Arizona silver belt., 1900-12-27
First to ureet the New Century.

| P6rnapS the most TeHlarRaole or Jne many phases of the lend of the cen tury" discussion is contributed by a gentleman who recently wrote to Lon don from the Friendly islands He raises the interesting question, "Who will see the new century first?' and answers it by pointing out that the in- habitants of the Friendly islands will be the first to greet it.
 For brief time the residents of this unprogresSive corner of the world will be in the van of human advance. ment, and will be a whole day ahead of the rest of mankind. In other words, the correct date in the Friendly islands will be Tuesday January l, 1901, while it will still be one or another hour of Monday, December 3l, 1900, in every other part of the globe.
 The explanation of this seemingly paradoxical situation is simple enough. It is the same explanation that &C., counted for the success of M. Jules Verne's hero.
 In estimating time around the world it is necessary Jo havo at some point a dividing date line. This line has been located on meridian lsO degrees, and we therefore have the phenomenon, familiar to Pacific travellers, of gain ing or losing day, according 10 the way in which one journeys across that ocean. In going westward vessel skips 8 day on reaching this point, and on going eastward a day Is gained. or, rather, one passes two days of ex- actly the same date. Therefore, it may be said. for the sake of simplicity, that each day begins at meridian lSO east and travels eastward; keeping pace with the rotation of the earth until it reaches meridian Is0 west-the starting point
 Meridian lS0 runs through the open Pacific for the most part. The land nearest tO it is the group known as the Friendly islands, consequently the Friendly islanders see the dawning of each day ahead of all their fellow men, and unless some vessel happens to be exactly on the meridian line at the time they will be the first to greet the new century.
 In his letter relating to this subject the correspondent from the Friendly islands writes:
 'The first dawn of the new century w'll break upon a point in the Pacific oce,Nn just to the east of the Friendly lslaI ds, along a line conforming in general to the meridian of lS0 degrees edsS and west longitude from Green- wich. Therefore, with the coming of January l, 1901, we shall be living in the twentieth century, while other people in all parts of the world will stil' be living In the nineteenth cen Jury While you in your office and your rraders in their homes will Do eating or working or playing or sleep lng during some phase of Monday, De- Cem0eI 3l, 1900, we shall be living thruugl the first day of the new cen. tury.
 The Friendly islanders, for brief prri1d, will be in advance of the ecu tury so far as the English or any other nation is concerned, and we Friendly islanders feel for once we may con gratulate ourselves on having got ahead of the progressive countries of the world. When on Tuesday we are celebrating the advent of the new year and the new century, in London it will only be lunch time on Monday, De- cember 3l, 1900. In New York people will be at breakfast, in San Francisco they will be sleeping the sleep of the just after well spent Sunday