The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-03
WHEN IS A MAN 21P
A Question Not SO Easy to Answer as 1t May
Appear on the Surface.

st is often said that law is applied COM
mon sense" said Prof. John Wurts Of the
Yale Law School the other day, when In
town. while it Is true that law principles
originated in common sense, the law itself
is the combined experience Of many men;
for no two men uninstruoted in law will
agree as to what Is applied common sense.
Then there are many rules Of law which
undoubtedly have a common sense origin
but conditions having changed, history
fails to disclose this origin. Yet these very
rules must be retained In order not to shake
personal and property rights. Therefore
no man can depend on his own uninstr1cted
common sense to know the law.
"To drive this statement home, l have
frequently put to an incoming law class the
question, When does an infant become Of
agef' The answer is always unan imous;
When he is 81 years DID,
THE mex question appears ridiculous TO
some, and makes them laugh, while others
set their alleged common sense at work.
and never with correct result: When is q
nan 81 years old2'
One student says: ON his twenty-frst
birthday but Of curse he'does not mean it,
for he is about a year out of the way. An
other ventures, On the t~wenty-first ami
versary Of his Dirt hday.' This sounds bet
ter, out even II correct is not specific
enough. When he has completed his
twenty-frst anniversary; AT the begin
ming Of that day; On his twenty-first ami,
versary, at the precise hour of his birth
are OF her
And then | surprise the guessers ny say
ing that they are all wrong.
In computing time II is a general rus
that the law disregards part of a day; IN
applying this rule, suppose a man was porn
Just one minute before midnight on jazz
uary 2, 1880.
AT midnight he had lived but one minute,
yet the day on which he was born was
ended, and the law considered him one cay
old. So In computing the twentE.one
years which a man must live IN order 10
reach his majority we do not begin WIN
the Of birth, but with the COM
menoement Of the day of his birth.
Now, since we must start with the hIt
moment Of january 2, 1880, It is Etlhaps
natural TO say that this man did not become
Fl years old until the close OF January y
1901. Mechanically speaking this Is true.
"T~wenty-one years in that sense requires
that the last moment Of January ] lyl,
should ave arrived in order to make ,ne
man of age, and, obviously, he was OF az
at that point Of time. But here again '"e
rule is applied.
"As the man was Of age on the last mo.
ment of January 1, the law disregard tne
entire part OF the day intervening between
the first moment n the last, ana coHse
quently he became in law q years olo ~. %n
the first moment Of January /, 1901 tne
day preceding the t~wenty-frst annl'ersaFS
OF lis birthday.
This rule is a part OF what is known az
the common law and is applied II tn,s
country In all States where the coiHi'u"
law Of England has been adopted, ard re,
mains unchanged by statute 4 man may
vote or make a valid will on the dav Pr.
oeding the twenty-first anniversary, oil ms
birthday, although the right in me oS
case and the capacity. in the other - s'ea
only to persons who have reached the age
Of 81 years.