The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-02-29
This is an Unusual Febru-
ary 10Th.
Won't Happen Again in Eight
Long Years.
Long Time Between Birthdays For
a Score of Children.

Today has been rightly ter med "Mis-
fit Day" and even Superintendent of
Health c. V. Chaplin ana his helpexs
thought 1T not unwise to discuss the
why's and wherefore this. morning. Theres
are veral reasons why the. matter should
be discussed. In the first place there
will not be another twenty of Feb
ruary until 1904 and by the same token
there Will be no leap year in the interim.
This Is so because, as somebody else
puts IL, In the perfection of the solar
system that gives us time and the imper-
lection OF mans method of measuring
that time, We have time enough left over
every year, after we have made up our
calendar, to make part of day. Just :
how much time Is left over the 365 days
of "a hours each of an ordinary year is
not at hand at this writing, because
Professor Upton of the Ladd observatory,
who Is supposed TO know all those things,
is in Boston; but an excellent authority
says 1t is something like five hours and
As minutes. Consequently these fractions
are once in four years Jumped" into full
day. but even then the measure OF time
Is not absolutely accurate, so in order to ;
strike balance, once in SO often,
leap year must be skil ped, II has been
stated in this connection that leap year Is
passed every century. DIR. Chaplin thinks
otherwise, however, being OF the opinion
that Ii Is once in every 400 ysars, or
something to that effect III Professor
Upton was in town he could easily set US
right on that point, but, of course, the
janitor Of the observatory could not an-
swer the question:.
Another and vital interest in today's
significance lies in the fact that there are
some people who were or viii be horn to-
day, who cannot celebrate the ami
versary of the occasion for at least eight
pastrecords of births there ara about 70
zoo children born in Rhode Island evcrys
wear, 42O0 in Providence and 4,700, ,746 in
New England. Divide those by 3E5 and
see how many unfortunates you will find.
There will be II children and fraction
of child night in our glorious city OF
Providence to whom the distinction OF
having first seen the light of day on Feb.
20. 1896, will be misfortune, provided
they evince any desire to celebrate by a
birthday party previous TO 1901, Even
then they may get left for, as Brander
Matthews has happily put it:
"The parents of the child might decide
to reside in Russia in 1904 and leave
thereon Feb. 15, for instance, To go TO
London. They might reckon on giving
their little one good time on its first
birthday in tha great English capital.
But the stesmer on which they travel
might meet with mishap that would de-
lay it several days. The Russians do not
have the reformed, or Gregoriau calen-
dar, as we do, but cling to the old Ju-
lian calendar. which is 10 days behind
ours. So the travellers on their arrival i'm
London would find that 1t was already
after March 1, and that their child's
birthday had been lost, for in leaving
Russia they had lost 10 days in addition
to the time lost in transit to London.
The child would have to wait another
four years for a birthday, and still might
be cheated out of 1t when ~ years old,
and have TO wait until 1G. This might
occur If the child was on a ship coming,
say, from Australia to san Francisco.
"Navigators know that in going around
the world from east to west day is lost,
and in going from west 10 east it is
gained. The shiO makes the harbor of
Honolulu late at night on the 2sth OF
Feb, and the much-cheated child from
New England thinks there is chance
ahead for birthday frolic on the pretty
end of the Hawaiian island. but on be-
ing hailed from the shore shortly after
midnight the people on the ship find 1t is
already March /. BY coming into port at
the time they did they lost the very day
that would have given the child a birth
day."
There are several other things to be
noted i'm this connection. Astrologists tell
us that this is a bad day to loan money
to strange man with one eye and a
limp 1t is also advisable to caution
everybody about Swearing OFF until a
year from today" but you may give your
note for the same period IL anybody will
accept il.
1t is also a fact that of all our promi-
nent citizens who are prominent 10 fig
ure in the worlds biographies, none is
found who was born on Feb. 20.