The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1882-12-01
MISCELLANEOUS.
A STRANGE PROPHECY.
by CARL RAYMOND.


This is a question we have never been
able to decide. Reason always tells
us no--facts sometimes answer yes.
We reason that no special and peculiar
event can be predicted with certainty
as to time and place, because it i'm
plies, through all the millions of
chances against its happening, that
this minute result was planned and
ordained long before the time for its
accomplishment had an existence and
not only 50 planned and ordained, but
that this knowledge of that special
future was conveyed to a finite or
limited mind. And this, if fact,
again implies that not only that event
was specially ordered, but that the
millions of apparent chances against
its happening were also ordered to
complete that trivial result. And
then, gong a step beyond this again,
it follows that if these millions of con.
tingencies were so arranged rs to pro
duce that event, other millions, W ith
the millions of multiplis OF millions,
were pre- e-arranged to force certain
result of each apparent contingency
so that, in summing up, we can have
no contingency at all, but only fore
ordaining of trifes from the beginning
of motion. This, it will be readily
perceived, destroys all idea of any
chance, or any free agency.
To bring this matter forcibly home
to the most obtuse perception, let us
consider simple illustration. General
able to understand. We know that
the general laws of mans being give
him three-score years and ten but we
find that what we call contingencies
cut off millions on millions before ar
irving at this age-while they carry
thousands beyond-the very fewest
number indeed ending exactly at the
given time of the supposed general
law. So if we take any thing else-a
tree for instance. We comprehend
the general law of its life, growth and
duration. Now suppose that tree,
with its infant stem yet sprouting from
the .earth in the midst of dark and
unexplored forest, be destined to perish
by the woodmans ak in exactly one
hundred and fifty-six years, three
months, thirteen days, ten hours. fifty
seven minutes, and three seconds, for
if the event is minutely ordained, the
time must also be as minutely,) it fol
lows that a man, also having a minute
destiny, must also be born, perhaps
more than hundred years later, and
it may be thousands of miles away,
who must, in spite of all apparent
chances to the contrary, be there at a
fixed second of his own eventful life,
to give the destructive blows. Can
any sound reason support such theory
as this
But then again, on the other side,
we have thousands of recorded facts,
which prove, with all the strength that
can be given to human testimony, that
predictions have been made, and veri
fed to the letter, respecting most un,
likely events; and that scenes in the
future have been so vividly and ac.
curately portrayed in the present. that
their subsequent fulflment has left
every contemplative mind staggered
under a weight of wonderous mys.
terry. We could cite numerous instan-
ces of this character which have either
come under our own personal obser
vation or that of some of our immedi
ate friends; but our present purpose is
to give an illustrative scene from his
tory, and leave the reader to his owl
reflections.
Gone dark, gloomy night, during
the Reign of Terror in France, thre,
roughly-d dressed men were picking the
way through the narrow, ill-lightet
streets of one of the poorer quarters o
Paris
81 have no faith in anything of th'
kind, said one
"Nether have l, responded one o
the others.
"Nor |, added the third.
Il believe only in the guillotine,
said the first speaker.
"That is the salvation of Franc
and ourselves, " returned the second.
"The only Savior to which W
should do homage, impiously rejoiu
ed the third,
"But this woman, they say, ha
done some very shrewd guessing, re
sumed the first speaker.
"MosL women have, " laughed tn
second.
"But she had better be careful wha
she guesses tonight, sternly adde
the third, "or she may find the short
est road to the scaffold "
"Bah! what shall we care for her ?
sneered the first speaker.
Nothing, Jean, of course, an
therefore she might as well die for tn
good of France, What say you, Ma,
imilian ?"
"That her low birth scarcely Ell
titles her to so much notice, answers
the second speaker. "We want tn
blood of aristocrats, not of the CON
mon people"
"Well, here we are" said the on
called Jean. "rhis is the Rue d
Tournon, and here we have numbe
five. Silence not word, to give he
any clue, She may know us but,
not, we shall try her guessing powers
AS he spoke he knocked at the doC
of what appeared to be a humb
dwelling, and almost Immediately
was opened by servant.
"We want to see Cheyenne Leno
mand," said the one called Jean, an
who seemed to be the principal pc
sonage of the three.
"Enter, Citoyens," replied the Sc
want, ushering them into small roor
plainly furnished, and fitted up som
what in the style of a respectable
brary, with few volumes upon sou
shelves on one side of the apartment
>. Scarcely had they seated themselv
when an inner door opened, and
: little fat, dumpy woman, with kee
1 blue eyes, and a round ruddy fac
about which clustered profusion
| curls, from a vulgar, tiaxen wig, e
i tered with an awkward courtesy, al
4 a uuick -spoken: