Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1868-12-08
The Prophet of ITO.

Let us suppose ourselves carried back sixty
years in the stream of time, and to live again,
the youthful subject of the young King George
I'LL Let us likewise imagine that In those
days the divine spirit of prophecy had come
upon us, unwilling to our sight the events OF
the future In seven years from this time the
British empire shall be rent in twain American
war in 1776.) In fifteen years men shall rise
from the earth and fly through the air (inven-
ton of balloons l7SO.) In twenty years the
French monarchy, the Oldest that ever was, and
now so hourishing, shall come to an end A
virtuous prince louis XVI. 1888, not yet
king, shall in twenty three years lay down his
life on the scaffold his wife and sister shall
share the same fate In those same days, news
shall travel with the speed of wind, and what
was done at mid day shall be known at the FAR
thest bounds of the kingdom ere the setting OF
the sun (the telegraph. In twenty-six years
water his horses in the Nile, the Jordan, the
Tagus, and the Borysthenes. This conqueror
| shall restore the chair of st. Peter, and throw
down what he had restored ldethronement OF
Plus VID. Finally, he whom the world could
not contain, shall die captive on rocky Is
land (St Helena) neither in Europe, Asia, Af-
RIGA, nor America, but in the midst of the vast
ocean-a few feet of earth his empire, willow
his monument. In those days metals shall be
found which float on the water and burn under
it Sodium and potassium, discovered by Sir
Humphrey Davy). Ships shall stem the ocean
without sails or oars lsteam ships. Carriages
shall run without horses, with the speed ct the
wind locomotive engines. The ordinary speed
of the wind is thirty five miles an hour; that
of the engines on the Great Western Railway
is 80 Men shall be conveyed from India to
the mighty Babylon in month; from Amer
lea in ten days; from one end of England to
the other in eight hours. Bridges shall hang
by chain over the sea, while roads shall be
made under it 1.-THE Menai Bridge and Thames
Tunnel). The very beasts in those days shall
have laws to protect them. Those days shall
be days of great light. Men shall plough with
out horses (steam plough; they shall spin
without hands (power loom) they shall calcu-
late by wheels (Babbages machine) the sun
shall engrave for them the Daguerreotype J
they shall write with the lightning electro tel
egraph) One machine shall print in one hour
many thousand books, each Of which shall take
man many days to read a man may buy a
book for penny for penny he may send it
to the ends of the empire. They shall read the
| rocks instead of book geology, and decipher
| the history of beings which lived and died ere
man existed In the heavens new stars shall
be discovered; some, sisters of earth; some,
brothers of the sun (the planets five in mum
| Der, discovered since the American war; and
the double stars by Sir William Herschel) and
of all the colors of the rainbow. In those days,
likewise, they shall read the pyramids Young' S
| and Champollion' discoveries) They shall
| find out the mouth of the Niger and the Mag
netic Pole the way to everything shall have
| heen discovered but the wav to be hap5T.