The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1882-01-12
TILE END OF THE WORLD.


propecy, the world must come to an end.
Several of the weeklies have lately cir
culated, as matter of curiosity, the noted
verses popularly attributed to Mother
Shipton, really, no doubt, written as
burlesque or hoax long after her time,
which purport to foretell wars, revolu
tions, railroad travel, discoveries in cleo
trieity, and other modern occurrences,
and close with the assurance that the
world shall come to an end during the
present year. Mother Shipton lived in
the reigns of Henry VII. and VIII, and
won the greatest fame among English
cottagers and servants for her predic
tions. The story was current that she
had sold her soul to Satan, who had CIV
en- her in return the power of foretelling
the future, and people of both sexes,
old and young, rich and poor, focked to
her to learn events to come. IF the
verses lately resuscitated had been writ
ten by her or in her time, they would be
truly remarkable for their anticipation of
what has happened during century past.
There is no doubt, however that they are
of recent authorship.
How many of these predictions of the
worlds end there have been! Formerly,
they easily won wide spread credence;
some excited serious terror; latterly they
have done less mischief. Toward the
middle of the tenth century a fanatical
idea arose in Continental Europe that
the 1,000th year of our Lord would be
the last of the thousand years prescribed
by the Book of Revelation, and that the
Second Coming might be expected to
take place in that year at Jerusalem. An
immense multitude of persons during
A. D. 999 and 1000 abandoned their
houses to decay, sold their goods, and
set forth in desolating army Of pilgrims
toward Jerusalem. The great plague
which ravaged Europe between 1916 and
1850 gave rise to a general relief that the
elld of the world was at hand. In I736
Winston, noted phrophet, created great
excitement in London by the prediction
that the world would be destroyed on the
18th of October, and crowds Of people
forsook the city on that day and sought
places in the adjoining country from
which they might witness the destruction
of the metropolis, which WIS to be the
beginning of the general end Of all things.
In 1906 rumor spreading from vii
liage near Leeds, that hen was laying
eggs inscribed 'Christ is coming" con-
vinced the populace that the Day of
Judgment was near at hand, and most
pernicious excitement continued until
some intelligent gentlemen. investi
eating the facts, found that the eggs
| were indeed laid by hen, but that the
inscription was written upon them by
human fraud. The astronomical predic-
tons of the coming of the comet of 1882
gravely alarmed the public, especially in
Germany, lest the world should be de-
stroyed. Many readers will remember
the Milierite craze in New England,
caused by the announcement that the
world would end on April %, 1643.
What distinguishes the Shipton prop
hecy from its predecessors is It's absolute
truthfulness. It will be literally fulfill
ed. Your genuine artistic sooth saver
always expresses bis predictions in such
terms that they conform to the event,
which invariably reveals the latent pow
er OF the seer. The wit and wisdom Of
the augurs were thus manifested. For
example, when Pyrrhus asked the oracle
TO advise him as to a proposed campaign,
1t answered: "I say that Pyrrhus the
Romans shall conquer" Pyrrhus con.
structed this as an assurance of victory,
and advanced accordingly, but was van
quished; whereupon the wise men ex.
planned the true inward1ess of the oracle
to be: ''L say that the Romans shall
conquer Pyrrhus." The Shipton proph-
ecy displays the same admirable quality.
The doggerel closes with lines like these:
The world unto an end shall come,
In eighteen hundred and eighty-one
Absolutely, literally, beautifully true.
The world does come to an end in 1881.
To an end of ybat9 To an end of a vaar