favoring annexation; but before he took office a joint resolution was passed by Congress making an offer of Statehood to Texas. This was accepted by the Texans, and in December, 1845, the State was formally admitted to the Union. On February, 1861, Texas seceded from the Union and joined the Confedera Sam Houston was Governor at the time and threw all his weight in opposition to secession, but there was no staying the resolve of the people, many of whom went soon to join the armies of the Confederacy.

A constitution was submitted to the people in November, 1869, when Congressmen and State officers were elected, and on March 30, 1870, Texas was readmitted to the Union.

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MARCH 20-APRIL 23, GOOD FRIDAY, the Friday before Easter observed throughout the Christian world in commemoration of the crucifixion of Christ.

That from a very early period it was a day of solemn mourning and special prayer is apparent from the Apostolic Constitutions (i, 18) and from Eusebius, who tells us that, when Christianity was established in the Empire, Constantine forbade the holding of markets, law courts, and other public proceedings upon this day. It is still a legal holiday in England and Ireland. A number of ancient popular customs, such as the eating of "hot cross buns"cakes with a cross impressed on them-are connected with the day. A service of modern origin, increasingly popular in Catholic and Episcopal

churches, is the Three Hours' Devotion, consisting of addresses upon the seven last words of Christ; prayers and hymns, and occupying the hours from twelve to three, when He hung upon the cross. (See Easter.)

MARCH 22-APRIL 25, EASTER DAY, or EASTER SUNDAY, a festival day always falling on Sunday and may be any Sunday between the dates of March 22 and April 25. It is observed throughout the Christian world, celebrating the resurrection of Christ, and is the principal feast of the Christian era.

The proper time for the celebration of Easter has occasioned much controversy. In the second century a dispute arose on this point between the Eastern and Western churches. The great mass of the Eastern Christians celebrated Easter on the Jewish Passover, the fourteenth day of the first Jewish month or moon, thinking of Christ as the true Paschal Lamb. The Western churches celebrated it on the Sunday after the fourteenth day, holding that it was the commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus. The Council of Nicaea (in 325) decided in favor of the Western usage, branding the Eastern with the name of the "quartodeciman" heresy. This, however, only settled the point that Easter was to be held, not upon a certain day of the month or moon, but on a Sunday. The proper astronomical cycle for calculating the occurrence of the Easter moon was not determined by the council. It appears, however, that the metonic cycle was already in use in the West for this pur

pose; and it was on this cycle that the Gregorian calendar, introduced in 1582, was arranged. The time of Easter, being the most important of all the movable feasts of the Christian Church, determined all the rest. It was debated, at the time of the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, whether Easter should continue to be movable, or whether a fixed Sunday, after the 21st of March, should not be adopted. It was deference to ancient custom that led the ecclesistical authorities to adhere to the method of determination by the moon.

It must be remembered, however, that it is not the actual moon in the heavens, nor even the mean moon of the astronomers, that regulates the time of Easter, but an altogether imaginary moon, whose periods are so contrived that the new (calendar) moon always follows the real new moon (sometimes by two, or even three days). The effect of this is that the fourteenth of the calendar moon-which had from the times of Jewish law been considered the "full moon" for ecclesiastical purposes-falls generally on the fifteenth or sixteenth of the real moon, and thus after the real full moon, which is generally on the fourteenth or fifteenth day.

With this explanation, then, of what is meant by full moon, viz., that it is the fourteenth day of the calendar moon, the rule is that Easter Day is always the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, i. e., the full moon which happens upon or next after the 21st of March (the beginning of the ecclesiastical year);

and if the full moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter Day is the Sunday after.

The adoption of the Gregorian calendar changed the date of Easter. The Greek church, which did not accept the Gregorian calendar, therefore, usually celebrates Easter on a different day from the Western church.

One object in arranging the calendar moon was that Easter might never fall on the same day as the Jewish Passover. They did occur together, however, in 1825, and in 1903, on the 12th of April, and in 1923 on the 1st of April, and will do so again in 1927 on the 17th of April, and in 1981 on the 19th of April. The Jewish Passover usually occurs in the week before Easter, and never before the 26th of March or after the 25th of April. On the other hand, the Christian festival is never before the 22nd of March nor after the 25th of April. In 1761 and 1818 Easter fell on the 22nd of March, but this will not be the case in any year of the twentieth century. The latest Easter in this century will occur in 1943, on the 25th of April.

The popular observances, past and present, connected with the day are innumerable. The use of eggs in this connection is of the highest antiquity, the egg having been considered in widely separated pre-Christian mythologies as a symbol of resurrection. It is probably that here, as in other cases, the Church adopted and consecrated an earlier custom. This is certainly true of the Easter fires which formerly celebrated the triumph of spring over winter.

APRIL 13, ANNIVERSARY, BIRTH OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, a special holiday in Alabama. Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell, Albemarle County, Virginia, April 13, 1743.

He was the author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third President of the United States, serving for eight years; was the first Secretary of State in Washington's Cabinet, and VicePresident of the United States under John Adams. His first election to the Presidency was by Congress, Aaron Burr having received the same number of votes, which threw the decision of election into Congress. He was re-elected in 1804 on the Democrat-Republican ticket, receiving 162 of a possible 176 votes.

On New Year's Day, 1772, he married Martha Skelton, daughter of John Wayles, and widow of Bathurst Skelton, who was very wealthy, owning 40,000 acres of land and 135 slaves. Jefferson now took his place among the wealthy planters, although, like Washington, he was a yeoman at birth. With the increase of fortune he built "Monticello," and on the site of "Shadwell" which had been burned.

Following the example of Washington in the refusal to be elected for a third term to the Presidency, at the close of his second term he took up the care of his plantation at Monticello. Here he ceased entirely from active political life, but by means of his facile pen still exerted an important influence on the government, especially upon his successors and disciples, Madison and Monroe. His house was the Mecca to which all America seemed to turn, his open and gen