Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1890-03-15
FATHER TIME.
The Origin and Significance Of osr Way
Of Reckoning Time.

Il
1901 There is a meaning in those
figures. Every time they are written
on letter head or ledger or a bank
check or a note or hotel register or
printed on newspaper they mean some
thing. The pens of Christians and inf
dels and skeptics and agnOstics and
Jews and Gentiles are all writing it
visible and indelible upon the paper.
Every day, every hour, every minute it
is being written all over the world, and
every mark establishes a fact-a great
fact-that 1890 years ago there was a
birth-a notable birth-and old Father
Time began a new count and called it
Ammo Domini. What wonderful event
it must have been that closed the
record of the ages and started time on
q new cycle. How in the world did it
happen? The Greeks had their calen-
dar and the Romans had theirs, and the
Jews had one that was handed down by
Moses, but all of them were over
Swallowed by the one that handful of
Christians set up, and for 400 years
the Ammo Domini has given a date to
every birth and death and event in the
| civilized world. 1t seems to me that if
was an infidel I would not place these
figures at the top of my letters. I
would not dignity the birth of q child
that way, would rather write 1894 as
the date of the creation. But, no, if 1
did not credit Moses and the prophets
/ 1 couldn't choose that date, and so l
would have no date-no era to begin
with. The Greeks had their Olympiads
to date from and the Romans the birth
of their ancient city, and the Moham-
medans the fight of Mohamet, but a
modern agnostic has nothing. If he
was an American, 1 suppose he might
begin with the Declaration of Independ-
ence and say January ia. The Jew is
better of, for he has faith-a faith as
strong as the ages-and his era goes
back to Moses and the prophets, but
even he has to conform to the Ammo
Domini of the Christian in all his bust
ness relations with mankind. If ne was
to date business letter or make out bill
of goods according to his faith, it would
be returned to him for explanations.
What wonderful thing is this date
these four simple figures. We write
them and write them, but We seldom
ponder on what they prove.
On New Years night, was talking
to the children about these things and
about the long journey we had taken
since the last New Year. We have got
ten back to the same place in the uni
verse and have travelled nearly three
hundred millions of miles. Talk about
your cannon ball trains and your light
ming express, Why, we have been run
ming schedule of 30, 900 miles an hour
and never stopped for coal or water, and
never had jostle nor put on brake
nor creased wheel. Other trains have
crossed ouy track and we have crossed
theirs, but there was no danger signal.
no sign board, no red flag, no watch
msn. Was there ever an engineer so
reckless of human lie? Fifteen hun
bred millions of passengers aboard, and
they sleep half the time. Did ever pas
sengsrs ride so trustingly? And what
is more wonderful still, our train has 3
little fun on the way and every day
turns summersault %, 900 miles round
just fer the enjoyment and health of
the passengers Turns over as it goes
turns ut speed of thoasand miles an
hour and never loses an inch of space.
or a moment OF time. Wouldn't it be
big fun if we could stand off away from
the tran and see it roll and turn as it
rolled and see the passengers all calm
and serene? 1t seems to me that if L
was an nfdel or an agnostic I would
want to get off this train-a train with
out an engineer train that has got
loose from somewhere and Is running
wild at the rate of 500 miles minute.
Talk about your Pullman sleepers and
vestibule and diningroom cars. Why
this train carries houses and gardens
and fruit trees and everything good to
eat. 1t is a family train, and the
family goes along with their neighbors
and the preacher and the doctor and the
graveyard is carried along, too, so that
if anybody dies on the way the train
don't have to stop for a funeral. 1t is
well thSt it don't, for the passengers
are dying at the rate of hundred
minute, and the train would never get
anywhere if it had to stop to bury the
dead.
Then we children got to talking about
she centuries away back, when the
months and the years were unsettled,
and nobody seem to know how long a
wear was or how to divide it. When
the changes of the moon were bigger