Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1881-01-20
The Terrible Year at Hand.
PLAQUES, FAMINEs, EARTHQUAKES,
FLOODS AND ToRNADOES.
The world to on end shall come
ln eighteen hundred and eighty-oue
tI,tbn, IL; } l.


Mother Shipton's Prophecy.
1t would be difficult to describe all the
sinister predictions that have, as by com
mou consent, bocn concentrated upon the
coming year. The soothsayors, dsncrs,
oracle makers, astronoogers aud wizards
seem to havc combined upon it. Supcrsti-
tious people of every sort, and some who
are not willing to admit that they are
supcrstitous, regard the year 1881 with
more or less anxious expectation and droad.
AS tho earth, on New Years Day, swings
cut iuto into another round about tho sun.
it will go to meet hest of evil omeps.
1t will go cursed by thoomancy aud biblio..
nancy. Aeromancy and mcteoromanoy
will glare at it from comets and shooting
stars. Oncromancv will intercept its path
with visions of evil, and nomanoy will
shake tho ominous, backward reuding
numerals 1881" before it. 1t will be
bcsct with scarccrow figures By arithmanay,
with menacing phrases by stichomancy.
Yet there is DO reason why persons of
good digestion should not so to sleep On
New Years night confident that, after hayre
encountered the average quantity of storm
aud sunshine, the one horse ball that wo
call the world will bring them safe through
the perils of its five hundred million mile
flight around to tho starting point again.
Tiuih persons first began to look for
ward with some alarm to tho year that is
about to open when, several ycurs ago, the
key to thc SO called prophetic symbolism of
the Great Pyramid of Egypt was made
public, backed by the name and reputation
of the British astronomer, Piozzi Smyth.
Others, using Mr.. Smyth's obscrvafious
and measurements, have gonc much further
than he did in drawing startling differences;
but no one can read his book without per
ceiving how powerfully it must effect those
WHO have tho slightest leaning toward su-
pcrstilion or credulty. Besides, this re-
cord OF explorations and experiences in the
the heart Of lGgypt's greatest marvel has all
the charm and interest of Dr..
Schlcman's description of his dscov
cries in ilomer's Troy. Such book could
not we'll DO neglected by the world of
reader:; and by the nature Of the human
mind, many of its readers were sure to be
imbucd with its ominous dogmas. So the
tclci, or at lease the suspicion, spread that
the secret chambers OF the Great Pyramid,
under divine guidance by tho most mystical
character in all history, Mclchisedck, King
OF Salem, torctell, among other things
that the Christian era will end in 1881.
Mother Shipton's SO called prophecy
fixes upon the same date fer the end of tho
world. The omnous jingle of her rhymes
has probably done at least as much to dis
turb the cquanmity of credulous persons
US the more elaborate Vaccinations of the
pyramid interpreters. Moreover, Mother
Snipton is represented as foreteling that in
the latter days England "wll accept ew."
AS England has, with considerable empha.
Sis, and more than once, accepted the re-
markablc son of old Isaac Disracli for her
prime minister, this has been taken as IA
lufiIlmcnt of tho prophecy. SO Lord
Beacoplcds dramatic personality is
made principal figure in tho murky
cloud Of evil prophecy that hangs over
1881.
AZ if the evil eye of Mother Shpton
and tho mystical menace Of the Great Pyr-
amid were not enough for one poor twelve
month to bear, the "horrors of tic peri.
heIia' have been denounced upon the com
ing year. About two years ago certain
pamphlets were circulated about the coun-
try, purporting to be written by men of
science, and predicting that awful cousc-
qucnccs to mankind would result from all
tho great planets reaching their perhelia,
or nearest points Of the sun together. Ac.
oordlng to these prophets the sinister effects
OF tho perihc!ia were to begin making thoir
appearance this full, when Jupiter passed
hls pcrihelion, and next year tho scytho of
Death was to be put to tho harvest 10 tho
far East, and to sweep Westward, with a
swathc as broad us the contents, until it
reached the Pacific Ocean. Tho narrow
Atlantic was to DC no moro th1n narrow
brooklct in tho path Of this terrible har-
vcstcr. Plaques, fumlnes, pcstilences, fires,
earthquakes, floods and tornadocs were to
scoursc tho human race until only few
like Noah and his family, to
rcpeople the earth with stulder and more
God fearing race.
SO much alarm was caused by this hoous
pocus of pretended science and prophecy,
that some rcal men Of SCIENCE MIR Proctor
among othcrs--wcre at the poins to show
that, so far as these predictions professcd to
rest upon scientific facts, they were bascless.
The great planets will not bo in perihelion