
confusion into the calendar. The length
of the last four months of the year had
to be changed to preserve the alternate
! length system of the months. And
/ further the change which bears on the
| subiect-by adding day to his own
month, August had, OF course, added a
day to the year. To correct this he
made February day shorter. Febru-
airy, therefore. became of twenty-eight
days in ordinary years, and twenty
nine in Leap Year, and the other
months as they are now.
So that julius simple mode of hav-
ing the months OF thirty-one and thirty
days alternately was completely de-
stroyed. Let us bear in mind, too, that
Augustus made no alteration in the
length of the year. though he intro
duced such an irregularity into the
lengths of the months. All his changes
were made merely to suit his personal
ends To RENE nber Julius way of the
months required no effort, but now,
what with February and its out of the
way length, and what with other alter
ations, it became necessary, in order to
remind us of the length of the months,
to construct the well-known ridiculous
rhyme of our school-days:
Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November,
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting February alone,
| Which hath but Jwcnty-eght days clear,
And twenty-nine in each Leap-Year,
- B,.O0L{Ul E10Ip