The Atlanta constitution., 1900-04-09
Bill Hrp'S Letter
written for The constitutional

Wr know very well how there came 70
J be seven days in a week. These days dH
not have any names for many centuries
! except bv thcir numbers. as the first day
and second day. etc. hut in course "i
time the Scandinavians gave them names
I i'm honor of their gods. thu sun and moon
aud Saturn and Wooden ami THOR etc.
Wooden was their greatest god ana lh"f
was the god of the clouds. Nedn' sdaY
used To- be "Wednesday aud Thursday was
Thorsday. They believed that Ihor man1
thunder 10y picking up Two great noun
tains i'm the sky and clappinS theh To-
gether and that he WAS ten miles hlSh
and his arms twenty miles long. But the
the division of the year into months ana
how aud when the months GVt thtlI
names is not generally known 70 the
young people. and perhaps will not he uh-
til somebody tells them l was thinking
about this month al April and how IL S"t
its name from a Latin word thtt means
TO npau." because during this month the
earth begins 10 open for the seed 10 come
up ana the grass To grow and the buds
on the trees open into leaves ana flowers
Young people should know that away
back before the Christian era there were
but ten months and the year ended win
December and began with January, be-
cause their god Janus was a doubie-iaccd
god and with one face looked back AT the
ward at The new year. That was pretty
and approuriatc Before the reign of
Numa. JANUARY and February were not
in thc beginning of the year. but those
old Roman emperors and the old popeS
did what they pleased with time, and 50
january was made the first month 10
please Janus. Then Numa tranSposed
February to please Lupcrcus, another
god who they said was the she wolf tht
Ia in ..lN
and the Romans established a yearly fes-
tival in honor of this she wolf and called
Il Fcbrucs. which means eNpiation. Marcn
was named in honor of Mars. another
god. and the 18th OF March was the Ue-
ginning Of the year for 2,C0J years, not
only with the Romans. hut with many
Christian nations. Indeed. IL was not
changed from this distinction until the
wear TO- and il seems to me a pity that
IT ever was changed Tine time of the
vcrnaf equinox. the 2lst of March. seems
more like "a new year had come than does
the cold bleak midwinter q the first day
of January.
The next month to April was named I'm
honor of another god or goddess named
Maias. who was the mother of Mercury
4 Then came June. name given in honor
Of Junius. the god of youth Then came
the other four months. September. Octo-
/ her. November and December. Gods and
i goddcsscs had given out | reckon. But
7 later on Julius Caesar imagined he was a
cod and made new month ana called
il July ana Augustus Caesar did the same
thing and called IL August. OF course
they had to rob the other months of some
OF their days in order 10 get these two
months i'm. Now, my young friends, just
! think of IL. how the civilized Christian
world has been imposed upon by super
Z fp Tho Weplx and al
most every month in the year named in
honor of some ina aginary god that the
heather people worshiped. Paul preached
I a grand sermon when h" said 10 them;
Whom ye ieuorautly worship him declare
! 7 unto YOU" Not only did We get from
them the names of days and months. but
/ the names of all the planets except one,
ana that is the earth that We live upon.
How faithfully they did worship their
rods How loval were they to Jupiter,
the god of all gods. whom they imagined
sat upon "A throne on the top of Mount
/ Olympus. an imaginary mountain far up
in the heavens and from there overlook
ed and blessed the children Of men. Love
is the foundation Of character of every
god. whether real or imaginary Ii is
worthy of remembrance that all the his
foric nations worshiped gods whom they
believed TO be good. No people nave ever
worshiped a god who did not love and
care for the children of men. There were
gods of evil. 200. but the people did not
love them They feared them just as we
fear the power of Satan now. The origin
of many things of every day use In the
/ business of life is a curious and interest
ing study. For instance who established
| the exact length of an inch, foot, "A
ward Who fixed the weight of 4 pound
of sugar or ten dollar coin of gold or
a hushel Of meal. These things haven't
been fixed so very long The nations
/ have been working on them for centuries
and they were not finally agreed on until
/ about 80 years ago. During the reign of
king George ~ the house of parliament
| I'm London was burned up ana the stand
ards of weights and measures was burn
/ .d up with il and 1t took years to repro
d,ce them. FOR although thousands Of
/ peoDle had yard sticks aud weights and
I measures they We're not exactly alike.
Many yardsticks were a trifle short and
/ there were scales to buy by and scales To
sell nv and so with peck measures and
half-bushel measures. for there were dis
honest merchants then and l reckon there
are some now. The first foot measure is
said to have been the exact length of
4 an ancient Roman empcrorS foot. The
! frst inch was the length of three
/ ~.ains of English barley. which, il
I i : i'd is the most uniform i'm size and
4 length of any grain i'm the world. They
/ took lOS grains out of n pile and laid them
/ I'm a line touching each other and called
! in "a ward and one-thirty-sixth part of
/ that line was inch and so we have
4 the old table Of three barley corns make