Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-03-30

that things were bad enough as they
were, and should not be made worse
every four years by introducing II
different calendars in succession into
the kingdom, He therefore called q
halt in this calendar-making, and
ordered the Swedish calendar TO re-
main as it was, and the years 1904,
1908 and so forth, to be leap years
as Of old. While this order was pos
sibly the least OF the many evils. It
held out however no prospect of
whatsoever of relief, SO that the
Swedish calendar remained to be
neither fish nor flesh, neither Gre
gorian nor Julian, neither Catholic
nor Protestant, but altogether
unique among the nations OF the
world.
After 10 years of this unreason-
able confusion Charles XII again
acted without counsel and ordered a
return to the old and nearer calen-
dar, the Julian. And as a day had
been omitted by dropping February
%, 1900, he commanded that an ex-
ira day should be introduced after
February %, 1872. And in spite Of
the universal protest of the nation,
the kings order went into effect.
And this is how it happened that
there was one and only one Febru-
airy so during the 10 centuries that
had rolled by since the days OF
julius Caesar. Sweden thus re-
turned to the old style in company
with its northern neighbors. But
when England finally yielded in l752
and adopted the Gregorian calendar
by ordering the day after September
z to be September ID for that year,
Sweden followed its example the
year after.
Julian Day Numbers.
There Is another fact that we
would commend to the study Of cur
calendar reformers. The chief adj
vantage alleged by each reformer
for his own plan Is the convenience
of finding the number of days be-
tween any two dates, as If we could
not do that now by using the small
numbers frequently printed near the
large ones in our wall calendars
which give the number of each day
counted from the beginning of the
year. However, even if there be bet
ter ways in other calendars, all past
dates are beyond recall, and chefol-
ogists know infinitely better than
calendar reformers what a labor It
is to give a modernized date to an
ancient event.
For this reason astronomers, at
least, have adopted a calendar of
their own, which is applicable to
any date, past, present or future,
and, therefore, serenely independent
of any change that may be forced
Upon our civil reckenings. This
method uses the so-caiied Julian pc
riod or Julian day numbers-net the
Julian calendar-it counts by days
and not at all by weeks, months or
years. The number affixed to day
may be large, but the convenience
and the certainty of reckoning are
all that could be desired. All we
need are the small tables occupying
only one page and giving the cen
fury, year and month numbers. The
first gives the Julian day number to
the beginning of each century, be-
fore Christ as well as after. old
style as we'll as new style. The sec
ond gives the number of days from
the beginning of a century to the
beginning Of any year in it, and the
third the days from the beginning
Of a year to that of each month.
Adding the day of the month to
these three numbers, we have the
Julian day number of the day in
question. For example, in finding
the number Of days from the discov-
cry of America, 1892, October IL, to
Easter Sunday, 1919, April 20. the
Continued on Next Psgs) "a