Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-03-04
Fall Mali Gazette

Gu ia lilo eyes VI iSuOrduG pc SOuS
who know nothing Of the difficulties
attendant on casting successful hor-
oscope. He cannot venture to pre-
dict that the destruction Of the world
is at hand, for no decent prophet can
De expected to court his own extinc-
tioA, and he is therefore in a manner
compelled to divulge only COMPARE
lively trivial things while he levels his
prophetic bombshells Fat more distant
ages. It is then in accordance with
professional etiquette that the modern
school has favored the world with no
very extraordinary predictions for the
year 1856, and its events might be left
to take their due course without any
anticipations of joys and sorrows
were it not for one darkly b0ding ut
terance committed to writing by an
ancient seer three centuries ago. The
seer was the great and mysterious
Nostradamus, and his prophecy runs
thus:
"Quand Georges Dieu crucifera,
Que Mare lie reSuscitera,
Eft que st. Jean portGra,
La tin du monde arriv0ra;''
and the Interpretation thereof is that
when Good friday falls on st. Georges
day, Easter on ST. Mary's day, the
end Of the world will be at hand. In
1886 the three celebrations In question
are timed to take place on the days
named, and the only conclusion is
that the same year will witness the
end Of all things connected with this
planet. It is a solemn thought and
one that requires more than the ordi-
nary pause allowed for an attempt at
realization, Yet it is one that is not
altogether new to this generation.
Without going back to the prophecies
Of similar import, which alarmed the
world in the eighteenth century, it
will be remembered that only five
years ago the fears of many were ar
ousad by the approach Of the time for
the fulfllment of Mother ShiptoEl S
last prediction-Mother ShiptOn who
had foretold the death of Cardinal
Woolsey and the erection of..the Crys-
tai Palace
And lastly the end of the world shall come
In eighteen hundred and eighty one.
Rut the end of the world came not
in 1881. The consequent relief of
mind was, however, of short duration
for the believers in the Deborah of
King Henry VIII. asserted that she
was too much OF a poetess to have
rhymed zone" "with oome," and that
the reading was:
And lastly the end of the world shall be
In eighteen hundred and eighty three.
Yet that year too, passed without
any appreciahle alteration in the
earth's rotundity. Believers are still
discovering CLOSES on the original
test:
ali mortal men will cross the Styx
In eighteen hundred and eighty-six.
The world will go On mosse to heaven
In eighteen hundren and eighty
or, again-
All living thing will meet with fate
In eighteen hundred and eighty eight.
But this is the utmost license that
can be allowed them, and
They'll really have to draw the line
In eighteen hundred and eighty nine.
That is, of course, supposing that
the prophecy of Nostradamus happens
not to come true. Whether this may
be reasonably expected to take place
seems to depend on the comparative
merits Of Nostradamus and Mother
Shipton. One thing, which in such a
matter is decidedly in the gentleman
prophets favor, is that the greater
part of his utterances are incompre-
hensible TO the vulgar mind. So
much is this the case that his irrever-
ent countrymen have proverb. Gas
good a prophet as Nostradamus,
which they apply to any one who
talks what In plain parlance is
nonsense. Again, Nostradamus
is supported by q tablet IN
Oberemmel, in Germany, bear
ing four lines of Latin which give
much the same sense as the quatrain
of the great French seer. The holy
days mentioned on it are not at all the
same as in the other, but in both
cases the chief point is the coinci-
dence Of st. Marks Day and Easter,
since if those two anniversaries fall
together the others referred to must of
necessity do SO likewise. This GER
tainly looks bad for the world and
gOOU IOf NOSEraualIAS. L Gu Ii 10 uOt
ali good for him. His prophecies are
of considerable length, and this much
can be made cut from them: that
they extend over a period Of seven
centuries. It is now only three CEN
turios since the seer left the scene of
his fame, and it follows that, if the
prediction about the end Of the world
be verified, and more than half of his
demonstrations will not only have
no fair chance, but positively no
chance at all. This every ore will
agree, would be most undesirable, not
to say unjust. Happily, however,
taere is a possibility that the world
and the prophecies may yet live long
together. In the year Of grace 1772
Easter fell as it falls IN 1886, and
Good Friday and Corpus Christi we're
also, in consequence, co incident with
the feasts of ST. George and John the
Baptist. There may have been some
special reason why fate was averted
that year; it certainly was, and there
is some consolation IN the hope that
what has happened once may happen
again. We must pray for the best
and com fort ourselves with the