Marble Hill press. (Marbel [sic] Hill, Mo.) 1881-1923, 1899-10-05


was when but few could write
at al !, and the opening Of mail in a
country town was small affair. |
know from experience, for when |
was in my teens my father was the
postmaster and. | had the work to
do. There are now at least ten let.
ters per capita to where there was
one in those days. One great draw
back on letter writing then was the
cost Of postage. A letter to place
within the state was l25 cents and
the postage had to be paid by the
/ person receiving it, and if it was a
poor letter he felt like he was cheat
ed Many a letter was handed
back to me with such remark as
"Well, Ireckon it's from Dick Jones
over in Arkansaw, and l hain't got
the quarter, Just pnt it back ontil
| come ag'ln.'
1t keeps me busy now-ad days to
answer all the letters | receive.
My wife and daughters help to keep
up the correspondence with the far
way boys and the other kindred,
but good friends who write kind
letters to me must be answered IN
person. Such letters are pleasure
and Il comfort.
Then, there are many letters ask
ing for charity or little help fer u
church that only remind me how
poor | am,
But these letters from inquiring
minds who are in pursuit Of know
ledge and perplexed about the mys-
teries of nature always interest me,
and | have to pretend to be u wise
man whether | am or not.
Now, here is one from a pretty
school girl in her teens. ] know
that she Is pretty, because She
writes Il pretty letter and there is
not blot nor an erasure or an
misspelIcd word. She wants to
know whore the day begins and
why, and where the navigatorS first
find change. OF course that is
worth knowing, and suppose that
very few outside Of the colleges and
the continental travellers and the
sea,iaring men understand it:
Well, my dear girl, the day be-
gins just whore man hegun-in the
garden Of Eden. Ii the Creator
had chosen New York or Charles
ton for that garden, tic day would
have begun over here on this couti-
n@ntand extended westward to Cal,
irolna. as the people multiplied and
carried it there. OF c0urs, the day
kept its name and its date around
and east Of Palestine as far rs the
sea, but "westward the tide Of en-
pire takes its way" and SO did the
tide of time. Columbus brought
The day with him to this continent.
From our eastern coast the people
took it to California, and from there
the missionaries took it to the
Sandwich islands, and it continued
to follow the sun until the nuviga-
tors got around to Bombay and
Hong Kong and Cairo and found
they had lost a day and it was Mon
day instead Of Sunday. And those
who sailed eastward and travelled
against the sun found they bad
gained day and it was Saturday
instead Of Sunday.
But it is not so now, for thero is
an international line in mldOc00n
"a mondean that has been estab
iished by the great powers and ac-
cepted by the navjgators Of all ma
tons as the change Of date line.
This line is lS0 degrees west of
Greenwich aud runs from New
Zealand north to Bering straits and
goes not far from Samoa. ltis just
half way around the world from
London and is called the Antipode
Of Greenwich. 1t is ,3O0miIes west
of Hawaii and 5000 west Of San
Francisco. This line is check marked
on the up 10 date maps and Sunday
printed on the west side and Monday
on the east. Navigutors tell by their
log books and compass when they
have reached it, and the captain or
the mate announces with great cere'
mony: Set the day clock back
twenty four hours. We have cross
ed the line.n
For many years our American
railways, as they pressed their way
from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
found the question of time very con
fusing, and hence by consent of ac,
ton they established four divisions
Of railway time and marked lon
gitudinal lines 1000 miles apart TO
Indicate them When the train
crosses one Of these lines the pass
engers set their watches back or
forward just one hour, for the sun
moves or seems to move iust ] 900
miles 40 hour. These mondean
lines divide time into eastern, cen
trail, mountain, and Pacific, and
they pass through New York city,
st. Louis, Denver and Carson City
and therefore when it is II O'Clock
in New York city it is only 8 o'clock
in California. The railroad com
panies, however, could not cut their
lines in two to suit these mondeans
and hence their railroad time is
zg zag crooked line to fiji their ter
ndnal points, but it pPproXimates
the mondean,
THIS ia not all that could hewrjt'
ten about time and where the day
begins, hnt u Is enough TO satisfy
the school girls and boys, and cspc
cially the pretty girl who writes
ne lrnm Nclica, IN these days of
telegraph aud ocean Cables il seems
very funny tons veterans That when
q message u cent from London II
starts, aud IT we send Telegram 70
San Francisco today a. moon : gets
there At . 0'clneS this morning