Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1899-12-26

ton, and the way to,prepare for it is,
on the start, to provide .or quick COM
munication from botN coasts of the
country with all points in the Pacific
by steam and telegraph.
THE CENTURY PROBLEM.
People who are in great doubt as to
when the twentieth century begins
may find relief for their troubled
minds in one of the two following
statements of the problem. One IS
from the New York Tribune and the
other from the Davenport Times:
"A considerable part of the country
has revived the discussion of a subject
which was pretty thoroughly thrashed
out in our columns year or two ago,
to-wit, the date of the beginning of the
next century. 1t is painful to observe
that a good many persons who are pro-
fessionally engaged in the pursuit and
diffusion of knowledge, and who there
fore ought to know better, have COM
mitted themselves to the hopeless prop
osition that the twentieth century be-
gins Immediately after midnight Of De-
cember 81, 1899. Some of these will
will probably die embracing the de-
fusion, but others are sure sooner or
later 10 be penetrated by sudden ray
OF light, disclosing to their own con-
seriousness the abysmal darkness which
they have been recommending to their
fellow crea lures as an authentic source
of illumination. They will then be-
come aware that the equation 100
equals 80 can never be true anywhere,
at any time, under any conceivable
circumstances.
"Such persons must be left to. drain
the cup of humiliation. In their case
warnings and treaties are now of no
avail. But there may be others who,
while cherishing the same fantastic
heresy and perhaps, eager to proclaim
it,. have not yet found convenient
means of so doing. If such there be,
we benevolently advise them to remain
silent. They are still in the fortunate
position of being able to conceal from
the public ut least a mental alteration
which may already have given anx-
iety to their friends When one year,
fifteen days and some hours, minutes
and seconds hence, the nineteenth CEN
fury, in the expressive phrase of his
astute holiness the pope, 'ushers in
the twentieth and presents its success
or to the attention of mankind, let us
hope that many who are now subject
to one of the strangest errors which
ever took possession of the human
mind will be filled with secret, joy by
the thought that they never gave them
selves away"
The Times contribution is as fol-
lows: ~
"Here is a plain, simple way out Of
the END of the century problem:
'Question-What is year?
"Answer-365 days.
"What is century?
"One hundred years.
| when did the year No. 1 end?
December 81 of the year /.
When did the year NO. begin?
January / of the wear 2.
when did the year 80 end?
December 81 A. D. 90.
"Did that complete century?
ssNo.
When was the century completed?
AT the close of the wear following
80, or at the close of the wear 100.
"When did the second century be-
gin?
January of the year / of the sec
ond century-that is, January 1, A. D..
When did the nineteenth century
end?
"At the close of the nineteen hun
dredth year, or at the close of 1900.
20. When does the twentieth CEN
fury begin?
IA. 1t begins on day No. of year
No. of the Of the twentieth hundred
years-that is, on January i A. d.
1901.
s'Does not this make it plain that
we must still see two Christmases be-
I fore we can see the dawn of this per-
/ picking twentieth century?"
THE ETHICS OF THE SPEAKER
SHTp CnNrpEcT