Part 13

A Great Prophet--100 per cent.

Interesting Items About the Almanac.

The reason why February has only 28 days, while the other months have 30 and 31 is attributable to the vanity of the Emperor Augustus. His uncle and predecessor corrected the calendar, arranging the year almost as we have it now; he gave to the year 12 months, or 365¼ days. The months were--March (the first month), April, May, June, Quintilis, Sextiles, September, October, November, December, January, and February (the latter being the last month of the year, which among the Romans had consisted originally of 10 months). Cæsar ordered that the year should begin with January, and divided the days among them thus: January, March, May, Quintilis, September, and November each had 31 days; April, June, Sextiles, October and December had 30 days each; and February (the last month added to the year) had 29 days regularly and a 30th day every fourth year. After Julius Cæsar’s death, Mark Antony changed the name of Quintilis to July as we have it now. Augustus wanted a month for himself, and wanted it as long as his uncle’s month, so he took Sextiles for his and changed the name to August. Then he took February’s 29th day and added it to August, so that it might have 31 days; and, to avoid having 3 months of 31 days each in succession, September and November were reduced to 30 days, and October and December increased to 31 days each.

Previous to the year 1752, the legal year in England commenced on the 25th March. In that year it was enacted that the legal year should begin on 1st January. The change brought the calendar into unison with the actual state of the solar year. It is curious that in Scotland the change which made the legal year begin on January 1st was effected in 1600. For some time after the change in England, legal documents contained two dates for the period intervening between 1st January and 25th March--that of the old year and that of the new.

During the time of Oliver Cromwell, Christmas Day was described as a superstitious festival, and put down in England by the strong hand of the law.

There has been a superstitious notion that Fools’ Day dated back to the time of Noah’s Ark. The dove that was sent forth from the Ark is supposed to have returned on April 1st.

THE MOST REMARKABLE MONTH was February, 1866. It had no full moon. January had two full moons, and so had March, but February had none. This had not occurred since the creation of the world, and it will not occur again, so scientists tell us.

All Fools’ Day had it’s origin in France, before the time of the Reformed Calendar. When the year commenced on March 25th, the French frequently paid their New Year’s visits and bestowed their gifts on April 1st, as March 25th occurred in Passion Week. After the adoption of the new calendar, however, these New Year’s observances took place on January 1st, and it was a common thing for people to forget the change of date. Pretended presents and mock ceremonial visits became common, and the persons thus imposed on were known as April fish, i.e., a mackerel, which, like a fool, is easily caught. Hence, All Fools’ Day.

54. Being at the summit of a tower 400 ft. high, I dropped a cricket ball from my hand, causing it to alight on a ledge 260 ft. from the base, over which it rolled and fell to the earth: supposing that 1½ seconds were occupied by the rolling of the ball over the ledge, how many seconds elapsed from the ball leaving my hand till it touched the earth, and what was the acquired velocity at the moment of contact?

PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION.

In one of our great public schools a master known to successive generations of his pupils for fifty years as “old Buggus” delighted in surprising his boys with strange sayings and doings. On one occasion, desirous of illustrating a question in the arithmetic lesson, he said to a boy, “I am a tripe merchant, and this platform is my shop. You will come here and buy a pound of tripe. Now, begin.”

“Please, I want a pound of tripe,” said a boy, sauntering up. “Where’s your money?” demanded old Buggus, hoping to put the boy out of countenance.

“Where’s your tripe?” was the ready retort; but it gained for its unfortunate author four hours’ detention on the next holiday.

55. A syphon would empty a cistern in 48 minutes, a tap would fill it in 36. How long will it take to fill the cistern when both taps are in action?

Born to rule--a book-keeper.

“MORE HASTE LESS SPEED.”

56. A compositor, hurrying whilst setting up type for an arithmetic book--“How to Become Quick at Figures”--accidentally dropped the work of a problem; unfortunately he mislaid the copy, and all that he remembered was that both multiplicand and multiplier consisted of two figures. The scattered type represented the following figures:--1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9. With the aid of a pencil and a piece of paper the compositor managed after a while to rearrange the figures in their proper place. What was the problem?

PROFITABLE CARELESSNESS.

A very amusing story is told of a harness-maker who lived some years ago in London. He had a handsome saddle in his shop, occupying a conspicuous position therein. On his return from luncheon one day he observed that the saddle was gone. Calling to his foreman, he said:

“John, who has bought the saddle?”

“I’m sure I don’t know, sir,” said the foreman, scratching his head as if he were trying to think. “I cannot tell, and the worst part of it is, it hasn’t been paid for. While I was at work in the back of the shop a gentleman came in, priced it, decided to take it, told me to charge it, and throwing it into his trap, drove off, before I could think to ask his name.”

“That was very stupid of you,” said the harness-maker, disposed to be angry at the man’s carelessness. “Very likely we have been robbed.”

“I don’t think that sir,” said the foreman, “for I’m very sure that the gentleman has traded here before.”

“Well, I can’t afford to lose the money,” said the harness-maker. “We’ll have to find out who took it and send him the bill. Ah!” he added, with a smile, after a moment’s reflection, “I have it. We’ll charge it up to the account of every one of our customers who keep open accounts here. Those who didn’t get it will refuse to pay, so we shall be all right.”

“The book-keeper was instructed to do this, and the bills in due course of time went out. Some weeks later the harness-maker asked the book-keeper if he had succeeded in discovering who the customer was.

“No, sir,” he replied, “and we never shall, I fear, sir, for about 40 people have paid for it already without saying a word.”

A CYCLE CATCH.

Tie a cord to the pedal of a bicycle, such pedal to be the one that is the nearer to the ground, and, standing behind the back wheel, pull the cord, when, strange as it appears, the machine will come towards you, although everyone would first imagine that the bicycle would move forward. How is this?