HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. 



197 



system will amount to only one day in about 20 

 centuries. If, however, 31 leap years were in- 

 tercalated in 128 years, instead of 32 as at 

 present, the calendar would be practically ex- 

 act, and the error would not amount to more 

 than a day in 100,000 years. The length of 

 the mean Gregorian Year may therefore be set 

 down at 365 days, 5 hours. 49 minutes, 12 

 seconds. The Gregorian Calendar was intro- 

 duced into England and her colonies in 1752, 

 at which time the Equinox had retrograded 11 

 days since the Council of Nice in A. D. 325, 

 when the festival of Easter was established and 

 the Equinox occurred on March 21 ; hence Sep- 

 tember 3, 1752, was called September 14, and 

 at the same time the commencement of the legal 

 year was changed from March 25 to January 

 1, so that the year 1751 lost the months of 

 January and February and the first 24 days of 

 March. The difference between the Julian and 

 Gregorian Calendars is now 12 days. Russia 

 and the Greek Church still employ the Julian 

 Calendar for civil and ecclesiastical purposes. 



Standard Time. Primarily, for the con- 

 venience of the railroads, a standard of time 

 was established by mutual agreement in 1883, 

 by which trains are run and local time regu- 

 lated. According to this system, the United 

 States, extending from 65 to 125 west longi- 

 tude, is divided into four time sections, each 

 of 15 of longitude, exactly equivalent to one 

 hour, commencing with the 75th meridian. The 

 first (eastern) section includes all territory be- 

 tween the Atlantic coast and an irregular line 

 drawn from Detroit to Charleston, S. C., the 

 latter being its most southern point. The sec- 

 ond (central) section includes all the territory 

 between the last named line and an irregular 

 line from Bismarck, N. D., to the mouth of the 

 Rio Grande. The third (mountain) section 

 includes all territory between the last-named 

 line and nearly the western borders of Idaho, 

 Utah, and Arizona. The fourth (Pacific) sec- 

 tion covers the re"st of the country to the Pa- 

 cific coast. Standard time is uniform inside 

 each of these sections, and the time of each sec- 

 tion differs from that next to it by exactly one 

 hour. Thus at 12 noon in New York city 

 (eastern time), the time at Chicago (central 

 time) is 11 o'clock A. M. ; at Denver (moun- 

 tain time), 10 o'clock A. M., and at San Fran- 

 cisco (Pacific time), 9 o'clock A. M. Stand- 

 ard time is 16 minutes slower at Boston than 

 true local time, 4 minutes slower at New York, 

 8 minutes faster at Washington, 19 minutes 

 faster at Charleston, 28 minutes slower at De- 

 troit, 18 minutes faster at Kansas City, 10 

 minutes slower at Chicago, one minute faster 

 at St. Louis, 28 minutes taster at Salt Lake 

 City, and 10 minutes faster at San Francisco. 



Old English Holidays. These holidays, 

 with their names, had their origin in mediaeval 

 England when the State religion was that of 

 the Church of Rome, and they are still ob- 

 served generally or in some parts of England, 

 Scotland, and Ireland. 



JANUARY 6. TWELFTH DAY, or Twelfth- 

 tide, sometimes called Old Christmas Day, the 

 same as Epiphany. The previous evening is 

 Twelfth Night, with which many social rites 

 have long been connected. 



FEBRUARY 2. CANDLEMAS Festival of the 

 Purification of the Virgin. Consecration of 

 the lighted candles to be used in the church 

 during the year. 



FEBRUARY 14. OLD CANDLEMAS : St. Val- 

 entine's Day. 



MARCH 25. LADY DAY : Annunciation of 

 the Virgin. April 6 is old Lady Day. 



JUNE 24. MIDSUMMER DAY : Feast of the 

 Nativity of John the Baptist. July 7 is old 

 Midsummer Day. 



JULY 15. ST. SWITHIN'S DAY. There was 

 an old superstition that if rain fell on this 

 day it would continue forty days. 



AUGUST 1. LAMMAS DAY: Originally in 

 England the festival of the wheat harvest. In 

 the Church the festival of St. Peter's miracu- 

 lous deliverance from prison. Old Lammas 

 Day is August 13. 



SEPTEMBER 29. MICHAELMAS: Feast of St. 

 Michael, the Archangel. Old Michaelmas is 

 October 1 1 . 



NOVEMBER 1. ALLHALLOWMAS : Allhal- 

 lo\vs or All Saints' Day. The previous even- 

 ing is Allhalloween, observed by home gath- 

 erings and old-time festive rites. 



NOVEMBER 2. ALL SOULS' DAY : Day of 

 prayer for the souls of the dead. 



NOVEMBER 11 : MARTINMAS: Feast of St. 

 Martin. Old Martinmas is November 23. 



DECEMBER 28. CHILDERMAS : Holy Inno- 

 <()) Is Day. 



Lady Day, Midsummer Day, Michaelmas, 

 and Christmas are quarter (rent) days in Eng- 

 land, and Whitsunday, Martinmas, Candle- 

 mas, and Lammas Day in Scotland. 



Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednes- 

 day, and Maundy Thursday, the day before 

 Good Friday, are observed by the Church. 

 Mothering Sunday is Mid-Lent Sunday, in 

 which the old rural custom obtains of visiting 

 one's parents and making them presents. 



Legal Holidays in the Various 

 States. JANUARY 1. NEW YEAR'S DAY: 

 In all the States (including the District of 

 Columbia) except Kentucky, Massachusetts, 

 Mississippi, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. 



JANUARY 8. ANNIVERSARY OF THE BAT- 

 TLE; OF NEW ORLEANS : In Louisiana. 



