The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1899-02-23
When DO the Centuries Begin :

prlsed when You assure them they |
are wrong; that the century ends on
December 81, 1900, and the Goth
century begins with January l, 1901.
Some of them will doubtless dis
pute it, even if you refer them to the
fact that all scientific men, the his
torians and writers on chronological
subjects, agree with you.
1t is easy TO prove it, however, to
most people. Go back to the
beginning of the Christian era. 1t be-
gan January l, of the year i.
Now, century must contain 100
years. When did the first century
end?
1t could only have ended on Dec.
81, a. ID. 100, otherwiseit could not
have contained 100 years.
The I'd century began January l,
A. d. l0l, end ended December 81,
A. D. 200
The Sd century began January !.
A. %. POI. and ended December 81,
A. d. 500.
Continue counting the cenurIes in
this way, and you will find they all
close with the centurial years--then
ending with two ciphers. The 10th.
century began Januray l, 1901, and
will end December 81, 1900. The
Goth century will begin on January
1st. 1901.
Some people get the matter mixed
up in their own minds like the
gentlemen who writes this:
Suppose child child is born
on Jan l,lS00.On Jan l,ls0l, he is l
year old and begins his second year.
On January /, 1910 he is ten years
old. On January l, 1850 he is 80
years old; and on January l, 1900,
ne has lived one hundred years.
That is perfectly correct. But the
inference drawn by the person who
wrote it is not, He says:
From this it is plain to me that
the 10Th century closes on December
81, 1899, and the goth. century be-
gins with January l, 1900. as the
child born on January l, 1900 and
lives till January J, 1900, has lived
full century.
The error in this is in assuming
the 10Th century began on January
l, 1900. 1t began one year later,
aud hence ends one year later. The
truth of THIS has already been shown.
Others get themselves muddled be-
cause we use the number of the year
from it's first day, while it is not
completed until 365 days. For in
stance, this is the year 1899, though
we have todzy lived but 54 days of
it. One of these stumblers says:
We had to live 365 days before
we could put down one year, so from
0 to is one year." and then he goes
on to figure that the century ends
with 1899.
Another of these who takes this
erroneous view writes as follows:
1--WE have no right to record any
year until it is finished. Evidently in
the beginning of time, there was no
year until twelve months had passed.
Then the year could be recorded" ;"
Now if an eclipse occurred, say six
months from creation, it would nee
cessarily be- recorded June l, year 0,
A NJ, because the year was not full, !,
and could not be recorded"
All this is mere theory, and does
not accord with the facts. We began
to write this year "1S99" on January
l, while it will not be completed
until December 81 next. All dates
in history are written in this way.
There is no 'year o.
The christian era began with the
first day of the year l, A. D., though
that year was not completed until a
twelfth month later. The year before
the Christian era was the year B. G.
To follow the absurd reason of
our correspondent, We should not
write this month February until its
last day. But we do write it, all
through It's progress, and every other
month the same--just as we do the
year.
BY the reasoning OF our CORES
pondent, We should not call today
Thursday, until it Is past; nor should
we call it FEBRUARY % until tomorrow
The absurdity of this position is GER
tainly clear to any person who thinks
oyer the problem carefully.
The amazing thing is that people
will ignorantly try to figure out a
theory, instead of accepting the fact
that all writers who use dates count
the years in the way stated in the