Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-03-18

public But if he is not s brute, remorse
will soon eat 10 his vitals, and he will repent
in sackcloih and ashes the sorrow he has
brought into many happy families. The
newgpspsrs 10 almost every section OF the
country report the victims made crazy by he
folly of this arrsnt humbug. Many timid
persona have been Frustrated with nervous
ness, many women have become insane
through fear, and although the time liked
for the storm passed a week sgo, new
cases Of insanity are still reported, occa-
stoned by the nervous shock. All these dire
calamities may compensate the brute by in
creasing The sale of his almanac, but the
money thus obtained will IN the end prove
NORWOOD and gall. The panic created
by Wiggins's prophecy reminds old citizens
OF the Miller panic, just forty years ago.
An old Baptist preacher in one OF the New
England States, by the name Of Miller, pre-
dicted and proved to the satisfaction OF his
acct, by the prophecies Of the Bible, that the
end of the world had come. The cousterna-
ton was awful, piliable. In the bray OF an
ass the Millerites heard the sound OF Ga
briefs traditionsry trumpet They prayed
with one eye open to watch for the angels
and the chariot that was coming for 'euo.
As they turned over their slap.jacks they ex-
pected to butter them 10 heaven. They had
trap-doors made in the roofs Of their housed,
dressed themselves in ascension robes.
and patiently waited for the tap Of the
drum as the signal TO go. The cater
waulipgs out on the yard fence CAUSED a
frantic rush for the convenient ascension
robes. Families chung together 90 that they
could keep company in the clouds, and lovers
stuck TO each other with all the tenacity
that poor folks stick to their rich kin. Hall
a dozen failures did not seem to Danish all
faith in the prophetic uttsrances Of the fraud
| Miller, who continued at regular intervals
to harrow up the FOULS of his deluded fol-
| lowers. Time exposed the cheat, the re-
action came and Miller was execrated aud
cursed to his grave. Thousands OF people
were made lunatics aud many happy house-
holds blasted by his teachings. Such hum
bug, as Miller and Virgins furnish s
lesson by which future generations should
profit. But the same old story will
be repeated. New chsrlatans will fprirg
up and new victims will be crszed. The
pleasure is as great in being cheated as ia
chelf, and there always will be hunbuggsry,
deception and fraud. There always hal
been. Rome had its Wiggluses and its
Millers who were used by astu'e and un'
scrupulous politicians as means OF quilting
the ignorant and carrying elections. Cicero
himself an sugur, said he did not believe
the Roman augurs could look each Other
in the face without laughing at their owr
predictions. But neither ancient nor modern
history furnishes any account Of people
as gullible as those OF the United Ststes. We
Taught at, and pity too, the superstitions oil
the negro race. We have 4 contempt for
their conjurers, their fetichisms, their faith
10 the good and evil spirits, witchcraft,
| charms, spells, omens, lucky and unlucky
days. But the negro with all his supersti-
tious never showed SIS much creduliiy as the
| white people Of the United States have ex-
hibted in permitting themselves to be hum
buged by Virgins. 1t ia to be hoped the
American people will never again p' rmit
themselves to be deluded by a fraud SO stu
pendous. Prophecies about the weather,
the predictions Of storms that are 10 destroy
The world, are not only prolific sources of in
sanity, but they are wicked, sacrilegious and
inpious. He who sends the spring with ita
singing birds and beautiful flowers, the sum
mer with its fructifyIng warmth, and au-
tumn with its golden harvests, also send', in
His own good time, the raia, the hail, the
sleet, the snow aud the storm, and the little
popiDjsy of Canada who undertakes to pre-
dict what He will do presently or remotely
becomes a blasphemer, as we'll as all who
encourage such profanity.