Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-12-22
~.atlcaster fntelligcnrrr.
WEDNESDAY EVENING. DEC. %. 1880.
BAER'S ALMANAC.
ALOCAL INSTITUTION,

IL.
There arc very few persons native to or
resident in Lancaster county for any con-
siderable length of time, who are not &C
quainted with Bacr's almanac. Only the
of the "oldest inhabitants
antedatc it, and the memory Of this and
the preceding generation scarcely runs to
the time when it was not household
work. in the widest sense Of the term.
A publication that has existed for fifty-six
years, steadily increasin. the number ofits
patrons, and widening the circle Of its
readers every year, maintaining nearly all
Of its general features and unable to ochsngc
any of them without impairing in some de-
gree the long established confidence OF its
readers and students, must have his
tory worth narrating and many features OF
its publication have Il novel interest and
deep local significance.
There arc alnanacs and almanacs and
the partiality Of the European pcasantry
for such publications, which has been
maintained by generations Of their dcs-
cendants in this country, has ever made
the almanac 4 household necessity here,
and in one form or another there are now
over a hundred regular yearly publications
of this sort in America, besides the mani
fold advertising devices of this kind.
Shrewd advertisers early recognized with
what diligence and confidence the almanac
was cOnncd and seized upon it as popu-
lar mode of advertising. The immense
gratuitOus circulation of advertising al
manacs, it would have been SUPPOSED, had
almost entirely superseded the old fashion,
cd calendars, sold generally at the retail
price of ten cents apiece. Wonderful to
relate, the demand for Bacr : almanac has
kept steady pace with the increase of such
publications, and is to-day greater than
ever known before.
The pOtkstrCund WAS established in
1908; John Bacr became connected with
it in 1917, and i'm 1888 he began the pub
LEGATION Of the English aIna,,ic, prior to
that a German almanac published. 1T Ger
mantOwn, being chiefly depended upon in
this section. lii; first issue of some five
thnusand copies rcscmblcd in many lca-
lures the almanac Of to-day. The calcu
latiOns were made by Charles +. Englc-
man, Reading sch""lmastcr, and the
astronomical pages were set up very mucl,
rs they arc now. For nearly half Il cen
tury the type of those pages remained the
same, subje only to notifications and
corrections from year to year. A few years
ago new type was procured and il the de-
mand continues to increase the publishers
will have to resort to stcrcOtypinS to sup
ply it. But no material change could bc
made in the appearance of these pages
without creating !, suspicion of their vcri
ty. It is the astronomical page that is
Of chief interest to our country folk, and
it is astOnishin. what lore they display iil
explaining it.
The pictorial display of the waxing and
waning, the eight and dark ':rull, -
''half" and 'guarter" of the moon by cuts
ricd out on the old Dutch clocks now $,
much sought after as ''hcirloOms" in fash
ionable residences. The influence of the
moon on the customs of domestic life is
very generally recognized by tie wide cir
Gle Of Bacrs $ almanac readers, and that thi,
is to bc done or that not done in the "uJ
gOing'' and ''down going,' in the light ol
the dark Oi the moon is rs incXorahiy fixed
as was ever Mcdcs and Persian law.
Next to the moon in Importance arc tho
little animals indicating the place Of thu
moon i'm the 81 gns of the zodiac. On tlst
last page is the well known cut of the dis
embOwcllcd and naked man, surrounds,
by the animals with lines Indicating cacl
particular part of the body that
is affected 10y The respective sign.
Tho lamb lies peacefully above hi:
head the ''twins' control his arms tho
''bull'' his neck, &c, This anatomy i.
deemed of the highest Importance and the
omission OF it from one issue of the alma
nae created such an outcry that it had t.
bc restored. by these " signs, Us intlica
ted in tic fifth column Of the Astronomical
page, people plant and cook. bleed and arc
bled, buy and sell. and thousands arc
guided 10y them II the ordinary affairs OF
life. Departure from them or disregard OF
them is attended with disastrous results
To expect anything to progress planted in
the backward sign of the "crab " is a ri
diculOus extreme of crcdulity. A gentle.
man in this city. who never fails to get
his hair cut in the sign Of the lion, mis-
took the liOn for the goat some time ago
quite natural mistake, since about the
only difference in the cuts is that the
goats tail turns up and the lions tai
turns dOwn-and the result was tha; he
astonished himself by the development OF
butt!ng propensitics. Shcrt-haircd people
who do not want to patronizc tho
barber get their hair cut in the
sign Ot the crab.
The remarkable days" column is one
Of interest and study and old readers and
students of Eacrs almanac know the siT-
nificance of them all. Houschoulders WIZ
do not bake "fastnachts Oh Shrovc
Tuesday have suffered from the invasic.,
of reaches in the kitchen for 4 year after.
The farmer who docs not recognize that
the ground hog looks for his shallow OH
Candlemass is short-siyhtcd indeed. The
position of the ''cmbcr days" has great
weight in controlling the price of grain
If they arc high in the month grain will
be high &; if low in the month grain will
be low. The cmber days next year will
bc March 9, June 8, September 81, De-
ccmber 81; SO that grain will bc low in
the spring and rise i'm the fall and winter
Indications that point to scant harvests.
A column that denotes the hour of high
water at Philadelphia had been for many
years mistaken by an old farmer as the
gauge of the price ofgrain and hc never dis
covered his mistake by observation of any
false prophecy by the almanac. The time
given for the rising aud setting OF the sun
regulates the clocks and watches OF the
almanac's readers and time pieces are
g set with the sun " which keep accord
with Baer's almanac. In the column Of
{" miscellaneous particulars many facts
OF astronomical Importance arc given and
it would astOnish some of the :. frcsh''
members of the "Star club" to learn how
far their grandmothers had Travelled sky
ward by the study of this department..
The table of moons phases &c, at
the left hand corner of each right hand
page, giving a prediction of the general
prospect of the weather at each change of
the moon is prepared by the editor Of the
almanac in accordance with general laws
ofmeteOrolegy. The ''probablc state of
the weather." predicting it for every day