Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-10-31
WAS TT OMINOUS?
That Solar Eclipse in Column
bian Week.
PROF. TOTEM SEEMS TO THINK so.

Remarks Thereon by the Man Who Es-
says to Interpret Revelations-A Warn
ing to the World Which Has to Do
Principally with This Neck o'-woods-
An Appeal to Voters to Consult Their
Consciences for Once.
NEW HAVEN, Conn, Oct. 31.-Professor
Totten, the student of Revelation who has
written so much recently relating to the
end of the world, predicting that it should
come in very few years. is of the opinion
that the partial eclipse of the sun Oct. 20
was significant omen. He says: at was
not upon the first day of the new era, but
upon the last days of the old one that the
sun was darkened, and that is what to me
is so significant, although this was by no
means that which first directed my atten-
ton to the phenomena; it was the chrome
logical value of the eclipse that raises 1T TO
the in portance of that one which occurred
upon the battle Of Actium and marked the
beginning of the Augustinian era.
Complains of the Press.
Il am very thankful that ours did not
happen to fall on the 21st instead of the
Goth. But is it not passing strange that
the Ptolemic value of the eclipse Of the
Goth inst. was left for me to designate, see
u
with one consent pronounced the event of
no Importance and had forgotten that
the chronologist and historian can find a
scientific value where even an astronomer
may not find any. And should there not.
in view of facts like these be found some
journals in our land of freedom who are
fair enough and sufficiently fearless to treat
the case l represent with the dignity it
merits?
Is of luminous Significance.
But, aside from its unique scientific
value to the chronologist and historian,
this Columbian eclipse of Oct. 20. 1892, let
me 80 call it, has an ominous significance
to all who dwell upon the face of the earth,
and particularly to US of Manasseh, the
land of forgetfulness of all our tolls and ali
our fathers house. Let us look more
closely at the picture. 1t was gala day.
America was clothed in bunting; its red,
white, and blue streamers decked the land
from north to south and from east to west,
so that from heaven it might have looked
like one grand panorama of old glory. But
those that dwell on high and rule on earth
look down with keener eyes than mortals
can and see between the bars, and they can
see but little for approval.
What Does the Professor Mean
For land that has forgotten its tradi-
tons in a single century is certainly far on
the road to a crisis proportionate to the
degree of its forgetfulness And so it came
about that the fingers of hand appeared
upon the walls of heaven and wrote a
warning to the world in the sight of all the
assembled nations-the representatives of
none were missing. For, lol as the ten
mile pageant threaded the broad avenues
of Chicago and entered the exposition
grounds a bar sinister was drawn across
the scene and an uncanny heraldic mark
slurred our bright esCutcheon. Where were
our augurs thens And what had Daniel said
had such thing bestreaked the plains of
Shushan at festival like that?
Only Records the Facts.
think you for moment that heaven,
which hath recorded the number of your
very hairs, was ignorant of that eclipse
If so, We do deceive yourselves, for in the
very nature of things there can be no acct
dents. and certainly none like this. Ispeak
without superstition and am not an ar
trologist. ! do but record facts after the
event and read them. And facts that in
the elder day would have been seen as
ominous and their meaning have been
earnestly sought for at the altar of whatso-
ever faith they venerated most and this al
once. What a moment that to sing the
national anthem, 20! say, can you see what
they proudly when the nation was
young, at its dawn twilight gleamingl
And what an hour in which to Hail,
Columbia, happy land