Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1895-05-10
Old Style and New Sly lie.
\ Reader" asks. What does Oi,

y Reader asks, What does Old
style and New style mean"
We answer the query at some
length. mainly - preserve unimpaired
the sweet delu>irn in many minds
that a family newspaper is Il sort OF
unabridged dictionary or circulating
cyclol.rlia. In Lippincotts Biograph-
zeal Dictionary we read that Sir Isaac
Newton was born December 18th
odd STYLE" 1912. In his lie OF New
ton, Chittenden says that this date
of his birth is according to the Old
style" method OF writing dates, or tho
fashion which was in vogue previous
20 the adoption OF the reformed calen,
dar. In the introduction to the
Leopold edition Of Shakespeare, printed
in London, it is recorded that the poct
died on Saturday. April Is, l6lG
Old Styl", or ON SUNDAY, April %
1916, New style"
Mr.. John J. Bond, an English essay
list, complains that there are able
writer's OF the present day, who fall
into the error of confounding many
recorded dates OF both the birth and
death OF eminent persons living in the
sixteent tn and seventeenth centuries
mainly on account of misconstruine
, the significance of the terms Old Style
and New Style. The dates of many
prominent historical events of those
times are also often confounded in a
similar manner.
Respectable English and continent
tai writers who ought to know better
have repeatedly asserted that Miguel
Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote,
and Shakespeare, died on the same day.
Now as a matter of fact Cervantes
died just ten days before Shakespeare,
space of time exactly equal to the
distance than existing between the
Old Style and the New Style.
This conflict between careless writ
ers and the real facts in the case is
easily explained as follows:
When Shakespeare died, April %,
1910, England had not obeyed the
mandate of Pope Gregory XIII and
adopted the revised calendar or New
Style, nor was it officially adopted by
Parliament till the year 1852.
On the contrary, when it is said
that Cervantes died at Madrid on Sat-
urday. April l3. 1910, Spain being a
Catholic country, had been using the
revised calendar for "a years, having
adopted the New Style Immediately
upon its promulgation in 1882. Hence
it will be seen that this day, Saturday,
April Ii, 1915, having been changed
to New Style, and carried ten days
ahead, would exactly correspond with
Tuesday, April %, of the same year
1915, in England, where the New
Style had not been as yet adopted.
AS if to guard against a repetition
of this error and forewarn future writ.
ers, the later editions of Lippincotl
state it thus: Grievances died April
%, 1916, N. S., or April IL, 1916,
@. S."
Thus, then, we have doubtless found
the source of many of those perplexinl
discrepancies so often found in me-
dieval history.
If the formulas, Old Style and New
Style have, on the one hand, caused
some confusion, they have, on the
other hand, as . kind of redeemins
service, fixed and identified otherwis,
doubtful points in history. Thus it il
quantity remarked in Bonds Handy
BOOK, ana don't let us Iorger tnat or
this day, Tuesday, April %. Q616)
Old Style, or May 3, New Style, thu
great Oliver Cromwell entered himself
as . student at Sidney Sussex College
Cambridge"
For the benefit Of young writer
and general readers, we will briefly re
view in a popular way the history o
the Julian Calendar from its frs
introduction B. G. 46, to its reforma
, ton by Pope Gregory XIII, and thu
on down to modern times.
About two years before his tragica
death, or B. c. 46, Julius Caesar de
termined to bring order out of con
fusion by reforming the old Roma
calendar then in y most deplorabl
condition. Although eminent as h
was in the sciences of the times, h
procured the assistance of the note
Alexandrian astronomer and math'
: matician, Sosigenes.
The changes proposed by Cesa
were remarkable for their simplicit
and accuracy when we consider til
: crude state of astronomical science ,
that time.
With 8 boldness equaled only
' his valor in war, he ordered tbs
thenceforth there should be thre
consecutive years of 365 days eacl
= and that every fourth year shoul
contain 1855 days.
To secure this end, the odd day vi
given to February every fourth yea
He also assigned to'ti,e, otber monh
the number of days which they no
contain. Here, then is the sum an
, substance of the new calendar. Beat
tiful as it was cod quite adequate
the demands OF the times that ushere
in its inception, it was astronomical
!. wanting in accuracy. The averag
Il wear mich Caesar assumed to b
36I days. was really IL minutes,
$40 seconds too long; that is, just
minutes, 10 $40 seconds longer tina
the time required for one revolutio
OF the earth around the sun.
OF course, it is not to be suppose
: that Caesar and his co.laborers wer
cognizant of this error in all its mir
ute details or that they could hay
corrected it had they been in posses