the international date line. by rosgoe lamont

8/3/2019 THE INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE. By ROSGOE LAMONT.

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340 The International Date LineThus,

'R/T=mQan d e R/T=mQ.ButR 3 =hence ' R=wQ=aMmm

In Table"II th e v alu es of R calculated from the above equation arecompared with th e observed va lues .TABLE II.

Planet R Calc.Mercury ' 0.385Venus 0.685Earth 1 .0 7Mars 1 .54Jupiter 5. 17Saturn 9. 63Uranus 18 .9

R Obs.0.3870.7231 .1.525.2_09.5419 .18

% dif.0.52

+ L + +9 " ! " . ." \ ' 1 $ eptune 28.9 30 .05

No claim is made for accuracy in the above computat ions. They arein te n de d to be on ly approx imat ions , an d it is no t unlikely that a bettervalue of Q than 0.207 m ay be found. However the results seem to thewriter to indicate a true la w of planetary arrangement. They seemalso to suggest possible groups of asteroids between all th e pairs ofouter planets.Palo Alto, Ca1., February 1 , 1921.

THE INTERNATIONALDATE LINE.

By ROSGOE LAMONT.In his Handy B o o k of Cur ious In fo rma t ion , Walsh explains inconsiderable d eta il th e International Date Line, tracing its irregularcourse from th e North to the Sou th P ole , a nd says that o n A reachingthis line sh ips change their reckoning; that if th ey a re sailing eastwardthey drop one day, b ut if sai l ing westward they r epeat one day. Heco nfo rm s to th e Ep iscopa l Prayer B o o k w hich says: We have leftundone those th in gs w h ic h we ought to have done, and we have donethose things which we ought not to have done; for he has done goingeast what he ought to have done going w es t, a nd he has done goingwest what he ought to have done going east. To explain th e matterby means of a simple illustration, we m ay suppose a case which it isnot difficult to imagine at th e present t ime.A m a n s ta rts in an a'irship from London Monday noon, July fourth,

to fly around the world, going west, and he announces that he willmake fifteen degrees of longi tude each d ay . S i nce there ar e 360 deg re es

Courtesy Maria Mitchell Observatory ' P ro v id e d b y the N A S A Ast rophys ics Data System

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1921PA.....29..340L


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Roscoe Lamont 341to cover, twentyfour days will be requi red to co mp lete the journey,an d he niarks on th e calendar Thursday noon, july Z8, as the t ime ofhis return. He makes fifteen degrees of longi tude a day, b ut in sodoing his day is twentyfive hours long. He returns to London onschedule time, having seen the sun rise twentyfour times, reachingLondon Thursday noon, ]uly' 28 (s o he says). Since he has had twentyf'our days and each day contained twentyfive hours, th e number ofhours elapsed is equal to twentyfour t imes twentyfive o r six hundred.His friend wh o has stayed in London has also l ived six hundredhours since t he beg inn ing of the air journey, but his da y is twentyfour hours long, an d six hund red d iv ided by twentyfour gives twentyfive, th e n u m b er of days e lapsed for h im. He congratulates the airmanon making a trip around the world in twentyfive days, getting backFriday noon, July 29 . The airman says he mad e the trip in twentyfour days. T he o th er says it took h im tw e nty fi ve . They are bothright. The word day has not the same meaning for each of them. Tothe one it denotes a period of twentyfive hours and to the other aper iod of twentyfour hours, b ut the numbe r of hours is th e same inthe two cases, a s twentyfour days of twentyfive hours each are thesame as twentyfive days of twentyfour hours each.But th e airman, in o rd er to think the matter ou t c lea rl y, decides totake the trip a ga in , go west as before, and m ake fifteen degrees oflongi tude from noon to noon. He leaves London Monday noon, Augustfirst, saying that he doesnt know just what day he will return, thathe ought to be back on August twentyfifth, but might no t show upuntil t he t_wentysixth. After twelve days of twentyfive hours eachhave elapsed he finds himself at the 180th m e r id ia n , S a t ur da y noon,August th irte en th . H e b eg in s to do a little figuring. T h re e h un dre dhours have passed since leaving London and these make twelve andonehalf days for his London friend, for whom it is Saturday midnight, August thirteenth. He decides to call his time Sunday noon,August fourteenth, skipping a day, seeing his London friend and goingh im tw e lv e better. He is t h e 1 1 twelve hours in advance of London t ime.But twelve days of twentyfive hours each will pass before he reachesLondon , an d although he leaves th e 1 8 0th mer id ian twe lve hours in ad vance of London time, these twelve hours are absorbed, swallowed up,by his twelve days of twentyfive hours each (one hour each day), andhe arrives in London Friday noon, August twentysixth, agreeing exactly with the London clock and calendar.It wa s no t at all necessary to change the day at the 180th meridianin order to agree with th e Lo n d o n day on retur n. The change couldhave been m ade at any place, but th e International Date Line which ha sbeen agreed upon coincides approximately with the 180th meridian, an das that is the place w he re th e da y first begins, (Sunday, August fourteenth, having b e gu n th ere twelve hours before his arrival), unless thechange had been mad e at that line, the airmans day, after leaving it,



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342 The Internattonal Date Linewould no t h av e a gr ee d with th e da y of the countries over which hetravelled until the change was made. tGo ing east th e same reasoning would apply, b ut in making fifteendegrees of longitude from noon to no on his day would contain on lytwentythree hours, an d getting around in twentyfour days 552 hourswould pass, equal to twentythree Lo n d o n days, an d therefore someda y of the week and m o nth w ou ld have to be counted twice in orderto agree with the Lo n d o n r ec ko n in g on return.When the world wa s circumnavigated for the first t ime by the explorers le d by Magel lan, since they sailed toward the west, the samedirection th e su n m ove s in its daily course, the su n had to o v er ta kethem each da y they made an y westerly distance, thus increasing th elength of the day; but the law of compensat ion operated e ve n h ere, forthey found w he n th ey go t around the world, much to their slurprise,that having ha d longer days than the folks at home they hadn t ha d asmany. The fe w surv ivors of the expedition (Magellan perishing)completed the journey in 1522, and one of the members named Pigafetta wrote an account of the voyage . An English translation of this workwas published inCleveland, Ohio, in 1906, and this is what Pigafettasays a b ou t th e surprise of th e ci rcumnavigators w he n th ey learned, onnear ing home, that in their reckoning th ey we re one day behind thePortuguese : *Finally, constrained by our great extremity, we went to the Cape VerdeIslands. Wednesday, ]uly 9, we reached one of those islands called SaintJames an d immediately sent the boat ashore for food. . . . . We chargedour m en when they went ashore in the boat to as k what da y it was, an d theytold us that it wa s Thursday with the Portuguese. We were greatly surprisedfor it wa s Wednesday with us , and we could _ no t se e how we had m ade a mistake; for as I ha d always kept well, I had se t down e v e r . . _ y day without an y interruption. However, as wa s told us later, it was no error, but as th e voyagehad. been made continually toward the west an d we had returned to the sameplace as does the sun, we ha d mlade that gain of twentyfour hours, as is clearlyseen. In The Decades of the newe worlde. . _ . . wrytten in the Latine

tounge by Peter Martyr of Angleria, and translated into Englysshe byRycharde Eden, publ ished in L ondo n in 1555, Eden speaks of thestrange disagreement in the days which the Spaniards found on returnfrom their trip around the world, an d of the g rea t ph il o sophe r an dastronomer who explained it after their arrival at Seville in the shipVictoria, an d this passage" is quoted with th e sixteenth cen tu r y spe ll ingof the Englysshe tounge:And amonge other notable thynges b y hym (Peter Martyr) wrytten astouchynge that vyage, this is one, that the Spanyardes hauynge say led abowtthree yeares an d one moneth, an d the most of them notynge the dayes. da y b yd ay (as is the manner of all them that sayles by the Ocean), they found when theywere returned to Spayne, that they ha d loste one day. S o that at theyr arryuallat the porte of Siuile beinge th e seuenth da y of Septemsber, was by theyr ac compt but the sixth day And where as Don Peter Martyr declared the strangeeffecte of this thynge to a certeyne excellente m an who for hi s singular lernyngewas greatly aduaunced to honoure in hi s common welthe and m ade Themperours ambassadoure, this woorthy gentelman who wa s also a greate Philosopheran d Astronomer, answered that it coulde not otherwyse chaunce unto them

Courtesy Marla Mitchell Observatory ' P ro v id e d b y the N A S A Ast rophys ics Data System


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IE

Roscoe Lamont 343hauynge say led three years continually, euer folowynge th e soonne towarde theWest. And sayde furthermore that they o f owlde tyme obserued that all suche assayled behinde the s oonne to w a rds the West, dyd greatly lengthen the day.

T h e g re at phi losopher an d ast ronomer referred to wa s G a sp aro C on tarini of Venice ( 14831542) , created a cardinal in 1535 by Pope PaulIII. He was considered one of the great scholars of his time, was astudent at the University of P ad ua ab ou t the t ime Copernicus wa sthere, and was the author of many books on historical and religioussubjects, some of which were translatedinto Eng l i sh . r IIn the Fifth Decade (not translated by Eden) Peter Martyr saysthat when he h ea rd th e s ailo rs speak of th e lo st da y he told them thatperhaps the priests had dece ived them b y omitting it in their celebratio ns , b u t th ey said that that was impossible. If the priests had omit tedo n c 1 , da y (a da y of the mon th an d a day of th e week), they would havedone exactly what navigators do today at the International Date Linewhen sai l ing we st, a nd on return home their da y would h av e a gre edwith the da y of the place at which they landed. But suppos ing the rewa s no difference inreckoning caused by a trip around the world (andPeter Martyr of course supposed this), if in that case a day had beenomitted, on return they would have been one day in advance insteadof one day behind. The only way in s u c h a case to be one day behindwould be to repeat o ne d ay , as Mr. Walsh does when going west.He also suggested that they might have forgotten that th e y ear 1520wa s a leap year an d have given to February of that year only twentyeight days, but the sailors declared t ha t Feb ruary 1520 received twentynine days. This, however, would no t have explained anything. If thesailors had given February 1520 only twentyeight days, an d if thereha d been no other reason for a disagreement in the reckoning, on theirarrival at the Cape Verde Islands, where they found the day to beThursday , ]uly 10, on board ship it would have been Thursday , ]ulyll, whereas it wa s Wednesday, Iuly 9. But with the state of thingsas they existed, having one day less sailing west around the world, ifth e y ea r 1520 had been made a common year, their da y on reaching theIsland of Saint Iames would have been Wednesday, ]uly 1 0. PeterMartyr wa s m o re th an puzzled as he admits.Being much disquieted an d troubled with that care, I conferred with Ga s paro Contarini (a m an not meanly instructed in all kinds of literature), who wa sthen ambassador with the Emperor for hi s famous commonwealth of Venice.Whereby we know (discussing the matter with divers arguments) that thisstrange report, never heard before, might very well be after this manner: ThisCastilian ship se t sail from th e Islands of Gorgades towards the west , which wayalso the su n goeth. Thence it came to pass that having followed the sun, theyha d every day longer according to the quantity of the way they made, wherefore having perfited (compassed) the circle, which th e su n performetli intwentyfour hours towards the west, it consum ed and spent one whole day,th_erefore_1t had fewer days b y one than they who have that space of time keptone certain place of abode. But if th e Portugal fleet, which saileth toward theeast, should return a g a ' 1 n _ unto the Gorgades , continuing their course unto theeast by this way an d navigation, now first found an d discovered to mortal men,n _ o m an would doubt, seeing they should have shorter days, having perfited th ecircle, but that twentyfour whole hours should remain unto them over an da bo ve , a nd so one whole day, wherefore they should reckon more b y one. And so



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344 The International Date Line .if either f leet, to wit, the Castilian an d the Portugal, had se t sail the same da yfrom the G orgades, an d the Castilian had sailed toward the west and the Portugalhad toward the east, turning stern to stern, an d had returned to the G orgadesby these divers ways in the same space of time an d at the same moment, if thatday had been Thursday to the G orgades, it had been Wednesday to the Castilian,to whom a whole day was co nsum ed into longer days. But to the Portugal,to whom by shortening of the days one day remained over an d above, the sameday should be Friday. Let philosophers more deeply discuss this matter, weyield th e se r ea so n s for the present. '

The reasons y ie ld e d th en need no a dd itio n o r correction no w (except in one "minor point) ; b ut b earin g in m in d the explanat ions offeredby Peter Martyr on his own account, there is no reason to doubt thestatement of Richard Eden , that this strange report , never heard before, was comprehended an d explained by a certeyne excel lente m anwh o for his s ingu ler le rnynge was greatly aduaunced to h on o ure in hiscommon welthe, Gasparo Contarini of Venice? "The International Date Line, although it m ay not be fixed by internat ional agreement , is th e place generally adopted as th e one m o st co nvenient for changing from on e day to another. Such a line might beestabl ished anywhere on the earth, bu t there would be disadvantagesin having it pass through an inhabited region. To keep track of thezones of time when traveling is t rouble enough, skipping an hour o rrepeating an hour , without running into th e date line unexpectedly an dhaving to skip la da y or repeat a day. A numbe r of amusing mistakeshave been recorded, caused by th e d ate line passing between neighboring p la ce s , o n e of which is noted farther on. In s o me cities b y crossingthe street a person can enter another state, but if the date l ine ra nthrough a city, enabling a person to pass at will from one day to an other, he co uld s kip S u n da y, have two consecutive Saturdays, a nd ce lebrate the fourth of July tw ic e in one week, as the King of Samoa d idin 1892 in order to ge t o n the Amer ican side of th e l ine. In the Letters from Samoa of Mrs. M. I. Stevenson (mother of Rober t LouisStevenson) there is one d ate d th e second 4th July 1892, beginning asfollows:Translated by Michael Lok, Loi idon, 1612. The spelling has b ee n modernized.The passage quoted from Richard Eden is almost a literal translation m ade b yhim from the Italian of Ramusio as given in h is Navigations and Voyages , Vol.1 , page 374, published in Venice in 1550. Ramusio does not call the m an whomPeter Martyr consulted an astronomer, but a very= great philosopher, instructedin the G r ee k a nd Latin literature, of singular learning an d rare excellence. TheEmperors Court was at Valladolid, where both Peter Martyr and" Contariniwere staying, an d whither repaired the eighteen survivors who returned to S eville in th e Victoria to present t hemse lves before th e Emperor. Thirteen m enwere detained at the Cape Verde Islands by th e Portuguese when they foundout that the Spaniards had,,been around the world, an d Herrera, a Span ish historian of the sixteenth century, gives the names of thirtyone m en who appearedat Court, but Peter Martyr speaks of only eighteen whom he interviewed. Herrera says that .the m en of the Victoria, because of a days difference in the reckoning, ate m eat on Friday, but according to P'igafettas account they hadnothing but rice an d water for food an d drink, all the me a t having putrefied forwant of salt. They ha d many remarkable escapes during the voyage.Peter Martyr says that the G o r g ades are called by the King of Portugal th eCape Verde Islands.



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Roscoe Larnont 34 5Surely now I have been round the world, since at last I have done that towhich I used to look forward, I have gained a day. Ltseems that all this timewe have been counting wrong, because in former days communication was entirely with Australia, an d it wa s simpler an d in every Wa y more natural to follow th e Australian calendar; but now that so many vessels co m e fro m S an

Francisco, the powers that be h av e d ec id ed to se t this right, an d to adopt thedate that be longs to our actual geographical position. To this end, therefore, wear e ordered to keep two Mondays in this week, which will ge t us straight.. No d ou bt m an y persons look forward to the t ime when they will beable to gain a da y orxlose a day by crossing the date l ine, which seemsto be a permanent institution. The on ly way to get rid of it is toabandon the var ious zones of standard t ime of fifteen degrees each an dhave one zone of standard t ime for the whole world, beginning th eday everywhere , regardless o' f su n tim e , w he n it begins at th e pr imemer id ian in England an d counting the hours up to twentyfour, theG reenwich day being regulated by the sun, but th e su n at all otherplaces b e in g m e r ely to give light upon th e earth an d not to rule thec lay; and while this system would have its advantagesa person whentraveling would never have to change the time as the timewould bethe same eve iywhere yet there would be disadvantages as well. Toknow" what day of th e w ee k it was on e would have to look at the clock( which is the case evennow for night Workers), as a new day wouldbegin when th e hour hand was at twentyfour whatever the position ofthe su n in the heavens.S o m e of the English have advocated this system (Professor Newcomb said it would be a good scheme for the millennium), but as lon.ga s the day is dispensed, so to speak, into zones, the date line cannot bediipensed with. But it is placed where it will cause the least inconvenience in the P'acific Ocean. Another advantage of th is locat ion isthat the meridian 1 80 degrees from Greenwich, from which place longitude is now reckoned by almost all countries, passes through thatocean. T he lin e does no t follow th e meridian closely, bu t it is fixedaccording to the principle of the selfdeterminat ion of peoples an d theirright to decide by what day they shall live an d die. To lay d own theline with exactness it is necessary to know which islands near the 180thmeridian follow the Amer ican day an d W l '? l C . l f' l the Asiatic d ay an d th : 1 1run the line accordingly. This information l l . ' 1 & . been obttaiiied a r i d . mapsshowing the location of the line are publisher! b y the Government.Since th e lo cal t ime is different for al l places. on the earth whichdiffer in longi tude, every possible t ime of th e da y o r night, as shownby a clock, is at e ve ry m o m en t the mean solar o r local t ime of someterrestrial meridian. All parts of the earth, therefore, ca n not havethe same d ay e xce pt for an instant, an d the meridian where the day isfirst ending has o ne adjoining it o n the east where the same day is ju :tbeginning. Each day, as Wednesday, beg ins in New York before itdoes in Chicago, it begins in L on do n before it does in New York, b utwhere does Wednesday first begin? It is necessary t o decide uponsome place where the day begins before it begins anywhere else, an dthis place is called the date line since the day dates from that l ine,

it



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346 ' The International Date Linethough some people might think that the line of confusion, spokenof by Isaiah, would be t a good name for it. When Wednesday beginsat th e date line it is Tuesday everywhere else (consider ing the line tocoincide with the meridian an d using local time), an d Wednesday be gins con tinuous ly wes tward around the world as the var ious placeshave the midnight hour of Tuesday. T he lin e is a party wall betweentw o hemispheres separa ting the days. .When th e region adjoining it onthe east is ready for W ed ne sd ay to begin, the date line has passedthrough all of Wednesday an d is ready_ for Thursday. If a traveler,coming from the Philippines, reaches the line when Thursday is justbeginning there, when he crosses it he en te rs the region where Wednes da y is just beginning, an d although he has finished with Wednesdayo nce h e has got to go over it again. Another traveler, crossing the lineat the same t ime in th e o p po s ite direction, will have no day namedWednesday, an d of course the corresponding day of the mon th willalso be repeated o r skipped the same as th e d ay of th e w ee k.

The line is not only imaginary; it ha s not even an astronomical reason forits existence, like the equator . It is purely an d entirely an arbitrary convention;an d yet its position is of exceeding impo rt an ce . t o mankind. From the veryconvenience of this position we are a pt to forget its value; for th e line is the greatdayorigin. It sets, not the time of day merely, but the da y itself. At th e linetwo d ay s m e et. There, though time flows ceaselessly o n , occurs that unnaturalyet unavoidable jump of twentyfour hours; an d no one is there to be startledby the factno on e to be perplexed in trying to reconcile the two incongruities.continuous time an d discontinuous day. There is nothing but the ocean and thatis tenantless.Although the Philippine Islands are now on the Asiatic side of thedate l ine, this was not a lw ay s th e case, for from th e t ime of theirsett lement by the Spaniards until January 1 , 1845, th ey w ere on th e

American side. In the neighboring islands that were settled by thePortuguese, who had come by way of the Cape of Good Hope, thedates were one day in advance of those in the Philippines. TheSpaniards an d Portuguese in Europehad the same calendar an d theirdays corresponded, but they sailed to the east by different r outes , theSpaniards going west, following the sun, an d their t ime getting fartherbehind gradual ly, the Portuguese going east, meet ing the s u n , _ an dtheir t ime getting farther ahead, an d th us w he n the Spaniards arrivedin the Philippines they were s ixte en ho urs b eh in d E u ro pe an tim e , an dthe Portuguese o n reaching their possess ions were eight hours in advance, making a difference of one day, Saturday with the Spaniardsb ein g S u n day with the Portuguese. T h e G re go ria n calendar Was introduced into the Phi li pp ines in 1584, th e day following October fourthbeing called the fifteenth, but the Portuguese still cont inued to be on eday in advance. This difference existed forabout th ree cen tu ries , bu t,although its cause was well known, there was no advantage to theSpaniards in making a change. Their trade was principally with Spanish Amer ica, an d to follow the Amer ican day wa s m o re c on ve n ie n t th an

Percival Lowell: The Land of the Morning Calm, A Sketch of Korea.



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Roscoe Larnont 347to agre e with the Portuguese an d have to skip a day o r repeat a da yevery t ime they crossed th e P acific. They called he Philippines theIslas de Poniente (Islands of the West), considering them to lie at thewestern extremity of their hemisphere. When the Spaniards were celebrat ing Eas ter th e P o rtu gu es e w ere gathering the spices on Monday,but as they disagreed with the Portugueseiabout almost everything, itseemed natural enough to have the days of the week disagree.This disagreement in the reckoning was sometimes lost sight of, an dAcosta, a Spanish historian of the sixteenth century, tells about a priestwho se t out from the Philippines, and on arriving at Macao went tocelebrate mass on the day of Saint Athanasius (according to his reckoning), and when he got to church found it was another day. This ishow Acosta tells it, the translation being by Edward Grimston, publ ished in London in 1604 :

It happened to father Alonse Sanches, of yvhom mention is made before,that parting from th e Philippines, he arrived at Macao th e second day o f Maie,according to their computation, an d going to sa y the Masse of S . Athanasius, hefound they did celebrate the feast of the invention of the holy Crosse, for thatthey did then reckon th e third of Maie.A c os ta th en proceeds to give a long explanation, an d a very clearone, of the cause of the difference.After Spain had lost her possessions in A m e r ic a, it was m o r e c on v en ient to have the Phillipines a n d the nrother country on the same sideof the date line, so that ships trading between them by way of the Capeof G o o d Hope would no t have to change the day, an d in 1844 a decreew as is su ed " b y the GovernorGenera l of the Philippines, Claveria, directing that the day following Monday, December 30 , 1844, be calledWednesday, January 1 , 1845. Tuesday, December 31 , n o t b e in g c ou n ted . In the English translation of Jagors Travelsin the Philippines(London, 1875), there is the following with reference to this omissionof one day :

It wa s still, over there, th e last day of the old year while the rest of theworld wa s commencing the new one, an d this state of things continued till th eclose of 1844, when it wa s resolved, with the approval of the archbishop, to passover New Years ev e for once altogether. Since that time the Philippines lieno longer in the distant west , but in th e far east, an d ar e about eight hours inadvance of their mother country.Their mother country has changed since Jagor wrote, but they have

maintained their lead and even increased it. Previous to 1845 theFilipinos were the last people in the world to go to bed on Saturdaynight, th ey w er e the last to ge t up on Sunday morn ing . But this is nolonger the case. Instead of lagging behind the rest of the world theyare among the leaders, their local t ime being m o re th an thirteen hoursin advance of that of th e capital of th e United States. (By standardt ime just thirteen hours in advance). Manila is 198 degrees east ofWashington o r 162 deg re es wes t. Sett ing o ut towards the east thewatch is advanced one hour every fifteen degrees, and on arriving atManila it has b een pu t forward 1 3 1 /5 h ou rs . Proceeding west th ewatch is put back one hour every fifteen degrees, an d since there are



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348 The International Date Line103 degrees from Washington to the date lin e, w he n th e line is reachedthewatch has been turned back 613/ 1 5 hours. But on c ro s s in g th edate line a day is dropped, and the hour hand of th e w atch may, begiven two complete revolut ions in the forward direction (if desired)to indicate this" gain of 24 hours. There are still 59 degrees to passo ve r, a nd 59 divided by 1 5 gives 314/1 5, an d by adding 613/1_5 an d314/1 5 w e o b ta in 10 4 / 5 . Then by subtract ing 10 4 / 5, th e n u m b er ofh ou rs th e watch has been turned back, from 24 , th e number it has beenput forward, there remain 131 /5 hours as a net gain, the same resul tas before. 'S o m e perhaps will say: Isaiah was right, a line of confus ion wasstretched out u po n th e earth an d it is in the Pacific Ocean. Washington,D. C.

Inhabitants of Betelgeuse.Inhabitants of Betelgeuse,Do you take interest in th e viewsOf men of science who discussThe parallax an d radiusOf your gigantic star?And in the deep design of fateAre you eer swayed by love 0 r hate? _And ar e you plagued with hopes a nd fe ars ,With poli t icians, profiteers,Diplomacy an d war?

. Have you discovered how to flyThrough count less leagues of azure sky?Can your rich men, imperious,Take little jaunts to Sirius,Returning the next day?And when you send an etherplaneOut on a trip to Charless Wain,Do you ge t word by radioIf it is forced through rain or snowAcross the Milky Way?Inhabitants of Betelgeuse,Do kindly let us have some newsOf how the last election wentIn yonder starry firmamentBeyond our blazing sun. 'And if you have a baseba l l nineP lease condeseend to drop a lineOf sympathy for those who reeledBefore the victors on the fieldAnd praise for those who won.Inhabitants of Betelgeuse,Please dont ge t mad if s om eo iie d oesPronounce to rhyme with news and views,With,b_ooze and l o _ s e _ an d overshoes,The title of your sphere. .If you who live o n BetelgeuseCan hear our telephonic buzz,We call to you with all our strength,Oer fancied wire of untold length, "A ga y an d glad New Year.Providence, R. 1. , Feb. 1921. M. MCART.

Maria Mitchell ' the System

the international date line. by rosgoe lamont

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