The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1881-01-22
MOTHER sHIPTONISM.

IunC.' uOWn u INC HNH''
'Lg" is said, in sober gravity, to be in state
of mortal trepidation over lengthy article
which recently appeared in pretended scien-
tific journal, predicting the appearance OF
huge comet during the present year, which is
to fall into the sum- and by enormously adding
heat to that luminary, is to destroy all the
people IN the world, except possibly the few
who may be happily located IN the nelghbor-
hood of the two poles. The Chaldeans, as
trologers and soothsayers about the Naval
Observatory and Smithsonian Institute, have
been appealed to, but like their kin to whom
Belshazzar resorted, they are unable to offer
any satisfactory Interpretation beyond the eX-
preston of vague, general, irrevcrent and
highly unsatisfactory sort of belief that the
scare is tall dem nonsense"
Such we should say if the subject deserves
serious treatment at all, 1t unquestionably is.
The sun, according to the latest and most au-
thentic intelligence we have on the subject,
has been in existence upwards of several mil
lions of years, and infinite space, during all
that time, has been traversed according to our
best posted astronomers, by as many millions
of comets, dozens at least of which annually
make excursions within the circle of the
earths orbit yet there is nc record Of any
having ever been sucked in" by the sun or
come within many thousands of miles of meet
ing with such calamity. What never has
happened can't happen again." anyhow, where
the odds are so many millions to one against
a thing happening, It is always safe to take
the chances
But while it may thus be safe to dismiss as
absurd the comet scare over which all Wash
ington, from the Old Fraud down, is said to
be enjoying an ague fit, here comes another
band of the deluded who are shlvering over
prophecy of Mother Shipton This Is the old
lady who is said to have written book away
back IN the 18th century, in which not only
the great plague IN London, the decaptatlon
of Charles l. of England and poor Louis XVI
OF France, and the horrors of the French Revo
luton were toretold but by which, in the year
of grace 1880 and there along, it was predicted
that
Carriages without horses shall go,
And iron shall swim in the sea;
Through mountains men shall ride;
England shall at last admit Jew, etc.
And, worse and more of It," squirt was
taken across the water to the New World, the
war of the rebellion in the [. $. in 1S60-65
accurately foretold, and :hen, to cap all minor
calamities, 1t was foretold that
The world to an end shall come
In eighteen hundred and eghty-oHe.
Unhappily for this delusion, New York
antiquarian has taken the pains to investigate
the prophetic claims put forth for Mother
Shipton, and the result is their total demol-
ition According to his report in 1862 an en-
terprsing Englishman named Chas Hindley
republished the old woman's book, copy of
which is now IN the British museum. Find
ing that 1t contained little else besides non
sense and few predictions of local interest,
he conceived the happy idea of making the
new edition more interesting by judiciOus in
terpolatlon The lines first above quoted, and
others of similar sort, are Hlndley's, not Ship
tons; written twenty years ago, instead offour
huadred and fifty. The sharp trick was soon
detected and exposed, and Hlndley acknowl-
edged the fraud but neither exposure nor &C
acknowledgement lessened the sale of his book.
Those who have belleved-on their faith In
Mother Shlpton-the other prophecy about
"The world to an end shall come" etc.
Will be glad to learn that Hlndley 'cabbaged"
this particular prophecy from Prof Plassi
Smith and Philo Israel's Interpretation OF the
hieroglyphics IN the great pyramid of Egypt.
But lastly and most portentous of all, comes
troop of clergymen, mostly OF the Second
Advent" or Millerte variety, as well as that
large body of " orthodox clergymen who met
in New York year ago to revive and brush
up their faith IN "pre-millenial advent" and
cast In the prestige of their great names to add
weight and dignity to Mother Symptoms
prophecy. These are said to figure ont the
end of the world dead sure" to come IN 1881
in fulfllment Of the prophecies of Daniel and
the book of Revelations. The trouble with
these "vaticinators of evil" is, that they have
tried that dodge" already so often as to have
worn 1t threadbare. After scare of that sor,
about every year since 1S43 people grow cal
lous and cease TO "scare worth acent." A very
strong suspicion is getting abroad that these
people, who expound the prophecies of Daniel
and John of Patmos with so much assumed
confidence, really know very little about them
We believe, at all events, that the weight OF
opinion among the abest bbliologists OF late
years is quite decided, if not permanently set
tied, IN the conviction that no prophecy Of
Daniel was eyer intended to extend beyond
the end of the Asmonean priesthood-about5 81
years before Christ; and that no prophecy OF
hint in Revelations ever was intended to hav,