The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-03-20

1tNNNNNNONN
weather prophet. In Queen Anne's time there
was an almanac maker named Partridge, who
foretold storms i'll March and December, showers
in April, hot weather In August, and frosts in
November-just as the prophets do now-and
made as loud boasts as if hit was made. Swift
became disguised at Patrdge's pretensions, and
determined to put him down. Walking around
London one day, he noticed over smiths shop
the sign, Isaac Blckerstaff" 1t struck his
fancy, and he stored it in his memory for future
use. In January, 170S, Partridge came out with
his almanac as usual A few weeks afterward
London was astOnished by the publication OF a
small sheet which purported to contain the pre-
dictions of Isaac Bickerstaff, astrologer. 1t
made profound sensation, and the sale was
great. Instead Ofthe vague and indefinite hints
of futurity which Partridge's almanac contained,
it foretold foreign and domestic events with the
greatest particularly, giving even the hour
of the day when deaths of famons
men, great Victories and defeats should
occur. But one statement created the most
talk; for at IL o'clock on the goth OF March it
was predicted that Partridge, the almanac
maker, would die Partridge himself stoutly de-
MED it's truth;' but it was of no use. On the
30th of March another pamphlet came out, Civ
ing a crcumstantia account of his death after
a sincere repentance of his sins and confession
of the worthlessness of his almanac. Every
body believed he was dead, and Partridge was
never able to convince the public that he was
still alive. IL broke up his business and in a
few years he really did die IL is a great pity
that another Swift is not alive now to denolsh
the pretenslons of such fellows as Virgins, Ven
nor, Hazen, and the balance of the charlatans.
THE readers of the Continent have been ont
ragged beyond measure by the of the word
Enigma" i'll the editorial department.. The out
rage has thus far been borne in silence, but it
seems that Judge 1ourgee has been driven by
the pangs of a guilty conscience TO attempt an
explanation and defense He says of his horri-
BILE word:
"To answer inquirers or directors at once we
will say that MiGma is Greek, and Is the same
sort of transportation that comma iGr Kouua)
when first used One of the beauties of the
English language. as of all English Institutions
is the with which 1t lends itself to lndiyid-
ual liberty and receives accessions from outside
be incorporated into the language as
part of our ordinary speech or
not, and we do not care. We sought
word to express certain definite idea and
could not readily find one in the language which
seemed to suit our purpose, and so adopted this.
We do not like the word editorial because il
seems too much like advertising-'Look ont now
the lion is going to roar Migma is designed to
include all sorts of topics and to he grave
gay, as the case may be. We wanted a heading
that would convey this idea but all the words
that occurred to us had either been pre-empted
by other Journals or had Significance we did
not like. Miscellany had been worn thread
bare, and besides has generally come to mean
selections from other pub ications. Mixture
smacks of the pharmacy. Medley has a ludi-
crous cast, and Sundrles' a mercantile tone. In
short every accepted English word and phrase
we could think of had a flavor We did not like, or
else it had been appropriated by Others. So, as
some forgotten worthy had borro we'd mixture
from the Latin, we thought we might, without
offense, borrow much prett1er word from the
Greek. Why has not Migma as good right to
recognition as have athousand other dictionary
words which are directly derived from the dead
lanGnages2 1t cannot be copyrighted, but it is
hereby pre- empted."