Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-05-19
BETTER BRACE UP.
The Worlds End Cometh Apace
Saith Totten.
AN ARTILLERY OFFICERS AUeURY

He Makes Chronological Discovery
That is Important if Correct-The
Earth To BE Wiped Out Before 1899
A Riddle in Esdras NathematicaIly
solved-Ihe Aw full Cycle So Close That
We Are Almost On the Danger Line
So, Brace Up.
NEW YORK, May I9-Erst Lieutenant
c. A. L Totten, Fourth artillery, United
States army, who is at present detailed as
military instructor in the Sheffield Sci
eutifc school at Yale, believes that the
end of the world is at hand, and that
Christ VIII reappear on earth before 1899.
his version OF a time and times and the
dividing OF time" he laid before the
Brooklyn Baptist union last night. "Be-
levers in the Bible who are also students
OF prophecy are unanimous that it is now
the time of the end, that the current de.
cade will see all things fulfilled. There
are dozens of time-prophecies in the Bible
and upon all of them the same moment
Gus date comes out. The one | shall give
you this evening l consider to be the most
remarkable messianic prophecy in exist
ence. 1t Is startling in every respect.
An Original Discovery.
1T is an entirely new and original dis
covery. On the 25ch of March was en-
gagged in revising matter having refer
euce TO the Jewish feast of Purm, its ab-
solute date and its actual bearing upon
certain ominCus chronological events in
our own neac future. That same day a
stranger wrote me an episrle from Chi
cage calling my attention to an odd
chronological riddle contained in the
book OF Edras, which we have been
taught to consider apocrypaal but which
has been regarded as canonical by many
jews, aud which many of the early
fathers recognized as INSPIRED. The riddle
he referred 10 VIII be found in the four
teenth chapter OF the fourth book OF Es-
dras verses lC-l2.
Plain Chronological Nut.
alt IS as follow; The world has lost
its youth aad the times begin to wax
old For the world Is divided into
twelve parts ten parts OF it are gone al
ready ana half OF tenth part, and there
remaineth that which i after half OF the
tenth part. Seven-siXtieth remain The
world was III its eleventh hour'
Here, then, was plain chron.
illogical nut, and nut worth cracking.
My correspondent was c. u. Dixon, @. Is :
LaSalle street, Chicago, aud Ms letter to
me was actutlly written on the Jewish
feast OF PuviGn itself for the 2Jth OF last
March was the first day OF this feast in
the current year, aud the solution OF the
riddle Is New Years Day OF the thirteenth
year Of Ahasuevus i530 A NJ. or 461 b. O..
the very year in which the Tents COM
Inemorated by the feast OF Pur,m actu-
ally took place
The Lieutenant Figures 1t Out.
Lieut.. Totten then proceeded to do
some elaborate figuring before bis audi
ence and showed automatically that the
eud of the world was near He con
Guided: The chronology involved In
/ this prophesy Is of the most astounding
Character. 1t strikes the ends of bot d
worlds, 80 to speak, or, to use an agtll,
lery expression, 1t Is ricochet. From
the momentous New Years Day upon
which Esdras received it, II moves
staight TO the mark Dec p, 1896 4. NJ. 4:
then, bounding forward, 1t buries itself in
I another var Just ahead OF u
only one Year of Grace.
To continue thu artillery illustration
( the Trajectory OF this awful cycle i so
| close above our heads at this very min
ute that we are almost IN it, daa-eyJu,
spac., and, believe, Will be there in an.
other year. But let it be clearly under
stood that this calculation Will afford no
man any legitimate clue for predicting
the day or hour or year Of the impending
second advent. But | also believe that il
| Is much nearer titan 1899
| cTu0ENTC 0ErEN0 natalie