Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-02-09

extraordinary, but that the DAYS would
glide evenly by, as they do in Europe
and elsewhere, but this Is by no means
the case. If the spot from which the
new day sets forth should happen to be
on land lamp as matter of fact it is sol.
We must be prepared to expect some in
teresting anomalies there. 1 pointed out
in Nature, May 8, 1878, that the daily
starting point of time really occurs at
Sitka, in Alaska, in what was the Russian
portion of North America.
''After having long anC Il vain sought
this information among travellers and
biographies, l met with Ii in a small
| book entitled The Geographical Reader
by G. B. Clarke, NJ. A., London, 1886. At
| page 19 the author says: AT the town OF
Sitka, IN Alaska, half the population are
Russians who have arrived from Russia
| across Asia; half the population are
Americans who have arrived via the
UuJted States. Hence when it is Sunday
with the Russians 1t is Saturday with the
Americans. The Russians are busy on
Monday while the Americans are ID
church on Sunday, to the great interrupt
tion of business Here, then, is evident
ly the answer to the question, Where
! does the day begin? As this territory
has now been ceeded to the United States,
the Russian chronology must gradually
but inevitably die out, ard the starting
point-point will doubtless thereafter be
where it ought TO be-viz., on one of the
| Aleu'ian or Behring Straits islands still
owning Russian sway, so that no incon-
venience would be felt by anybody. We
may record the boundary line between
Alaskan and American territory as por-
ton of a meridian, and some very anus
ing and seemingly paradoxieal results
must occur there, quite opposed to our
common notions. let Us. for example,
consider the coming New Years Day of
1888. The longitude Of Sitka is such
that the new ear will commence there
about 8 o'clock in the morning of next
Saturday, Dec. 81 Greenwich time);
during the first three hours the new year
will only have spread as far as New Yea
land, all the rest of the world Will still be
In 1887.
"Any person born in this region will
date his birth from January, 1888, but
his cousins born in Europe many hours
afterward will date their birth from 1897.
He will be the younger in age, but the
older in date, and if he chance to inherit
wealth and title, he may possibly some
| day afford an interesting case for the in
| genuity of the lawyers and an apt illus
tration of the utility of universal time.
Fifteen hours later the new year will have
reached England, and the midnight peals
viii joyously herald its advent after
twenty-four hours the earth will have
comp leted its revolution, and for a single
| instant only, before the next day starts,
no % irir, 70
of Jan. l, 1883. But, now, let US for a
moment consider the case of the people
living on the American side OF the line {:
The first of January will have only just
commenced for them, and they will have
to wait twenty four hours longer before it
will terminate; it follows from this that
each day exists on some part of the earth
| for forty eight hours, and for the same
| reason the year endures for 366 days; dur
ing the whole of the first twenty -four
hours we have 1887 on one side of the line
and 1888 on the other. A Russian can at
any time cross the borders and pend yes
terday with his friends, or an American
can enter Russia where he will find it to-
morrow and enjoy the New Years dinner
with his Russian neighbors and return
home in pie time TO spend the even
ing OF the old year with his family. If he
stands astride on the boundary line there
will be an instant during which his feet
will be the one in Yesterday morning, the
other in yesterday night while his body
will be still in to- day-that is, the day
juss expiring if he enjoys the posi-
tion, he may remain there throughout a
day forty eight hours long. The whole
problem is an instructive one, sufficiently
interesting to he more ,yener2ilv known
and understood"