The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-15
All Kinds of Queer Things Which Have Been Done to
 February
MANY TOOK A WHACK AT IT
It Looks as If It Might Now Con- tinue for Awhile as
 It Is.

luloieSliHS story.
 The first European division of the year that we know anything about haG only ten months and BOA days. This was the invention of Romulus, who must have had a lovely time patching up things so as to come out even.
 They evidently did get into a pretty bad mess. for Numa Pompillus, the second King of Rome, had to add two whole months, January and February January. named after Janus. the god who presided over the beginning of the year. was made the first of the twelve months.
 February. from a Latin word mean ing to expiate, was clapped onto the end, that being considered the appro- priate period for repentance. It stayed there for 200 years before it finally got itself promoted to second place. And 1t has somehow always been February which was tackled first if anybody wanted to do anything to the calendar.
 Even with Numa's twelve months the year had only 354 days. The trou- ble was that the ancients had a very great regard for the moon and were trying to make the months follow ex- actly the moons revolutions. The result was that the year was eleven days too short and the seasons were climbing over themselves in the most confusing fashion.
 Something had to be done and of course February was chosen as the month to be tinkered with. The change was so clumsy that one won ders how anybody could manage dates at all under such a system.
 Every alternate year whole month was donated to the year, but for some reason, instead of putting it between two months. 1t was thrust squarely into February, between the 24th and the 25th of that long suffering month. The length of this intercalary month, as 1t was called. was itself alternated every alternate year, and so the length of the year was made pretty nearly correct.
 It was now one day too long, how ever. instead of being ten days too short, so that still another clumsy de- vice had to be arranged for correcting this. The year was of different lengths at different times, but once in twenty four years 1t came around to the right point and then started all over again.
 That Is, 1t would have come around all right if 1t had been let alone. But the management of the calendar was In the hands of the priests, who could alter the length of the intercalary month--poor February again.--to suit themselves. These shrewd gentlemen, therefore, used to spin out the month when they wanted to hang onto an of- flee for themselves or friends. or would cut 1t short If they were in hurry for the annual elections.
 As may we'll be believed, the com mon people had no comprehension of the right way of running their compli- cated calendar. They didn't know whether the priests were doing the thing properly or not; so 1t was con fusion worse confounded as time went on, until in Julius Caesars time the year was hopelessly muddled up. The winter months were in the autumn, the autumn months in the summer and so on.
 Something had to be done again, and Caesar was equal to the occasion. He planked in two extra months be- tween November and December, in ad- dition to the intercalary month in February; so that the year contained fifteen months and 445 days. This was 4e B. c, and is known In history as the Year of Confusion.
 It really was the last year of confu- sion. It cancelled all past errors, and the next thing was to make subsequent years the proper length.
 Fortunately there was a philosopher of Alexandria, named Sosigenes, who had the thing all worked out. Caesar adopted his plan and the result Is our modern year, even to our occasional leap year.
 But poor old February still had to come In for some tinkering. Caesar de- creed that the months of the year should be of thirty and thirty-one days alternately, except February. which in ordinary years was to have twenty eight days, with an extra day every four years. The only foolish thing about this arrangement was that the extra day was not placed at the end of the month, as al but between the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth, where the intercalary month had been.
 It was Caesar, therefore, who intro duced leap year In order that the name of Julius Caesar might forever be associated with this new calendar month, the one in which his birth day occurred, was named after him.
 It is our July, formerly known as Quintilis. This was a very proper re- cognition of Julius Caesars services. but 1t contained the seed of more trouble for February.
 When Julius died and Augustus sue ceeded him the latter was rather jeal- ous because of that month which per petuated the first Caesars name. He decided to have one named after him too, so when his army won some vic tories in the month following July he picked that one out to be called Au- yustus.
 That was all right as far as it went. put there was one serious drawback Augustus had only 30 days, while Ju- lius had 31.
 Horrid thought Augustus was not the man to put up with a smaller month than anybody else. so he calm y tackled another day onto August.
 The wonder Is that he did not tack on two so as to be not merely equal to but ahead of July He made trou- ble enough as it was.
 The length of each of the last four months had to be changed so that