Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-12-23
THE COMING CENTURY
Differences of Opinion as To
the Date of Its
Entry.
rs 1T WITH 1900 Or 1901?

A Subject That Has Been Fraught with
PerpIexities to the Most Profound
Thinkers and Has Made At Least One
Mathematician Dany-Answer to Sub
scriber's Question.
Rock Island. ILL.,, Dec. 1S.-EDIToR
ARGUs.-Will you please publish in
THE ARGUS at what time the next CEN
fury begins, and oblige.
A SUBSCRIBER.
| This is subject, as the average
newspaper reader knows, that has en-
| gagged the most earnest attention of
the best thinkers in the country, and
still it remains a topic upon which
great minds differ. 1t has occasioned
discussion which has been carried in
some instances almost to the point of
desperation. At Lost Nation Iowa the
other day, a noted mathematician who
| had teen studying over the matter for
some months actually lost his reason
in pursuit of the solution of the
all perplexipg problem.
The natural impulse would seem to
suggest this answer to the inquiry
contained in the opening of this arti-
Gle: The first day of the Goth century
will be Jan. l, 1901. Hence II o'clock
midnight Dec. 81, 1900, sees 1900
years, or 10 centuries since the birth
of Christ from which event we reck-
on time-completed. According to
| this logic, New Years day, 1901 will
be the beginning of the goth CEN
fury.
The Chicago Times-Herald contends
that centuries count from A. d. and not
from A. ID. l, that when this system was
adopted the first century counted
from the birth of Christ, and not from
the year one after his birth, which
was the equivalent of '.r' upon the
dial of watch, signifying that one
year of the century was up That first
century, whenever it began. ended
when 100 was first written to repre-
sent it, and so with each successive
century since. Furthermore, the
Times Herald goes on to illustrate:
People take ten blocks and set them
in row and ask, is not the whole of
the tenth block required to make ten?
Certainly, you answer, and then fol-
lows the triumphant assertion, That
settles it, But hold on a moment.
Years are not blocks. They are the
spaces or periods between fixed lines.
Let us take your ten blocks and num-
Der them from one to ten. Lay them
in row with space between each to
represent the years. Now count your
spaces. You find YOU have only nine,
and your tenth is outside the breast
works, so to speak, and you find your
self in the dilemma of having to get
an eleventh block or recognize that
your first year was between nothing
and block labeled one"
This View Seems Natural.
And the Monmouth Review calls
the Times Herald down in this man
ner: Centuries do not count
either from A. Dor A. d. 1. ID
1 was whole year long and could
There never was an A. D., and A.
not have been starting point. The
trouble is that the L. II. makes A. ID.
and A. ID. 2, ETC., the dividing
points between the years, and not the
years themselves. On the watch the
figures 1, 2, 3, ETC., separate the hours
and show the completion Of the hour
bearing the corresponding number;
but in the record OF the years il is diff
ferent. The first year, from the close
of b. G. to the close of the first year
of the new era, was A. ID. l; the Sec
ond year was A. ID. 2, and the one
thousand eight hundred am ninety
ninth year is A. ID. 1S99-one year
short of the one thousand nine hun
dred needed to complete the 10 centu-
ries. At the birth of Christ, time was
reckoned from the building of the city
of Rome-A. u. c. Cab urbe condita).
He was born according to accepted
chronology almost at the close of A.
u. c. 1852. The year A. u. c. 752 is
accepted by all historians as b. c. 1.
and the year a. L. c. 75S is accepted
as a. ID. l. The first century did not
end when 100 was first written to
represent it, but when 100 was last
written-the last moment of Dec. 81,
4. ID. 100.
- The people make the
blocks represent the years, and they
are right in saying it takes the whole
of the 10th to make 10. Tine 7. II.
man would represent years by blank
space-nothing, and make the blocks
represent the single points of time
that separate the years from each |
other. Then he would count these |
single points of time, and number |
them a. ID. l, A. ID. 2, etc. making |
A. ID. the starting point of the first |