The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-06
LEAP YEAR
POPE GREGORY GETS CRErrg or
 HAvINd FIXED MATTER.
But It Was Caesar Who Did the Trick Greeks and Jews Before HimThey Had Some
 Such Custom.


 --@-----
 This being leap year. there is popular superstition that 1t was invented some purpose of giving woman a chance 1o propose. And as 1t takes woman longer to make up her mind to do a thlng than 1t does man. that the extra day in Feb- ruary was added to give her that mucn extra time. And, so far as the ordinary run of humanity goes-except the man who has note to pay on March 1-that explanation covers all the difference that a Heap" year makes to the world any how, says Tie Kansas City Journal.
 But 1t is interesting to trace back the history of this queer fact that one year in four has an extra day-except when 1t doesn't. It is generally believed that Pope Gregory XIII. had the fixing of this matter. and that leap year goes back only to his time-which is a great mis- take. Leap year dates really to the time of one Julius Caesar. who. though he died young. was pretty smart man.. who left his impress on pretty much ev- crything, including Great Britain. Glse Jul,us Caesar credit, therefore. ye pro- posing maids. for permitting you the chance and the extra day. Julius aid other things to the calendar. too-llke leaving this name attached to the seven. b month. for instance-but they are neither here nor there, now.
 The history of making periods of time is coincident with man, so far as can be reckoned. The first primitive divis- ions were into day and night, and light and darkness regulated them. So.Ee days were longer than others. and some were short, but 1t figured out that from one sunset. to another was twenty-four hours-thoughs { they didn't have hours then-and that was all that was needful.
 Then people wanted longer divisions, and they found that the moon was fa.Y- iy regular in it's orbit around the earth though they didn't know that it circled the globe in those days, but thought the reverse was true-and they measured their time by it. giving them months of twenty-nine and one-half days. Then the seasons came into the calendar. and for a time they were used to make long CT divisions. Still longer periods were formed by groups of these months. whicn. figured about dozen, made one round Of the sun And for the non-calculatlng minds of those times, these divisions did fairly we'll.
 Finally, however, it was seen that this rough way of reckoning didn't put the seasons in the right place, as the years went on. For spring was where sum- mer ought to be, and when 1t was time for autumn. winter was just coming in. Something was wrong. and new methods had to be applied And thus was born the Heap process.
 The, Jews and the Greeks. the civilized peoples of that time had different ways of fixing things when they got too faI ha Tavvu mt n a faan month seven times in every nineteen years, the Greeks three in every eight. The Ro' mans came along later with a ten-yeal month, but believing in odd numbers they finally worked 1t up to S55 days. TC make 1t even they added January ana February, and thus got twelve months But thls didn't work out right. either and their pontiffs who ran the calendar interlarded occasional odd periods o time, fixing them where they would d themselves the most good, and theil enemies the most harm: keeping them selves in snap positions that much longer and making a debtors time to them tha much shorter. Which shows that graf is nothing new. And thus by the tim, that Julius Caesar took charge of thl whole mundane world, summer was am bling along about the middle of October and things were badly mixed generally Along with dividing Gaul into threl parts, slauhtering the barbarians, ant running for Emperor, Caesar undertool the job of fixing 8 calendar. He em ployed one Sosigenes, an Alexandria astronomer, and. together they worke' out a plan which, in the main. holds to day. He made what now is reckoned a 46 B. c. to consist of 455 days, whicl put matters right, and then to avol furthrr trouble, he ordained that tn year should have 365 days, and that ever fourth year should have 366--for the sola year, 1t was ascertained, contained 365 l. days-nearly. He didn't bother about tn eleven minutes and a few seconds shor of the 365 1-4 days, leaving them to pos terity to worry ovsf And that starte leap year.
 He also fixed the months days at 8 and 30. about as now, but ordained tha February should have 2s. except in lea year. when it should De %. 4augustu shifted these matters about a little | for he initiated Julius and named ' month for himself, too, and to make i as good as Julius had, he ordained tha both July and August should have 3 days. To square 1t with the calendar, h fixed the rotation of the 3l day months somewhat, which accounts for both De cember and January having the sam number.
 But those same pontiffs. when the put the calendar before the public, ike leap year every three instead of ever, four years. This gave them one day ex tra in twelve years-a smart trick fo them, This error continued till B. c when Augustus said there would not b any leap year for twelve years more which made the first leap year A. D | in the year {.
 But these eleven minutes and few sec onds had to be figured in somewhere Matters ran along, however, for 150 years before things were so out of join that action was proposed. It was discus sed for 80 years then, and finally in lbSS Pope Gregory XIII ordained that ter days should be skipped. which mad' things right once more, that being thu difference in affairs. He also ordained that things might stay right-that here after all fourth years should be leaI years if divIsible by four, and that al century ending years should be com mon years unless their first two figures should be Invisible by four. This made 1900 a common year. but 20O0 will be { leap year. That allowed for those elev en minutes and few seconds, and it will he centuries before things need adjust ment again, so slight Is the variation now and so closely does the Gregoriar calendar allow for the odd minutes and seconds.
 All the Catholic countries adopted th' Gregorian style of calendar almost al once, but the Protestant countries would have nothing to do with 1t for centuries | Anything from that antt-Christ" wal damnable to them. and they preferred