The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1907-04-19
DIVIDES TIE WORLD,
The Line That Marks Where Day
Begins and Ends.
IT TRAVERSES THE PACIFIC.
The Way This Important Boundary
Came to Be Established - Spots
Where Today, Tomorrow and Yestsr.
day Are Still a Confused tumble.

II IS evident that the day must begin
tomcNhere, though il Is a confusing
tln" TO undertake TO determine Just
where. for one may go OH and on
around the world and never catch UP
with II. ON the other hand. If we are
bot careful in reasoning We will reach
tie absurd conclusion that II il Mon
day noon and Tuesday noon at the
same time in any given place.
writer in the 81. James Gazette
treat, this peculiar phase OF the sub
joct in a very definite way.
Seeing that as one moves westward
the tine gets earlier and earlier, so
that when ii is Monday noon In Lon
don IL is some time OH Monday morn
iug I'm America, il follows that, if this
prigciyle were continued without limit
halfway round the world, at the same
moment that it was Monday noon IN
London IL would be also twenty four
hours latcr-that il. Tuesday uoOn-in
London. AS this is reductio ad absur-
dun, We have 10 look for the limit,
which does. i'm fact, exist OH the priD-
cipl" that a. one moves westward the
time gets earlier and as one moves
eastward it gets later.
Before the circumnavigatiOn Of the
globe there was 10 difficulty. When
on q Monday the sun stood over Lon
don II was Monday noon in London.
As the sun moved 0o use the popular
phrase westward and stood little
later over Dublin il became Monday
noon in Dublin. and so on until 1t
reached the western limit OF the
known world.
When the sun passed over that limit,
that was the end OF noon for that Mon
day, ana nobody knew what the sun
was doing until he rcnppeared on the
eastern limit Of the known world.
bringing with him Tuesday morning.
II Is evident, therefore, that while
the sun was in the unknown abyss be
tween west and east he dropped the at
tribute of making the time at all places
directly under his rays Monday noon
and took TO himself the attribute Of
making IL Tuesday noon.
As ;he confines of the world were
pushed farther eastward and west
ward. respectively. the unknown abyss
where this change OF attribute had To
be made got narrower and narrower
until. when the globe was circumnavi-
gated, the place of change became
simply line.
This line exists and is the place
where the days begin. As the sun
crosses this remarkable spot the time
jumps tweuty-four hours onward
from noon one day 10 noon Oh the next
day. The situation OF the line has been
located quite fortuitously ly-uamely, Ivy
the circumstance whether any given
place was first reached by civilized
man journeying from the east or from
the west
The diScoyCrer brought with him the
almanac from whence he came. ana II
ne came from the west the time In the
new country would be later. and II he
came from the east ii would be earlier
than the time in the country he came
from.
America was reached by civilized
man voyaging westward and China by
man travelling eastward. and the result
is that the line that marks where the
days begin lies between these two In
the Pacific ocean and. Instead Of being
n straight line, Zigzags about, dividing
islands which happened 10 be discover
Ell from the east from those which
happened to be discovered from the
west.
There must still be many islands In
that ocean where 1t is not yet decided
TO which side of the line they belong
aud where, il one were put down. Que
would nor know whether II were to.
day. tomorrow or yesterday.
There must also he many islands
there which. never having been per
manently occupied 10y civilized people,
change their day from time 10 time. so
that ship calling there coming from
China might arrive on Tuesday. while
another ship calling ut the same time
from America would arrive on Mon
day. There must be people living so
near this line that 10y going few miles
they can leave today and get into to
morrow or, 10y going back, can find
yesterday.