The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-02

they can easily convince themselves that
they are all wrong. at least, 1 have con-
WINGED some against their will by the
use of 1t.
The Illustration may be somwhat
clumsy, but it is certainly very plain and
convincing. Get a small sack of beans or
corn or anything that you can count
handlly; sit down at table, commence
and count 100 beans in pile; make twen-
ty piles, place them in a straight row
along within about a foot of the edge Of
the table
Then commence with the first pile and
push one of the beans from the pile to
the edge of the table, letting it fall out
or sight, always bearing in mind that the
bean does not represent the year exactly
II is only for the purpose of keeping count
of the years. The time occupied i'll push
ing the bean from the pile to the drop
ping off place is meant 10 represent the
space of time called a year. Then let
your hard fly back very quickly (for, of
course, there is no time between the end
ing of one year ana the commencement
OF another) and start another bean from
the same pile to the jumping off place
and when this one has fallen out of sight
YOU VIII, OF course, have passed two
years of the first century. Surely this is
plain enough, if you have kept track of
the illustration so far. Well, keep on at
the process until you have pushed off all
of the first pile and you find that your
hand has Travelled just 100 times from the
first pile to the jumping oft place, which
YOU surely will admit represents the wind
ing UP of the first century the moment
the last bean has fallen off the table Now
1t Is not Necessary to go through the whole
or the illustration by pushing all the
beans Off just take a jump over 10 the
nineteenth pile, which. of course. repre-
sents the nineteenth century Commence
as you did before with the first pile, push
OFF a bean, always remembering that the
time consumed in pushing Off the first
bean represents the time from JAN /
1Sel to Jan. /, 1902. Now please do not
get confused here. This is where YOU all
go astray. There is not an instant Of
the nineteenth century gone until YOU
have started the first bean in the nine
teenth pile on its way. Then, and not I'M
til then, has the nineteenth century be-
gun. Now, then, We will suppose that
you have pushed off and pushed off until
you come to the ninety-eighth bean The
moment it dropped off ended the year
lhN You then commence on the ninety
ninth bean, the time consumed in its
travels, of course, represents the time
from the first instant in the year 1899 to
the first of January. 1900. Well Just please
remember that you have one bean left in
the ninety ninth pile yet, and the time
consumed in pushing that last one off /
must represent one year, or the time be-
tween Jan. l, 1900, and Jan l. 1901. but
remember that there is not an instant of |
time passes belonging to 1901 till you have
commenced to push off the first bean in |
the twentieth pile, which of course !
brings you to the twentieth century, for !
the moment you take hold of The first |
bean in the twentieth pile to push it off, !
that moment the twentieth century be- |
gins, and the time occupied in pushing 1t |
off represents the time from Jan. ! 1901 !
to Jan. 1, 1902. This, surely, is plain |
enough, is it not?
w. S. Graham.
Saltwater. July /.
MR.. H. E. GRAHAM'S POSITION.
To the Editor Of The Globe:
The argument of Mr. H. e. Graham in |
today's G l o Q refutes his proposition. |
II, as he says, lat the time of A D. We |
were practically on our second year"
when. l ask, were we on orr first wear? |
for he has just said: ''At the beginning
of the Christian era there was no YEAR |
/ think that this confusion of ideas will !
make 1t clear to him that there must have |
been year before our second year. IN /
which We were spending our first wear. |
And here is the whole trouble with our !
friends on the other side of the uues- |
ton. They canont get it into their heads |
that each year has an actual existence. |
or a years length before it reaches its |
end; and that each and every part of
tEat year is designated by it's proper ru- !
neral, as years l, 2, 8, etc.; and that these
years are called respectively the first, sec
ond, third, etc; and that each one has |
its full value as complete year in count |
ing the number of years that have elapsed
during the Christian era. But there is an
ether way Of looking at the question
which I think will bring the truth home !
to our comprehension in way that we
can all understand: Substitute the round
dollar for the year round. Some one, say.
owes Mr.. Graham $1,000. He comes to
make payment. He lays down his first
round dollar, full and complete. That |
counts one. He goes on with the others
as he lays them one by one on the table,
two, three, four, ten. fifty, 1000 1850, 1880,
and then stops. Go on" says Mr.. era
ham. go on what2" says the other.