The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1881-01-13
THE COMING YEAR.
THE PREDICTIONS OF CALAMITY FOR 1881
Mother SYMPTOMS PROPHECY.
The world to an end shall come
II eighteen hundrel and eight1-one.


sinister predictions that have. as by com
2on consent, been concentrated upon the
coming year. The soothsayers. diviners,
oracle makers, astrologers and wizards
geem to have combined to cast their
spells upon it. Surerstitious people Of
very sort, aud some who are not willing
% admit that they are superstitious, re-
1ard 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, 1t will
20 to meet a host of evil omens. It viii
go cursed with theomancy aud biblio
NANCY. Aeromancy and meteoromancy
viii glare at it from comets and shooting
sters. Oneiromaucy VIII intercept it's
path with visions OF evil. and nomancv
will shake theominous, backward reading
numerals 1881" before it. 1t will be
beset with scarecrow figures by arithman-
cy, and with menacing phrases by sticho-
nancy. Yet there is no reason why per
sons of good digestion should not go to
sleep on New Years night confident that,
after having encountered the average
quantity OF storm and sunshine, the one
horse ball that we call the world will
bring them safe through the periIs Of its
500,000,000 mile fight round to the
starting point again.
Third 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
smymbolism of the great pyramid of
Egypt was made public, backed by the
name and reputation OF the British as
tronomer. Pizzi Smypth. Others, using
Mr.. Symth's observations and measur
ments, have gone much further than he
aid in drawing startling inferences; bat
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 great
est marvel has all the charm and interest
of DR.. Schlieman'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 nature of
human mind, many of its readers were
sure to be imbue,i with its oIniuous dog
So the belief or at least the suspi-
cion, spread that the secret chambers of
the great pyramid, under divine guidance,
by the most mystical character 10 all
history Melehisedek, king of Salem,
foretell, among other things, that the
christian era will end in 1881.
Mother Shipton's 50 called prophecy
fixes upon the same date for the end of
the world. The ominous jingle OF her
rhymes has probably done at least as
much todisturb the equamimity of credu-
lous persons as the elaborate Vaccinations
Of the pyramid interpreters. Moreover,
Mother Shipton is represented as fortelI
ing that in the latter days England would
accept jew" "A England has, with
considerable emphasis, and more than
once, accepted the remarkable son of old
Isaac Disraeli for her prime minister,
this has been taken as q fulfilment of the
prophecy. SO Lord Beaconsield's s dra
matte personality is made a principal
figure III the murky cloud of evil proph-
ecy that hangs over 1881.
As if the evil eye of Mother Shipton
and the mystical menace OF the great
pyramid were not enough for one poor
twelvemonth to bear, the ''horrors of the
perihelia" have been denounced upon the
coming year. About two years ago, GER
tain pamphlets were circulated about the
country, purpOrting to be written by men
of cence, predicting that awful conse-
queEces to mankind would result from
all the great planets reaching their peri
helia, or nearest point to the SIM, togeth-
er. According to these prophets the sin
ister effects of the perihelia were to begin
making their appearance this fall. when
Jupiter passed his perihelia, and next
year the scythe Of death was to be put
to the harvest in the far east, and to
sweep westward, with swathe as broad
IS the continents, until it reached the
Pacific ocl y. The narrow Atlantic was
to be no more than brooklet in the path
of this terrible harvester. Plaques, fam
ines, pestilences, fire, earthquakes,
hoods, and tornadoas were to scourge
The human race until only few remain
ed, like NoaS and his family, to repeople
the earth with sturdier and more God
fearing race.
So much alarm was caused by this ho-
cus-pocus of science-Air. Proctor a1apng
others-were at the pains to show that,
SO far as these predictions professed 70
rest upon scientific facts, were baseless.
The great planets viii not all be in peri.
helion in 1881. aud they will not all be
in perhelion at one time. II is true that
several of the chief planets will reach
their perihelia within few years, and
that it IS rare for them to be grouped SO
close together as they viii be at one time
next year. 1t IS also true that remark
able condolences have been observed
between the existence Of great storms on
the sun. that produce electrical disturb
ances and possibly meteorological chang
es upon the earth, and the presence of
Jupiter near his perihelion. Asfronom-
ers have also suspected that the influence
Of some OF the other great planets upon
the earth can be perceived, but they
have never discovered any reason to be-
iieye that the combined forces of all the
ntanlfg amid u1lar