The Newtown bee., 1879-04-01
Chinese home-lfe, their habits, manners
 and modes of thought. Golden Hours.
The Terrible Year---1SS1.

Suate normal ScnOOl, lecGureu DeIOfe the Sacramento County Teachers institute last night, upon the very interesting sub- ject of "The Planetary Conjunction of 1881." The prediction of astronomers that in 1881 will occur the conjunction of nearly all the great planets, brought again to the surface the old prophecy of Mother Shipton, and of a score of other birds of i'll omen, who, backed by the recent ap pearance of the plague, have predicted 1 the most awful state of affairs to be inau gurated in 1881, and to continue until 1887, during which fearful epidemics shall prevail, crime multiply, the ele- ments continue in constant and awful perturbation, floods overwhelm, earth quakes destroy, volcanoes burst forth the earth open and swallow up towns, tornadoes sweep round the world, and all waters become poison and Satan be loosed in reality to work more desolation and ruin in all the earth. Lately in this State a so-called professor has issued book in which he has prophesied from a conjunc- tion of Neptune, Saturn, Jupiter, the Earth and Mars, that there shall occur all the foregoing recited, and hundred other woes fall upon the earth, and that the deviltry and destruction is to begin in 1881. Professor Norton, however, does not believe these things, and his lec- ture was intended to show the reason for his faith. He illustrated his remarks with diagrams thrown upon the wall by means of 8 magic lantern.
 He began by saying that we are never satisfied with things now present The world is ever looking backward to the good old time, or forward to the good time coming. Somehow the forward outlook is never calm and cloudless.
 It is also natural that men should look to pivotal events in nature, such as the completion of great astronomical cycles, as being likely to involve great crises in human affairs. The remarkable planetary opposition of the year 1881 has especially appealed to human superstition and imagination.
 The lecturer he read extracts from a recently-published pamphlet entitled IHe Voice Qf tue StarS, which foretold a series of terrible disasters as likely to Oc- cur between the years 1880 and 1887, in cluding the annihilation of the Chinese race and the death of l5,OOO, ,O0O Ameri- cans from the plague; terrible storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, famines, etc. Healso gave briefsynopsis of Piozzi Smyth's "Pyramid Religion and quoted from the oracles of Mother Ship ton, all three substantially agreeing that
 1'The world to an end shall come
 In 1881"
 He said that the prophecy of the old woman seemed to still have vitality, although the publisher of the Shipton added the lines above quoted in order to give the book large sale. The question before us is, Can there be any residual truth behind all this superstition and nonsense?
 The lecturer presented Prof. Delarue's theory of the relation of planetary con- functions to sun spots; showed diagrams illustrating the effect of the attraction of the sun and moon upon oceanic tides, and the alleged corresponding effects of planetary comunctions upon the atmos- phere of the sun. He then exhibited a diagram, showing the position of the planets October 3l, 1881; all the large planets but Saturn and Mercury being nearly in a straight line passing through the center of the sun. It is alleged that q similar aspect of the planets will not occur for many thousand years. If it is possible for the massed planets to pro- duce extraordinary tidal effects upon the earth, such effects must soon be mani fested. Nevertheless, the planets are enormously distant. Their attractive force varies inversely as the square of the distance. It is hardly conceivable that mere gravitatiOn could ever pro- duce any such effect as the foretold disas- ters.
 The only remaining theory is that of a hypothetical electric inter-action between the sun and planets. This is but the ghost of a theory, having hardly shad- ow of ascertained fact behind it. The lecturer quoted one or two instances in in which there seemed to be a coincidence in times between such cOnjunctiOns and atmospheric disturbance, where the theory of great resulting evils failed ut terly, and then read the following letter from Professor Young, of Princeton col lege, the eminent scientist and astrono- mer:
 II. E. NORToN-Dear Sir: Your flote of inquiry is received. I answer briefly, as follows First-Your inclosed diagram (of the cOnjunction) Is not essentially l correct. Second-1t is true that the planets will be somewhat nearer their perihelia than is usual at such heliocen- tric conjunctions. Third-There is DO good reason for expecting remarkable disturbances in the solar or terrestrial at mosphere on account of such planetary positions. Professor Delarue thought that he had discovered relation between them and sun spots, but latest researches fail to substantiate the theory Scientific astronomers consider the new gospel of Piozzi Smyth and Mother Shipton as be- Goose. Yours, very truly,
 CHARLES A. YoUNG.
 Summing up the evidences, Professor Norton said we are justified in conclud- ing that science has thus far given us no definite reason for expecting the great tribulation. Nevertheless if public excite ment shall cause men to cleanse their sewers and mend their lives, we may be thankful for the voice from the tombs' , uttered by Piozzi Smyth and the woeful forecast attributed to Mother Shipton!
 Words of Wisdom.
 The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat oneself. All sin is easy. after that