The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1881-01-20
Aslreldsy ssr 1851. {

10y ~ P0OPA0sWuO puS euolF
trust in Mother Shipton that our planet
would become total wreck at some
period during the year upon which we
have so prosperously entered. Now
the rolling up Of the heavens like d
scroll. the general liquefaction of mat
ter under fervent heat and TIE dls6f.
ganization of the. universe into O. .swil-
derness of tempestuous combustion is
not an event which the mass of man.
kind would be likely to contemplate
with serenity, provided it was set down
for date certain and near at hand, say
Saturday week. According to the
theory of the universe proposed by
Boscovich, there may be, it is true, no
ultimate chaos and conAagration, but
in their stead quiet and sudden van
ishing of worlds. If matter, as the in
genious Italian holds, does not consist
Of hard atoms, but is only mode or .
combination of modes of motion---a
congeries of mathematical centers of
attraction and repulsion 1.-The visible
and palpable universe is only aconstant
and uniform emanation of creative en-
ergy which may cease instantaneously,
f0rit is quite as easy to conceive of the
withdrawal of this energy as of its con-
tinued exercise by q Supreme Will.
The end of all things, therefore, may be
mot destruction, but rest; not
crash and ruin, but a pause" But
granting the correctness of this hypoth-
esis. an instantaneous vanishing into
nothingness is not to be contemplated
without emotion by persons of regular
habits, for this would quite as seriously
disturb ordinary business as would the
passing away Of the heavens with a
great noise. Upon the whole, then,
devout believers in the old lady are
justified in taking comfort in the album
dantly-established fact that the famous
prophecy, ITO an end the world will
come in eighteen hundred and eighty
one," was never uttered by Mother
Shipton, but is an impious forgery
which nowhere appears in the teGtats re-
ceptxs of her forebodings.
And yet there are persons quite as
familiar with the future as Mother
Shipton and quite as competent to un-
roll the volume of destiny, who assert
that during this fatal year the skies
will be all ablaze with portents of evil.
The "Almanac of Zadkiel Tao SEE"
and the prophetic Messenger of Ra-
phael for 1897 are both works by rec
ognized authorities in astrological
science. Their prophecies, it is true,
traverse each other in minor details.
as. for instance, when a certain aspect
of the heavens is interpreted by one to
foretell a prevalent and suffocating dis
ease of the human windpipe, and by
the other to signify devastating tidal
wave; but they agree in predicting that
great many unpleasant things will
come to pass. The most mischievous
planetary influence will come from the
conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter.
This event is set down by the astrolo-
gers for April 18, which happens to be
four days ahead of time, and it is to be
hoped that this error will vitiate some
of their calculations. It takes place in
Taurus, near the cusp of the 9th house.
Now Taurus is a beastly and unhealthy
sign, and Raphael is probably correct
when he states that horned cattle will
be afflicted with murrain before man
kind is wasted by the plague. No one
will have the hardihood to question
Zadkiers assertion that "the Bull rules
Ireland" and therefore he holds that
this conjunction in Taurus presignifies
sedition and rioting in that island.
But Taurus rules Asia Minor as well.
and it is to be noted that the last great
conjunction in this sign, which happened
in 1l46. was followed by the blo0diest
of the crusades and a violent brandish-
ing of the shi!lelah. But this conjunc.
ton is only one of the threatening as
pect, of the skies. 1t will be quickly
followed by the conjunction of Jupiter
and Neptune; then Mars will Join Nep-
tune, and soon after Jupiter and Mars
will meet. All these conjunctions will
take place in Taurus and presage woes
untold. Besides this the four great
planets are rapidly approaching their
perihelia, and before the earth RECEIVERS
from the baneful effects of one, another
will be abstracting the vital principles
from our atmosphere. These nearly
coincident perihelia have not occurred
since the fourteenth century, when the
Black Death swept over Europe, culmi-
mating in the London plague.
Terrible as will be the results of the
intense planetary activity in the times
next ensuing, Zadkiel comforts the
world by the assurance that fore
knowledge OF these perils will greatly
mitigate them, as, for instance, the
prudent will remain on shore during the
days when shipwrecks are f0ret0ld, and
they will check the advance of Asiatic
cholera by prophylactic doses of spirits
of camphor. Raphaers forecast is more
np10 Tn fhn nfA
which will begin in February proximo
will accumulate in number and severity
as the planets sweep nearer to the sun,
until the world blows up like q steam
boiler, possibly in the spring of 1887. A
few Of the woes to come, proved at ran
dom from these neutrality-suspicious., are
added as a stimulant to the swearing
OFF, industry, which usually passes
through a period of depression immedi-
ately after the first day Of the year.
Blight, mildew. unkind seasons, insur-
rection, sunstrokes, brain-fevers, strikes
of railroad employees, the war tiend let
loose, robberies, crimes of violence,
agitation in the Stock Exchange, up
rising of islands and the subsistence Of
continents, the insanity of three dis
tinguished women, contiscation, lorna
does, want, famine, colliery explosions,
meteors, lightning, volcanic eruptions.
plaques, a driving storm of balls of
fire, increased business in the divorce
courts, separation of Church from State,
atheism, wife-beatiug, the air impure
and motionless, the sun lurid and OBJ
scure, birds refraining from song, beasts
grooming with anguish, and a feeling of
dread and dismay among the inhabit-