avigated his ship did not know he
was out of time with the European world until he got as far around as
the Cape Verde Islands. An added day was held in Manila, as a kind
of affirmation of clear title, or trade mark of true righteousness,
on the part of Spain. It is one of the enduring puzzles in going
around the world that a day is gained or lost, and it is not always
a sure thing whether there is a loss or gain. The perplexing problem
is increased in its persistence if one sails westward over the 180
Meridian west from Greenwich, and goes beyond that line (which is not
the one drawn by Alexander VI)--say to the Philippines, and turns back,
as is done in the voyage from San Francisco to Manila, and vice versa.

In this case, the mystery of the meridian becomes something
dreadful. One loses a day going west and gains one coming east, and it
is a difficulty for a clear mind not to become cloudy over the account
of loss and gain--or perhaps we may say profit and loss, when the
account is closed. "The historian of the Philippine Expedition" lost
a Wednesday going out, jumping from Tuesday to Thursday, and found an
extra Thursday on the return--celebrated his birthday on another day
than that on which he was born, and had to correct the ship account
of his board bill, by adding a day. The Captain's clerk had forgotten
it because it was not in the Almanac. Ship time begins a day at noon
(and ends another), so when we crossed the meridian 180 degrees west
at 2 p. m. by the sun, and the day was Thursday and to-morrow was
Thursday also, the forenoon was yesterday by the ship. Therefore,
Thursday was yesterday, to-day and to-morrow on the same day. The
forenoon was yesterday--from 12 to 2 p. m. was to-day--and from 2
p. m. to midnight was to-morrow! It is no wonder "the historian,"
whose birthday was September the 2nd, found as he was on the west
side of the meridian with the mystery that the folks at home in the
states had celebrated it for him two days ago--one day he had lost,
and the other they had gained. Jagor, the historian of the Philippines,
before the days when Admiral Dewey grasped the reins of a thousand
islands, and a thousand to spare, says in his "Philippine Islands,"
that "when the clock strikes 12 in Madrid, it is 8 hours 18 minutes and
41 seconds past 8 in the evening at Manila. The latter city lies 124
degrees 40 min. 15 sec. east of the former, 7 h. 54 min. 35 sec. from
Paris. But it depends upon whether you