The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-04-15

centuries except ny tncI iuliDSi0'
as the first day and second day, etc,
but in course of time the Scandlna-
VANS gave them names in honor OF
their gods, the sun and moon and Sa-
turn and Wooden and Thor, etc. Wooden
was their greatest god and Ihor was
the god of the clouds. Wednesday
used to be "Wednesday and Thursday
was Thorsday. They believed that
Thor made thunder by picking up two
great mountains in the sky and clap
ping them together, and that he was
ten miles high and his arms twenty
miles long. But the division OF the
wear into months and how and when
the months got their names is not
generally known to the young people,
and perhaps will not be until some
body tells them. was thinking about
this month of April and how it got it's
name from a Latin word that means
ito open," because during this month
the ca th begins to open for the seed
to con up and the grass to grow and
the buds on the trees open into leaves
and flowers. Young people should
know that away back before the
Christian era there were but ten
months and the year ended with De-
cember and began with January, be-
cause their god Janus was q double
faced god and with one face looked
bacl, at the old year and with the
other looked forward at the new year.
That was pretty and appropriate. Be
fore the reign of Numa, January and
February were not in the beginning
of the year, but those old Roman en-
>perors and the old popes did what
ry was made the first month to please
Janus. Then Numa transposed Feb
ruary to please Lupercus, another god
who they said was the she wolf that
sucked Romulus and Remus in
cave, and the Romans established
yearly festival in honor of this she
wolf and called it Februes, which
mems expiation. March was named
in honor of Mars, another god, and
the 25th of March was the beginning
of the year for 1000 years, not only
with the Romans, but with many
Christian nations. Indeed, it was not
changed from this distinction until
the year 1852, and it seems to me
pity that it ever was changed. The
time of the vernal equinox, the 21st
of March, seems more like new year
had come than does the cold bleak
midwinter of the first day of January.
The next month to April was named
in honor of another god or goddess
named Maias, who was the mother OF
Mercury Then came June, a name
given in honor of Junius, the god OF
youth. Then came the other four
months, September, October, Novem-
Der and December. Gods and god
h06 I roo
later on Julius Caesar imagined he was
a god and made new month and call
eel it July and Augustus Caesar did
the same thing and called it August.
Of course they had to rob the other
months of some of their days in order
to get these two months in. Now, my
young friends, just think of it, how
the civilized Christian world has been
imposed upon by superstition. Every
day in the week and almost every
month in the year named in honor of
some imaginary god that the heather
people worshiped. Paul preached a
grand sermon when he said to them:
"Whom We ignorantly worship him
declare / unto you" Not only did we
get from them the names of days and
months, but the names of all the plan
cts except one, and that is the earth
that we live upon. How faithfully
they did worship their gods. How
LOYAL 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
overlooked and blessed the children
of men. Love is the foundation of
character of every god, whether real
or imaginary. 1t is worthy of re-
membrane that all the historic ma
tions worshiped gods whom they be-
1ieved to be good. No people have ever
worshiped a god who did not love
and care for the children of men,
There were gods of evil, too, but the
people did not love them. They fear
ed 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 curious and inter
esting study. For instance who estab-
lisied the exact length of an inch, a
foot. yard. Who fixed the weight of
a pound of sugar or ten dollar coin
of gold or bushel 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 $50
years ago. During the reign of King
George Nv the house of parliament
in London was burned up and the
standards of weights and measures
welc burned up with it and it took
years to reproduce them, for although
thousands of people had yard sticks
and weights and measures, they were
not exactly alike. Many yardsticks
were a trifle short and there were
scales to buy by and scales to sell by
and so with peck measures and half
bushel measures, for there were dis
honest merchants then and I reckon
there are some now. The first foot
measure is said to have been the ex-
act length of an ancient Roman en-
peror's foot. The first inch was the
length of three grains of English bar
ley, which, it is said, is the most uni
form in size and length of any grain
in the world. They took los grains
out of pile and laid them in a line
touching each other and called it a
yard and -thirty-sixth part of that
line was an inch and so we have the
old table of three barley corns make
one inch, twelve inches one foot and
e.