The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-02-21
5el1rt Misrrllnny.
1T IS LEAP YEA r.

riage has been one # the inevitable
concomitants of human existence. Con-
sidered from a purely secular stand
point it bids fair to continue its career
for cycles to come.
Eighteen hundred and ninety-six is
the rallying time of the century for
spinsters. Immemorlal use accords to
woman in leap year the right to usurp
mans privilege and WOO her blush
ing mate. For the year one motto
would be: F'Woman proposes, man dis
poses"
Hitherto in the annals of our CEN
fury the leap year records show no ex-
traordinary results from the spinsters'
efforts. Eighteen hundred and ninety
six will, however, more than compen-
safe for past failures. Spinsters will
array themselves for supreme en-
deavor.
In the ordinary leap year tue woman
hardly moves into the work with all
her powers concer trated. There is
the lurking suspicious Of another leap
year to come if this be unsuccessful,
and the secret expectation that in the
intervening time some man may WOO
her. In view Of these things she pros
ecutes her undertaking without the
desperation bred of lack of hope in
the future. In other words she is I'M
manned.
We have changed all that for the
leap year-1S96, or, rather, the calen-
dar makers changed it for US centur-
is ago. Thsyear 1896 is not to be an
ordinary le~5year. In it no spinster
must lead forlorn hope. They must
mass their forces for one great final
assault upon the citadel of masculine
indifference to their w1nsomeness.
Establishments, stategy-aye, force,
even-must be employed if need be for
the gaining of success, the gaining Of
a man. The reason of the vast impor-
lance Of the year to spinsters is found
in the fact that it has no successor
until 1901. When the bells ring in
the year 1897 their clamors will toll
the inability Of woman to propose for
seven years. In other words, the year
1900 Will not be leap year. There
will be seven years without any grant
Of special privilege to the fair sex.
Bachelors who love their liberty
must beware, for never before in their
history were the signs of capture so
alarming. The new woman has plans
for the new year, looking toward a man
"a new man or an cold man." Not
only will the new women themselves
present dauntless phalanx of ANA
zonian wooers, but the emboldening
effects of their example on their less
assertive sisters will be such that any
bachelor had best beware the shJest
maid, or he may lose his hand, if not
his heart. Seven years without oppor-
tunity means for the ordinary splnster
no other opportunity. She will be in
the retired list when another leap year
comes. If it Is to be done at all it
must be done quickly-th, getting Of
a husband. An artist has conceived
of the symbolic splnster, lariat in hand,
watching for the moment when the
fearing man my be caught by its cling
ing loop. The picture is the precise
represel. tation of the fact.
The spinster will employ folce to the
utmost. The unwilling strands of the
lariat will be hurled by no wayering
hand, and there will be no escape for
him over whose shoulders the resist
less moose falls. The spinsters will
look in the glass and see there in the
shadow pictures conjured up by sor-
rowful anticipation, the pictures of
spinsters seven years hence when the
battery of charms will be routed by
Father Time. Spinsters will not fail
in 1896 if their utmost strength can
avoid defeat. If, after all. they do
fail, they will mathematics the calen-
dar maker.
It is curious prank those same cal
endar makers have played, on the wo-
men directly, aud on the men indi-
rectly.
The introduction of an additional
day into the calendar once in four years
Is necessary to prevent the average
year from being too short. At the
same time it makes the average year a
little too long. This additional length
is so slight that it accumulates very
slowly. Nevertheless, it does accumu-
lac, and by the end of a century it
amounts to nearly day. For that
reason once In a hundred years the ad-
ditional day which marks a year as
leap year is omitted, and the average
length of the years is reduced.
The English law determined in 1851
en- reforms in the calendar. and from
those we draw and use. The orr ginal
determination of the calendar was
made by the Pope, and afterward it
was adopted by all the countries except
Russia and the East. From January
18th. 1852, the civil year was made to
begin on that date, and not on March
t, as many had it. In the same year