The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-01-06
AN ONINOUS YEAR.
mother shiptons Prophecy ,ss Applied
tOISSl.

tOISSl.
We consider ourselves part OF an age
| that, il it is not altogether freed from
superstition, is fast shaking off the
shackles, without. we hope, any detri-
ment to lofty religious belief; and we
look back with wonder and contempt
at those creatures whose minds were of
the order that made them dupes of
| Cornelius Agrippa, of Nostradamus, OF
| Cagliostro, and of the whole horde of
men wise in the dark art. Yet in spite
of our belongings aud our contempt,
and because this is the year 1881, the
majority % newspapers published in
the English language have felt that their
readers had right to see some portion
of Mother Shipton's prophecy, and have
given it to them generously.
Indeed, so many various scraps of
this precious document hav. been
printed at one time and another that if
one should put them together it would
take almost as many years as Mother
Shipton lived in orc er to read them I;
and we cannot help thinking that in
genious penny-a-liners have supplied
versicles to the good dame to help her
out, with noble disregard of authen-
ITCHY, and o discreeG knowledge that
four hundred years and over are likely
to render anything of leger Diary char
acter more or less corrupt and incorrect
anyway.
1t is a curious document, this old
lady's pror hecy. But since one OF the
features failed to fulfill itst If in the year
ls20-she having de- Jared. it is said,
that London streets should be deluged
in blood when the dragon of Bow
Church and the grasshopper of the
Royal Exchange should meet, which
event happened, without the expected
result, at time when both OF these
vanes lay together in 3 stone-mason's
yard awaiting repaiIs-since that time
people have not expected so much OF
Mother Shipton as they once did.
Around the world thoughts shall fly
In the twinkling OF ali eye;
Water shall yet more wonders do,
Now strange, it shall be true"
runs one of the quatrains in n copy that
may be rs dou btful as all the rest,
prophesying after the fact.
Through the hills man shall ride,
And no horse or ass be at his side;
Under waters men shall walk,
Shall ride, shall sleep, shall talk"
runs another; and although she skips
the telephone and the phonograph and
the Photophone, she winds up with
something nav ing rather Il special in-
terest to our own generation:
81 Fire and water shall wonders do,
England shall admit Jew,
And the world to an end shall come
In eighteen hundred and eighty one"
There is many q simple soul sitting by
country iircsideS these win or nights,
reared in grewsome fate which puts
heaven chiefly in the attitude of the
angry and outraged avenger to whom
those lines have had q vague error O!
possibility. They are people who were
taught in childhood to expect the end Of
the world, to whom then Il peculiarly
bright moonlight spread the earth with
CHASTITY corpse. color that toreboGcd
Lothing else, 10 whom an easterly
storm seemed son ething that not in
probably might have no close, and In
whose quaking nightmare dreams day
Of Judgment was prominent factor.
They would perhaps b0 ashamed 10 tell
SCu, but ever since they heard OF
Mother Shipton's name they have se-
crotly felt that they should be II little
q I'd :" hen 1881 was over and done With
n Nothing TO then does the word OF
science signify; no notion comes into
lheir heads as to The Inconsistency oil
ptginning such universe simply TO de-
styOy it before bringing it to completion !;
5hey are Cnl7 blindly concerned in their
own fate in such contingency, and they
are watching the weather signs this
year as they never did before. Woe be-
tide them if this winter brighter aurora
'hitens the north than usual, or sends
up more crimson banners and fiery
lances to the zenith! Woe betide them
il n cold spell come, where long stay oI
the mercury below zero suggests the
horrible negation of death! Wee betide
them If the spring rains are copious
enough to fill the brooks and make
ireshets in the rivers with visions of an
other deluge! Woe betidc them if Au-
gust or November gives them such o
star-shower as was known in 1898!
From all these things dreadful portents
arise, and they will not really know
Tranquil security again till the old year
has been rung out and 1882 rung in. -
! HaTDcr'S Buz1T