The times., 1899-08-09
Ways OF RECKONING time
The Day Begins at Sunset in No
hammedan Countries.
Firing OF the MONDAY Gun at Tehe-
rnn, Persia Very Good Time I'm
Africa Where There Is TeIegrnphic
Communication With greenwich
The PuzzlinE Clocks of Ell Paso-

in Mohammedan countries is from sunset
to sunset Twelve o'clock is at sunset. and
this is the beginning Of the day Two
periods OF twelve hours then pass till the
next sunset, whereupon everybody sets
his watch, if he has one, backward or for
ward. according to the season. OF course
accurate time is impossible under such
system. The telegraphs and railroads in
Syria. for example, keep anything but ex-
act time. though it might be procured from
the observatory at Beyrout, which uses
its mean time. In Teheran, Persia, mid
day gun is fired by the time shown on
dial, and this in spite of the fact that the
correct local mean time might be procured
daily by a time signal from Greenwich and
is the time standard for all telegraphic
business. But the merchants and the street
car company keep gun time and the rail-
road trains do not seem to require a time
table at all, as they seldom start until
full or required to start by a Government
order
There are out of the way parts of the
world that keep very good time. because
their clocks are regulated by telegraph
from Greenwich and then the Greenwich
mean time is reduced TO local time ac-
cording TO longitude difference. Thus, at
Lagos and the Gold Coast West Africa
the local time is checked daily by tele-
graph from Greenwich. and transmitted
TO all the telegraph Offices in the colonies
The time at Aecra is only forty>six sec
onds slower than that of Greenwich, and
is the time used throughout the Gold Coast
Most any sort of time is kept in China
AS rule, the Chinese an apparent sun
time obtained from sundials. The for
eigners at the ports on the coast use an
approximate local time calculated from the
Shanghai time, supplied by the telegraph
companies. In the great city of Tientsln,
with million inhabitants, the time is de-
termined by the municipal chronometer
which is the town hall clock. ID is supposed
TO be regulated every Saturday, when the
community may set their watches, but il
| has been known to be in error at least
three minutes
Last December was the time when all the
towns in Colombia were expected, there
after, to use the time of Bogota, the capi-
tai. With this responsibility upon them
it is hoped that the public clocks of that
city will improve in their timekeeping. for
visitors at Bogota say it is nothing unusual
| for the public clocks 10 disagree by fully
quarter of an hour.
| In India, the standard time for the whole
| Of the peninsula is the mean time of the
Madras Observatory, and this time is used
on through lines of railroad. and in re-
| ccrding the time of sending kilograms to
| foreign countries. Local time is how
| ever, used in most towns and villages,
and it is announced by clocks striking
gongs, bells, and guns, the signals being
given from churches, treasury buildings,
/ forts, and telegraph Offices The local
l,clocks are set daily by the time tele-
graphed from Madras, and each telegraph
office has a closely printed table. filling
about fifty pages, giving the difference be-
tween Madras and local time for all the
| Government telegraph offices in India.
Not a few countries constantly use two
standards of time. This is not trouble
! some at all when We consider that, before
| the adoption of the hour zones, the rail
| roads across our own continent employed
about seventy standards OF time in making
up their time tables. Railroads and tele-
graphs throughout Spain use Madrid time.
but for all other purposes the local time
is determined by the meridian of each To-
| cality. Throughout Russia, ST. Petersburg
time is used for telegraphic purposes. and
each place has its own local time besides.
| In Portugal the country towns keep their
local time very roughly. but Lisbon ana
the railroad and telegraph service have the
time OF the Tapada Royal Observatory.
There is considerable confusion in the
| Netherlands, and il ones watch does not
agree with the town clocks as he travels
| through the land il doesn't follow that he
| has poor fimekeeper. In the railroad
stations, telegraph and postoffices the exact
time of the Greenwich Observatory viii be
! found In many towns Amsterdam time is
! in use and it is about twenty minutes fast
| er than reliable clocks in many other towns
! that use Greenwich time; and still other
towns use their own local time, so the
Netherlands do not lack for variety IN time
standards.
Every place in Newfoundland uses st.
Johns time for all purposes, excepting
Hearts Content, which has special privi-
leges as cable station. For local pur-
poses this little town employs local time
Every day ii receives signal from Lon
don giving the Greenwich time, and as the
differences in time between the two points
is three hours. thirty three minutes, and
thirty-three seconds, il is only necessary
| to keep the local clocks that much slow
on Greenwich time to have the exact local
| time But in the cable office all foreign
| business is transmitted with Greenwich
| time.
| In Great Britain Greenwich mean time is
the standard, and is used for all purposes
nearly everywhere Among the lew excep-
tions is the city Of Canterbury. which uses
a time about four minutes fast on Green
wich and clocks at a few railroad stations
are kept one or two minutes fast. Ire
land uses the time of Dublin, and so ali
the clocks in the island are twenty five
minutes and twenty-five seconds slow or
Greenwich time.
The official time throughout Argentina
is that of the city of Cordova, which is
telegraphed every day to control the time
pieces in the various cities. 1t is used
everywhere in the railroad and telegraph
offices. but many citizens in the province:
prefer to use local time of doubtful accu-
racy. The people OF the Hawaiian Island;
try to keep their time pieces 10 hours 81
minutes slower than those of Greenwich
and call this standard time. At Belize
British Honduras, the clock over the cour
house, which furnishes the time for tbs
town, is usually regulated by the time
kept by the ships in the harbor. The towI
of Nukualofa. which furnishes the time
for the entire Tonga group, is in wesi
longitude but because all business rela-
tons, except with Samoa. are with place:
in east longitude, the east longitude time
for the day OF the week and month Is
| kept.
We have plenty OF time variety in ou
own country. For example, any town tina
happens to be on the dividing line betweeI
two of the hour-time zones viii have it!
own time, and, in addition, at the railroad
station there will be two times, differin:
by an hour, one for the west and the othe
for the east bound trains The city OF q
Paso labors under the embarrassment o
four kinds of railroad time. 1t has centra
time for the Atlantic section OF the South
ern Pacific. Pacific time for the Paeihi
section of the same road, Mountain tim
| for the Santa Fe and City of Mexico tim