The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-02-13
A LAST CHANCE" YEAR,
t VIII Be a Long Time Before Women
Can Propose Again.


The leap year which now begins is,
however, to certain extent peculiar,
|ssiIlce another will not occur for eight
jyears. Such an interval has occurred
Atwice before in the history of Scotland,
and only once in the history of England,
and two centuries will elapse before It
slcurs again. The last year of the pres
ISN'T century, 1900, will not be leapyear,
but 1000, the last year of the succeeding
century, will. The year 21OO will again
be common year, so that the next
teriod of seven consecutive common
IS will be between 2096 and 21O4.
ne rule by which this seemingly 81
rary interference with an established
order of things IS regulated is compare
Ftively simple, but it's history is IN many
Prospects both curious and interesting.
NAs everyone knows, The earth revolvcs
| found its axis, and also travels round
the sun, the one revolution causing the
alienation of day and night, the other
that of the seasons From the earliest
tries men have made use of both these
| sesies of changes as means of reckon
| lDE NSs "ih liSNi Dttn ii SlllDIt
nurlerical relation between them, there
neet never have been any trouble with
lear years and such devices
| unfortunately, however, this is not
at resent the case. The number of rev.
! olut ons which the earth makes when It
goes once round the sun, instead of be-
| ir~ a-whole number, is number and a
or, in ether words, the earth
goes Id the sun in 1865 days hours
and 4S minutes 46 seconds, or 365. 2422
days. This was not, however, discov-
cred in a day. Various guesses We're
made at the proper length of the year,
and calendars were drawn up in ac-
cordance with them. But in the course
of time the error accumulated, with the
result that the seasons changed places,
and the yernal equinox, instead of re.
naming at fixed place in the calendar,
moved backward or forward, according
as the approximation was in excess or
defect, and extra days had to be inter-
calated or omitted to set things right.
By the time of Julius Caesar the Ro-
man year, which consisted of 35E days,
had worked loose by three months, so
that the winter months had been car
ried back into autumn. In order to pre-
vent such confusion in future, with the
aid of Sosigenes, he fixed the length of
the year at 36514 days, or three wears Of
365 days, followed by one of 366. At the
! same time, to bring back the equinox to
its proper place, he inercalated 80 DAYS
| into the current year of 355 days, max
ing it AS days--probably the longest
year on record. This was the Julian
calendar, and to it we owe to this day
the leap year which comes every fourth
year.
But the approximation on which the
calendar was based. though much more
accurate and convenient than any that
Lad preceded it, gave too long year by
the difference between $685. and
365.2422, the error amounting to a day
in 1913 years. In the course of the CEN
turtles, the equinox gradually recedcd
toward the beginning of thu year.
| Caesar had fixed it on March 25: by the
time of the council of Nice, and by 1882
| it had receded to March II. In order to
restore the equinox to the position it &C.
Icupied in 325, when the council of Nice
/ bad drawn up regulations for the fixing
Of Eester, Pope Gregory, in 1882, d.
rected ten days to be suppressed, and as
the error was found to amount to three
days in 400 years, he laid down that in
future the last year of every century
shrould be an ordinary year, unless it is
| divisible by 400, in which case it was to
be a leap year. Thus 1900 viii be an
ordinary year, but 1000 will be a leap
year.
Pope Gregory's correction gives sn
average year of 65.2425 days, or 90 sec
ends longer than the true year. These
cdd seconds will amount to a whole year
IL 1928 years, and it has been proposed
| to allow for this error by providing tina
the year 1000, and all it's multiples, shall
be common years. But this would be
redantic foresight, and it is unnecessary
10 discuss the question whether the
year 1000 ought or ought not TO be q
leap year. In ages yet to come, when
the friction of the tides has so retarded
the rotation of the earth that 365 DAYS
make year, leap years will be unneccs-
sary. But that is a still remoter con-
| tingency, and in the meantime Pope
Gregory's calendar is likely to remain
in its present form.-Edinburg Scots
| man.