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Show hi? vwswwr v7 - K A ( I i.-v- A y 7 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON Thirty da yes hath November, April, June, and September, February hath xxviii alone. And all the rest have xxxl. Richard Uraftoii's "Chronicles "Chron-icles of England," 1 3D 0. sf. F COl'HSE that isn't ex-ff ex-ff nctly the form of the well-i well-i kuowu jingle which you 3if learned as a child, hut It's the earliest known state-meat state-meat of the case. Some-W Some-W thing similar to it is stWl Quoted among the Quakers In Pennsylvania who say : Fourth, eleventh, ninth and sixth, T h i r t y days to each a ih x ; Every other t h i r t y -o n e Except the second month alone. A more complete statement, undone nearer the present-day version, was given in "The Ketuni from Parnassus" Parnas-sus" (London. tlHHi) as follows: Thirty days hath September, April, June and November, February has twenty-eight alone, All the rest have thirty-one; Excepting leap year that's the time "When February's days are twenty-nine And the New Knglanders have made it a little better verse by phrasing It thus: Thirty days hath September April, June and November; All the rest have thirty-one, .Excepting February alone. Which hath but twenty-eight. In fine. Till leap year give? It twenty-nine. All of which serves to remind us that February J? is approaching and the appearance of that date on our calendars means that this is a leap year. As for what a leap year is iind why it is called that, let Mr. Webster explain as follows : "Every fourth year in which isny fixed date after February l.KAPS over a day of the week and falls on the next week day but one to that on which it fell the year before. Centennial years which are exactly divisible by 400, as 2.000, and others exactly divisible by 4, a3 T.N ).$. are leap years." Mr. Webster's dictionary does not explain how February happened to become the month which would be affected by leap years but Mr. Chambers' Cham-bers' "Hook of Days" dues. Here is what he says: February was one of the two months t January being the other) introduced into tfce Roman calendar by -Numa Pompilius, when he extended the year to twelve of these periods. ... It h39 been on the whole an ill-used month, perhaps in consequence of its noted want (in the northern hemisphere) hemis-phere) of what is pleasant and agree-able agree-able to the human senses. Numa let fall on it the doom which was un-. avoidable for some one of the months, , of having, three out of four times a day less than even those which wert to consist of thirty days. That is to suy, he arranged that tt shoLld have only twenty-nine days, excepting In leap years; when, by the intercalation of a day between the 23rd and the 24 ti. it was to have thirty. No great occasion here for complaint. But when Augustus chose to add a thirty-first day to August, Au-gust, that the month named from him should not lack in the dignity enjoyed en-joyed by six other months of the year, he took it from February, which could 1 -ast spare it, thus- reducing It to twenty-eight In all ordinary years In our own parliamentary arrangement for the reformation of the calendar, it being necessary to drop a day out of each century excepting those of which the ordinal number could be divided by four, it again fell to the lot of February Feb-ruary to be the sufferer. It was deprived de-prived if its 29th day for all such years and so It befell In the year 1800. and will in 1900. 2100. 2200. etc. Since 1023 is divisible by four, It is a leap year and that may be a cause for rejoicing by some of us, not because be-cause the much-abused February pets back its 20th day this year, but because be-cause girls and women wiio have had to wait in vain for a proposal of marriage need wait no longer. They can take matters into their own cap able hands and be perfectly justified by custom, tradition or what-not In doing a bit of proposing themselves. Just when the privilege originated giving women the right to do the proposing pro-posing during a leap year is unknown. It may date from 1288 when a law .v-Wf ie"i v y 'y $m$r was enacted In Scotland which read as follows: It la statut and ordalnt that during the rein of hlr niaist bllsslt MeKoste. for ilk yeare knowne as lepe yeare, Ilk mayden layde of bothe hlshe and lowe estait shall hae liberie to bespeke ye man she llkea. Albeit he refuses to talk hlr to be his lawfjl wyfe, he shall be mulcted In ye sum ane pundla or less, an hla e3talt may be; except and awls pif he can make It appear that he la betrothit ane ither woman he then shall be free. Perhaps the custom goes hack even further than Hint, but whatever Its origin It has become a fixed part of our social tradition, even though It is probably more of a popular Joke than an actual custom, limited to regular reg-ular four-year periods. For the men who are bold enough to sny that they know all about women will tell you that First, then, a woman will or won't, depend de-pend on't, If she will do't, she will; and there's an end on't. But If she won't, since safe and sound your trust is, Fear is affront, and Jealousy injustice Aaron Hill's "Zara." Which, In the case of "popping the question," can be translated Into the statement that If she decides to propose, pro-pose, she will whether it's leap year or not, and If she doesn't so decide it wouldn't make any difference to her If every year were leap year. Fiction furnishes several examples in support of the above statement, as for instance in William Dean Howells' story, "Dr. Breen's Practice," where a real proposal comes at last for the heroine herself, the lover being too slow in coming to the point so she helped him along. Frank Stockton, in "The Late Mrs. Null," takes a humorous view, placing his hero and heroine outdoors In an advantageous place. Being sure of this desired catch, she said : "Mr. Croft, I am going to give you your cliioce. Would you prefer being refused re-fused under a cherry tree or a sycamore." syca-more." There was a smile on her lips which he did not quite interpret, but he said, "I decline being refused under un-der any tne." "Well, I prefer the cherry tree, and there Is just the one nearby." And if we believe what we "see In the papers," leap year proposing this year is neither a popular joke nor fiction, tut a very live fact. Here is the news story that came from Emporia, Em-poria, Kan., recently : Emporia's bachelors, at least 100 of them, are rallying to parry a thrust made at them this week when Probate Judge Wllford RIegle published In an Emporia newspaper a list of men whom he declared were Wie most eligible eligi-ble bachelors In the city. Judge Rlegle presented the names with the suggestion sugges-tion that, this being leap year, the men would be available for marriage, and he recommended each one on his list. The news of the publication of the list spread rapidly. Telephones began to ring and the bachelors were fairly swamped with calls from women. A3 a result the men have organized a protective pro-tective alliance. "Millions for defense, but not one cent for matrimony," was the motto adopted. If womeu needs historical precedent for taking advantage of the leap year traditiou and proposing, such precedents prece-dents are plentiful enough. There is for Instance, the case of Prlscllla, the Puritan maiden, who didn't put the question direct, nlthough young Aldcn would have been a dullurd Indeed In-deed If he didn't know what she meant when she said "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?" Somewhat similar Is the case of the late Adellna PattI, who Is said to have remarked to the man who later became her husband, when he told her that all Paris was saying that they were engaged, "Well, why not? 1 am sure I will be happy." Another instance Is the late Queen Victoria who Invited a young man to he her escort and made him her Prince Albert. She was a bit slow in popping the question, so I he gossips say, and nearly lost him. Which brings to mind (hat her great grandson, Kdwnrd Albert, prince of Wales, despite the anxiety of the whole British Empire over the question ques-tion of when he Is ever going to marry and make sure that the House of Windsor will have a future line of princes of Wales, still seems very much content to remain a bachelor. He Is, therefore, one of the moil eligible elig-ible men in the world for some leap year proposing. Of course, It simply "cawn't be done" In the case of Edward Ed-ward Albert David Windsor, but Judging from all the fuss that was made over him when he visited this country a year or so ago and the way in which he was sought after by matron and maid alike, even he would not be safe from leap year proposals if he came to America again In 1028 If some fairy should promise the average girl that one of her leap year proposals should be accepted by any one of three eligibles she might name, It Is doubtful, however, if the prince of Wales would be the first on her list. For Miss America seeking a husband-that-might-be bas a new hero who holds first place In her affections. af-fections. In the United States army he is known as Col. Charles A. Lindbergh, Lind-bergh, but to the whole world who has thrilled over his exploits in the air, he Is "Lindy." And what American Amer-ican girl would not place "Lindy" ahead of even the prince of Wales In her list of three? Going on the assumption that they would be two of the three, who would the third man be? That might be the most difficult selection of all, for there Is a great variety in the opportunity offered to the girl who wishes to exercise ex-ercise the prerogative of "woman proposes" pro-poses" this year. This year's crop of desirable "catches" among the world-famous world-famous single men Include not only an internationally known aviator and a prince of royal blood, but among others, a world's champion prize fighter, a President's son, a famous scientist and explorer, a Presidential possibility, a United States senator, and a famous editor and author. Who are they? Why, Gene Tunney, John Coolidge, Lincoln Ellsworth, Gov. Albert Al-bert C. Ritchie of Maryland, Senator Robert M. LaFollette, Jr., of Wisconsin, Wiscon-sin, and Henry L. Mencken, editor of the American Mercury. There's a list for you! "Leap year, girls Get your man !" |