Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1880-12-31
THE HORRORS OF 1881.
A General smasI, Up of the Universe, to he
Preceded by Pestilence and Famine
Mother Shipton and Others.

a General Smash Up of the Universe, to he
Preceded by Pestilence and Famine
Mother shipton and Others.
The world to an end shall come
In eighteen hundred and eighty,one
It would be difficult to describe all the
sinister predictions that have, as by
common consent, been concentrated up
on the coming year. The soothsayers,
diviners, oracle makers, astrologers, and
wizards seemed to have combined to cast
their spell upon it. Superstitious peo-
pie of every sort, and some who are not
willing to admit that they are supersti-
tious, regard the year 1881 with more or
less anxious expectation and dread. As
the earth, on New Years day, swings out
into another round about the sun, it will
go to meet host of evil omens. It will
go cursed by tleomancy and bibli-
omancy. Acromancy and meteormancy.
will glare it from comets and shooting
stars. Oneiromancy will intercept its
path with visions of evil, and nomancy
will shake the ominous, backward-read-
ing numerals 1881" before it. It will be
beset with scarecrow figures by arith-
nancy, and with menancing phrases by
stitchomancy. Yet there is no reason
why persons of good digestion should
not go to sleep on New Years night,
confident that, after having encountered
the average quantity of storm and sun
shine, the one-horse ball that we call the
world will bring them safe through the
perils of its Misunderstanding
flight round to the starting point again.
Iimid persons first began to look for
ward with some alarm to the year that is
about to open, when, several years ago.
the key to the so-called prophetic sym
bolism of the great pyramid Of Egypt
was made public. by the name and rep
utation of the British astronomer,
Piazzi Smyth. Others, using Mr..
Smyth's observations and measure
ments, have gone much further than he
did in drawing startling interences; but
no one can read his book without per-
ceiving how powerfully it must affect
those who have the slightest leaning
toward superstition or credulity. Be-
sides, this record of explorations and
experiences in the heart of Egypt's
greatest marvel has all the charm and
interest of DIR. Schileman's descriptions
of his discoveries in Homer's Troy.
Such a book could not well be neglected
by the world of readers: and by the ma
ture of the human mind many of its
readers were sure to be imbued with its
ominous dogmas. So the belief, or at
least the suspicion, spread that the Sc
cret chambers of the great pyramid,
under divine guidance, bore the most
mystical character in all history. Mel
chisedek. king of Spain, forctold, among
other things, that the christian era will
end in 1881.
Mother Shipton's so-called prophecy
fixes upon the same. date for the end of
the world. The ominousE Jingle of her
rhymes has probably done at least as
much to disturb the equanimity of cred
ulous persons as the more elaborate vat
icinations of the pyramid interpreters
Moreover, Mother Sh,pton is represent
ed as foretelling that in the latter days
England will accept a jew" AS Eng.
land has, with considerable emphasis,
and more than once, accepted the re-
markable son of old Isaac Disraeli for
her prime minister, this has been taken
as fulfllmcnt of the prophecy, So
is made principal figure in the murky
!, cloud of evil prophecy that hangs owe,
1881.
As if the evil eye of Mother Shipto1
, and the mystical menace of the Grea
Pyramid were not enough for one poo
. twelve month to bear, the "horrors Of til,
/, perihelia" have been denounced upo1
the coming year. About two years age
certain pamphlets were circulated abou
the country, purporting to be written by
men of science, and predicting that awfu
! consequences to mankind would result
from all the great planets reaching thei
perihelia, or nearest points to the sun
together. According to these prophets
the sinister effects of the perihelia wer,
to begin making their appearance this
fall, when Jupiter passed his perihelion
and next year the scythe Of death was t.
be put to the harvest in the far east, ant
to sweep westward, with swathe as broat
as the continents, until it reached til,
Pacific Ocean. The narrow Atlantic wa
to be no more than brooklet in tn
path of this terrible harvester. Plaques
famines, pestilences, fire, earthquakes
floods, and tornadoes were to scourge tn
human race until only few remained
like Noah and his family, to repeople tn
earth with sturdier and more God fear
ing race.
5 So much alarm was caused by this ho
| cuspocus of pretended science an,
Y prophecy. that some real men Of scienc
: MIR. Proctor among others-were at tn
pains to show that so far as these pre-
, dlctiOns professed to rest upon scientifi
facts they were baseless. The great plan
: cts will not all be in perihelion in 1881
1 and they will not all be in perhelion tc
o gether at any time. It is true that Sc,
} eral of the chief planets will reach thei
8 perihelia within few years, and that
e is rare for them to be grouped so clos
Q together rs they will be at one time mex
Z year. 1t is also true that remarkabl
n condolences have been observed betwee
e the existence of great storms on the sui
}. that produce electrical disturbances an
v possibly meteorological changes upo
: the earth. and the presence OF Jupite
4 near his perihelion. Astronomel
y have also suspected that the influence
i some of the other great planets upon til
l. earth can be perceived, but they ha,
5 never discovered any reason to believ
), that the combined forces of all the plal
i, cts could, under any circumstances, pr
1, duce upon the earth thousandth pa
20 20 of the evil effect ascribed to them by ii
- astrologers, if indeed they produce al
evil effect whatever.
&c Still the astrological almanacs for ne
le year are repeating substantially the san
lg predictions of evil things to begin, if n
10 to culminate, in 1881. Because, us tn
ts say, the revenges OF the Black Death
O. the middle ages followed the nearly col
re cident perihelia of four great plane
" uoi they predict similar consequences frc
81 y, the configuration of the planets no
IN But neither in their premises nor til,
~. y inference does science recognize any
" lidity.
In truth, however, the astrologers, /
as less thon the astronomers md ali Q,