Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1885-01-08
A GLOOMY FORECAST.

For sixty. five years Raphael" the AS
trologer of the Nineteenth Century," has
published at London an almanac which
finds purchasers, apparently, by tens of
thousands. 1t is not as perilously prophet
ic as "Zadkiel's" publication nevertheless,
besides a number of useful and practical
features, it gives the buyer very good six
pence worth of mystical lore"-such as it
is. There is notably "Heroglyphic for the
Eventful Year 1885," accompanied by the
following verse:
Lo! there comes Year Of Fate,
Mark what wonders on it wait;
Aries weeps and Libra too,
Thousands will the Aspects rue;
Death mighty State will pain,
Armies press the fertile plain.
Oft the funeral knell will to
Oft the pealiug thunder roll,
Moparchs tremble, Nations mourn,
Oceans rage and Cities burn.
Gazing with Prophets eye,
Thus hath Raphael read the Ky.
THE voice oft Heavens" is stenographed
for each month 10 this almanac. Thus, IN
January the position Of Mars in trlne to
Uranus signifies much excitement in the
land, crime and sedition the position of Sat
urn lupllSS uduScl " SSuOoio hho p'cS1So vi
amusement, and the transit of Saturn in
Gemini will trouble London, the West of
England, the United States and Spain. Feb
ruary will see earthquakes, troubles in the
Church, massacres in Africa and cutlery ac-
cidents. For March the programme is the
defeat of Mr.. Gadstone's government, big
fire in London, bad trade in Spain, Portugal
and the United States, and earthquakes.
In April expect commercial stagnation, Irish
riots, the burning of a theatre, railway accl-
dents, deaths from bronchial diseases, dis
c .mfort to the Turks and French (also many
shocks of eartbquake) collisions on the high
seas, cardiac affections. Irish sedition auO
bank failures are to be looked for In May,
while in June there will be railway acc:-
dents, the destruction of school-house fy
elemental strife" storms and tornadoes in
the United States, and bad times for literary
men generally For July the fixtures ale
prison outrages, Spanish insurrectiol
and "bloodshed and anarchy to perftc-
tionn in South Africa. August will be
a sad month for railroads and steamship lines
and France, notwithstanding the presence of
three favorable planets in Virgo, will be affected
by cholera. September will be q month Of bowel
complaints street accidents upsettiDg of small
boats, the arousing of the angry passions OF the
French and many strange and sudden troubles
of an extraordinary and uncommon nature
October will be season of earthquakes, riots,
langushing trade, .shipwrecks hard times in
New York andspoltical deviltry in China, Aus
tr aud France. November presents an aspect
not any more cheerful, what with burglary
(Mercury being in square to Mars), infantiie NOR.
tality. accidents to railways, and those that
plough the deep" an increase Of pauperism, dan
gers in Now York and assorted cyclones. In De-
cember tho colonies will be upset Austria and
China will be in an unsatisfactory condition,
navigation will be unsafe, and the clergy and
Church will figure ILL.," Jupiter being In square
to Saturn. Altogether the outlook, taking one
consideration with another, Is by no means
pleasant one.