Omaha daily bee., 1909-01-31
CALENDARS IN TABLOID FORM
Plans that Can Easily Be Carried in
the Head.
NOVELTIES FOR INVESTIGATORS
Sentences and Figures by which One
Can Determine Day of Week
Upon which Certain Date
Has Fallen or Will.

There are W serious defects about the
average calendar. One is that you may
need IL most when you are not near II,
and the other is that 1t is useless except
for the current year. Even for any
month but the current one you usually
have to turn 1t over.
There are many occasions when one
wishes to tell from memory upon what
day of the week a certain date will fall
or has fallen. Many suggestions for call
endars that can be carried in the memory
have been put forward from time to
time, most of them based on the same
principle, but some simpler than others.
The simpler methods usually require a
greater mental effort to work out, while
the complicated schemes can be worked
out with great rapidity and accuracy pro-
vided the person using them has the
requisite amount of practice. This con-
dition usually restricts their use to stage
performers and especially to lecturers on
mnemonics.
Simplest Form Known.
The simplest perpetual calendar of all
and the one which is probably the best
known requires no further effort of the
memory than TO commit to it's keeping
the following couplet, in which the first
letter of each of the twelve words rep
resents a day of the week:
Time Files Fast; Men Wisely Say
Men Think Alas, Times Fooled Away.
The TIL in think stands for Thursday,
to distinguish 1t from the T, in time, for
Tuesday. A stands for Sunday, to distin-
guish it from the S for Saturday.
In order to tell upon what day of the
week any date in the nineteenth or TWEEN
tipfh century fall or will Fall first Aa-
termine whether the year asked about is
a leap year, which is easily done by see
ing If it is Invisible by 4, remembering
that 1900 was not a leap year. If 1t is
a leap year the process is comparatively
simple.
Take half the last two figures and d.
vide by Z. The remainder is the day of
the month upon which the day of the
week indicated In the foregoing couplet
would fall.
Suppose the date asked for is July 4,
1868. This was a leap year, and half IS.
"a, divided by 4 leave 6. July being the
seventh month in the year, the seventh
word in the couplet, Men" indicates that
the remainder found points out Monday
as July 6 in that year; so the Fourth
must nave fallen on a Saturday in 1868,
When the date asked for is not in a leap
year take half the preceding leap year
and then deduct l for each year passed
since that leap year before dividing by Z.
Suppose the date asked for is Christmas,
1895. The previous leap year was '02, half
of which is 46, and three years nave passed
since 81, which caves 43, to- be divided
by Z, the remainder being 1. The twelfth
word in the verse is Away" Indicating
Sunday as December l, so the other Sun
days must have been the Sth, 18th and
22d. giving Wednesday for the 18th. or
Christmas day, in 1895.
For the twentieth century 1t is necessary
to add 2 to the remainder found after di-
yiding by 7. Suppose the day of the week
required is for January 8, 1909. The last
leap year was 1908, and half 5 is 4. Deduct
! for the year passed. and you will get 3.
As it cannot be divided by 7 1t Is all re-
muinder, to which 2 must be added for the
twentieth century, giving 8. The first
word in the verse, for January. is Time"
Indicating Tuesday as the 9Th, so the Sd
must fall, two days earlier, on a Sunday.
what "PrOfessors" Use.
Professors Of mnemonics who give pub
lie exhibitions of their powers, instead OF
committing to memory the order Of GER
tain days of the week, being at the other
emo and fix in the memory the following
table of the dates on which the first Sun
days in each month fall in what they call
their standard years. While any year
might be made d standard. as all calen.
dars repeat at intervals, this is the table
in general use by the profession: