New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-01-01


sulphur belching from volcanic ehasms, ships
rOtting on a Shiny ocean, raging pestilence, and
the uncoffned dead shovelled by mulGtudes
into trenches, The vaccination question, how
ever, will be finally settled in midsummer Of
1885, when prevailing fires will destroy every
disease germ, thus abolshing smallpox and
zymotic plaques in general, and leaving puri-
| fed earth surrounded by positive and health
full electricity in which human life will be pro-
longed and human happiness reach its flood
tide. All this is in harmony with the revela-
tons which are symbolizcd in that stone
miracle the Great Pyramid. According to
every trustworthy computation of tho pro-
phctic elements and measurements of this mar
vellOus structure. where tho entire sweep Of
human history is visibly portrayed and en-
blemed i'll imperishable rock the year 'S5 is to
be the dawn of the Millennium when the long
passage through those everlasting granite walls
once more will point straight to Alpha ORA
conis-agan on the meridian, but below the
POle-tO testify that the Old Serpent is put
down at last and forever
1t must be allowed that comprehensive
prophcsyings of this sort lack the elem ent Of
personal interest and the world longs for the
advent Of another bold astroogcr like Isaac
Bickerstaff, the contemporary of Jonathan
Swift, d. D. Even at this day it would be
hard to find any more delightful reading than
Mr.. Bickerstaif's Predictions for the year
"170S, wherein the month and day of the month
care set down, the persons named and the events
"Of the next year particularly related as they
"will come to pass No doubt Mr.. Partridge
the almanac maIler-the Zadkiel of his day
was astOunded when he read this specific
prophecy concerning himself 81 have con
"sulted the star of his nativity and find that |
che will infallibly die on the 2Jth of March |
" about 1 o'clock at night of a raging fever. |
" Therefore | advise him to consider OF it and |
settle his affairs in time" And when after
the day of doom had passed, and Partridge |
was gOaded to assert in print and with
some natural violence of language that |
he still lived Mr.. Bickerstaff turned upon
him with dignfed rebuke for his "scurrity
and passion" and advising him to consider
what would be thought in foreign universe
ties of such ungcnerOus behavior from one
man of science to another, proceeded to
prove by invincble demonstration that in spite
of the denial, and by the very terms of that
denial, he actually was dead, and did die
within half an hour at furthest of the
time foretOld. A fresh perusal of this
old prophecy and its sequel@ will con-
vince anyone that astrological science reached
its eliminating development in the time Of
Dean Swift. 1t is true that Zadkiel did predict
with some credtabIe circumstantIality that a
New York theatre would burn UP on Thurs
day evening of last week. But Mr.. Bickerstaff
would have named the theatre and the hour,
and made out a complete list of the killed
and wounded, and by this time he would have
been able to Overwhelm any sceptical victim
with a demonstration that he had been duly
incincr"ted as was fOredOOmed by the stars.
1t is but sorry and spiritless substitute for
engaging prophecies of this sort to be told
that the tempestuous terrOrs Of a universe in
it's death thrOes have been Indefinitely postponed.
And what does it profit after all to escape
from the wilderness of fire prepared by the
and theOOgian only to be frozen up
in the centuries of ice fOreOrdained by the
geOlogist and astronomer The rigid cOmputa-
tons of mathematical science mark out upon
the map the lines of perpetual cOngelation
which will be reached in the years to
come as the awful winter creeps down.
ward from the Pole Long before the
earth's orbit reaches its maximum eccen-
trcity our short hot summer will avail
but little to melt the spreading snow cap and
before Boston becomes the ultimate station for
Arctic exploring parties the earths centre of
gravity will shift toward the accumulated
weight of ice. and Antarctic continents will
once more emerge from southern seas to be
the theatre Of a new civilization. And in the
intense midwnter of this frozen aeon SUM
mcr tourists from some luxurious capital in
Falkland will be cooling themselves off in
front of the great continental glacier whose :
southern limit will cross the haf-submcre ed
sland Of Manhattan, OF hunting among the q
rocks of the terminal mOrane where once was
Central Park for blocks of marble and granite
from the Albany Capitol which have been !
carried down in the slow but relentless cur 1
'cnt of flowing lee. The winter solstice of
his secular glaciation will not be delayed a
rear beyond a. d. SCI, 0O3. This date it
would be well for astrologers and others to
Dear in mind, for it Is the beginning OF new
rope for OuI hemisphere.
n
An adopted daughter of the late Henry c. Carey {
ma written a tOuchirr letter stating Mr. Carcv,s ;