The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1881-01-06

The world to an end shall come
In eighteen hundred and eighty-one

A4eS@->~s
The world to an end shall come
In eighteen hundred and eighty-one
Mother Shtpton's Prophecy.
II would be difficult to describe all the sin
lister predictions that have, as by common
consent. been concentrated upon the coming
wear. The soothsayers. diviners. oracle makers,
astrologers, and wizards seem to have combln-
ed to cast their spell upon it. Superstitious
people of every sort, and some WHO are not
willing to admit that they are superstitious.
l'regard the year 1881 with more or less anxi-
Gus expectation and dread. As the earth, on
New Years Day, swings out into another
round about the sun, it will 60 to meet a host
of evil omens 1t will go cursed by theomancy
and bibliomancy Aeromancy and meteoro-
nancy will glare at it from comets and shoot
ing stars. Oneiromancy will intercept its path
with visions of evil, and nOmancy will shake
the ominous, Mountaineering numerals
"1S81p before it. 1t will be beset with scare
crow figures by arithnancy, and with mena-
cling phrases by stichmancy. Yet there is no
reason why persons of good digestion should
| not 90 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 peris of Its five-hundred- mil
| lion-mile flight round to the starting point
again.
Timid persons first began to look forward
with some alarm to the year that is about to
open, whcn severa! years ago, the key to the
so-called prophetic symbolism of the Great
| Pyramid of Egypt was made public, backed
| nv the name and reputation of the British as
tronomer, Piazzi Smyth Others, using Mr..
Smyth's observations and measurements, have
gone much further than he did in drawing
startling differences but no one can read his
| - EN-
must affect those who have the slightest learn
ing toward superstition or credulity. Besides
this record ofexplorations and experiences in
the heart of Egypt's greatest marvel has all
! the charm and interest of DR.. Settlements
descriptions of his discoveries in Homer's
Troy. Such book could not well be neglect
ed by the world of readers and by the nature
of the human mind, MANY of it's readers were
sure to be imbued with its ominous dogmas. So
the belief or at least the suspicion, spread that
| the secret chambers of the Great Pyramid, un-
der Divine guidance by the most mystical
character in all history, Melcbisedek, hlng OF
Salem, foretell, among Other things, that the
Christian era will end ip 1881:
| Mother Symptoms so-called prophecy nxes
upon the same date for the end OF the world.
The ominous jiagle at her rhymes has proDa-
bly, at least % much to disturb the equanlmlty
of credulous persons as the more elaborate
vaticinatiens OF the pyramid interpreters
Moreover, Mother Slllpton is represented as
toreteling that in the latter days England Will
accept Jew AS England mas, WIN con-
siderable emphasis, ana more tnan once ac-
cepted the remarkable son OF old Isaac Disrae-
Ii for her Frime Minister, this mas Deen taken
as fulhlment OF the prophecy. 30 Lord
Besconsfield's dramatic personality is mace
principal figure In the murky cloud OF EVIL
prophecy that hangs over 1851.
AS it the evil eye OF Mother symptom ana the
mystical menace OF the Great Pyramid were
not enough for one poor tWeive-month to
bear, the horrors OF the perihelia." have been
denounced upon the coming year. ABOUT TWO
years ago certain pamphlets were circulated
about the country, purportlng to be written by
men OF science, and predicting that awful con-
sequences to mankind would result from all
the great planets reaching their perihelia, or
nearest points to the sun, together. According
to these prophets the sinister effects OF the
perihe.-e. were to begin making their appear
ance this fall, when Jupiter passed his peri
helion, 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 as
the continents, until it reached the Pacific
Ocean. The narrow Atlantic was to be no
more than brooklet in the path of this terri
BILE harvester. Plaques, famines, pestilence,
fire, earthquakes floods and tornadoes were to
manned, like Noah and his family, to repeople
the earth with sturder and more God fear
ing race.
So much alarm was caused by this hocus-
pocus of pretended science and prophecy, that
some real men of science-Nr. Proctor among
others-were at the pains to show that so far
as these predictions protested to rest upon
scientific facts they were baseless. The great
planets will not al be in perihelion in 1881,
-..r, II
at any time. 1t is true that several Of the
| chief planets will reach their perihelia within
few wears. and that it is rare for them to be
grouped SO close together as they will be at
one time next wear. 1t is also true that re-
| narkabie condolences have been observed he
tween the existence of great storms on the sun.
| that produce electrical disturbances and poss
bly meteorological changes upon the earth and
F., the presence of ,Jupiter near his periheion.
Astronomers 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 believe that
the combined forces of all the planets could,
under any circumstances. produce upon the
earth thousandth part of the evil effect as
cribed to them by the astrologers, if indeed
they produce any evil effect whatever -. -.
| Still the astrological almanacs for next year
are repeating substantially the same predic-
lions Of evil things to begin, if MOTTO eliminate
| in 1881. Because, as they say, the ravages of
the Black Death in the middle ages followed
the nearly coincident perihelia Of four great
planets, they predict similar consequences
| from the CONFORMATION Of the planets now.
But neither in their premises nor their infer
| ences does science recognize any validity.
In truth, however, the astrologers, not less
than the astronomers and all star gszers, will
have plenty of phenomena in the heavens to
occupy their attention for the next twelve