New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-01-01
THE ToIcE or THE STARS FoR 1882.


TIE fated year has come and gone, and the
! heavens have not rolled together like a scroll.
Nor has the universe been swept through by
tidal-wayes of elemental fire, making tenn
pestuous chaos of the Cosmos. This failure of
the final cOnhagration to come off as adver
tised ought not TO be set down to the disrredit
of modern astroOgy, for the most accomplished
star-rcaders of ancient times were in the habit
of using this as a staple prediction. 1t is a
proof indeed that the moderns follow the ira
dions of the golden age Of Chaldcan science,
and an astroiogcr would be marked as a hctcr-
odox and slendcrly equipped prophet if he was
not able to fOrctell the end of the world as
often as once "a year. And there never was a
year when 50 many pOrtcntOus signs blazed
lcgibly in the sky. Not to speak of the
flaming procession Of comets which have
strcamCd one after another into our sys-
TEN from the dark abysses of the North,
the three conjunc; of major planets in
the balefu and bes.Iy sign OF Taurus would
seem to have pres,gnifed the beginning Of
woes If not universal wreck and ruin. And
upon the whole it has been year of riot and
contempt for law among the elementary forces
of Nature. II began with devastating tempests
in Europe and overwhelming floods in the
West, and it closes with tOrnadOes chasing each
other across the Atlantic, a thousand lives
swallowed up the burning theatre at Vienna,
and pcsticnce threatening many portions Of
our own country. II has been marked by such
sweeping catastrOuAcs as the Michigan forest
fires and The great drouth. The pillars of the
earth have been shaken by carthquaIles-the
one at Scio costing nearly 5000 lives and
the foundations of social order have been
stirred by the assassination of "A Car ana
President, by wars in Asia, Africa and South
America, by scdition in IIoland and the He
brew persecution in the German Empire.
Altogether the bit Of ccsmic dust which we
iuhabit seems to have run a narrow chance
during the critical year we have Just escaped
from, and the aStroiogers are now inclined to
think that the world viii be in NO danger Of col
lapse, combustion or explosion for several AGES
to come. The almauacs point, however, to the
fact that during this year Uranus and Nep-
tune viii follow Jupiter III nearly yuchronous
pcrhclia. Saturn sweeps closely after and
therefore for two or three years to come the
earth viii suffer from such focusing of ma
lc1ic planetary influences as she has not cx-
pcuenced for several thousand years. The
prophets Ill agree that our planet VIII emerge
tliumrhantly from her cartous bclcacuci.ng
woes somewhere between the years 1855
and 1857; but their loreteiings for tho
immediate future are strangely in con
hict. Zad.cl Tao Sic warns everybody to
carry prophyactc horse-chcsmut in his
pocket against yellow fever black death
and some other highly colorcd diseases
hut he makes light of them, and seems to
think that horned cattle viii be the most Sc
nous sufferers from muuans of one sort or
another. To Professor Grimmcr the outlook is
more gloomy. lie ioresces showers of gore,
commissions IN The earth and sun, fumes OF