The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-03-28
weather. Prophets

Inc fafluro OF Wtgg1nS IS caicuiaeQ
to undermine popular confidence in
prophets of all sorts. but particularly
weather prophets. To be sure Wiggins
has risen to explain; but the expiana-
ton Is worse than the failure itself, and
increases the popular disappointment.
as it heaps failure upon failure. Thin
a. the storm was, the explanation Is
thinner. Alter Wigg ms had failed, it
was little cruel to inierv ew him, but
Wigg'ns was ready with his reasons.
He sa d The astronomical day begins
at noon on the meridian of London and
our day be rims at twelve o lock at
night ] overlooked this fact, SO that
the side o. the earth presented to the
planetary face was the oppos to to that
which. gave, did not notice my mis-
take unit. this evening, so the storm fell
on the Racific instead of the Atlantic"
1t will strike the unscientific and un-
prejudiced reader that it was a very
serious mistake in the calculations of q
man who was astronomer. astro'oger
and meteorologist combined to get the
wrong side of one planet turned towards
the sun when making predictions o. an
earth shaking storm Vennor fell into
obscurity for sma ler mistakes than
that, and it is safe to say we shall soon
hCai hO AhOtO VI w Nl-kAno. aO oAA6aA-
an prophet will sink farther out of sight
than the St Louis one, indeed. and de-
servedly, for q man who can't tel
whether he is on his feet or his head
when he is making predictions and gets
the whole world wrong end to is not to
be trusted with the weather. -
In the Wiggins prophecy, however.
there is a wheel within q wheel 1t
now appears that Virgins is about to
spring an almanac upon the public,
and his predictions for February 9 and
the one yet to be fulfilled in March are
only advertisements for the almanac
4 1t is one of the strange phases of the
human mind, perhaps we should say
one of the most conspicuous weaknesseS,
that it axes to almanacs, although al
manacs rom time immemorial have
been gay deceivers- Not one of III IN
could ever be trusted from adkier s
down to Josh Billings. The only one
th It ever told the exact truth was that
tifnmortali ed by Washington Irving in
the '.Sketch Book +" which had About
tn s-time-expect.w wet weather. or some
\ the page from the first to the last day
| of The month. And vet knowing its
absolute falsity. the human mind Graves
the almanac. No house is without it.
1t is da " insulted. and, though it may
| guess wron ninety nine times in hun
| dred. the hundredth guess is ha led
with as iubilant acclamat on as the one
sinner in a hundred. No amount OF
| failure undermines the popular faith
| in the almanac. The old reverence
for the astrologer and the prophet still
survives when the pred 'ctions are put
upon record in the almanac. When
Mother Shipton's direful vaticinatior
was printed it was universally believed,
and there are many people even TODAY
who believe that It all ca true in
1881. 1t is not so much the COMP er o.
the almanac as the almanac itself which
is regarded with the same eur osity and
awe that inspires the A Arican as he ap
proaches his etsh No per on IN New
England ever knew who was the rea
/ aVthor of the old Farmers Almanac
and yet an attack upon it verify or 8
doubt OF the absolute correctness of its
weather state ementssa even at this late
dav, would raise as e est storm o., in.
dignation in that section as would al
outrage commi tel against the grass
hopper,or Eaneuil Hall; We may ex
4 pc t that Wiggins will disappear. bu
Nigg ms almanac, like Vennor' s
though Vennor has pas ed out of sight
win Be widely sought for. There is nc
method of gett,n before the world sc
easy as that of the almana.. The pub
Usher who refused to ray Josh Billing
% 0 for his almanac has kicked him
ever since he heard that another pub
Usher took it and has paid j. B. S25, ,00'
in copyrights.
\ Fugitive prophecies for weathe
prophets have been irreirievsbly iniure,
| by Wig sins. Though he has fmploret
both he Dominion and the American
) Governments not to allow any vessel
to go, out on the date of his Marcl
storm they, will 60 all the same Blu
the weather-pIophets n ay yet live il
their almanacs. Even General HaZel
would be considered as more reliable !
he cal ulated his areas of low thermom
eter and barometer for year to com
and p inted them in an almanac. ant
he certainly would be spared from tn
searching criticisms which have beel
made upon his management of the Sig
nal Service.-Chicago Tribune.