Evening star., 1897-01-09

,-YMN1l their authors 4 took
=EH&N themselves, and the
A: creduiity of the pub
~ur lie which accepted
lP% their predictions for
~ M gospel truth, are all
ma .ers 70! snrewd comment.
In the possession of the writer is a large
and varied collection of old almanaes,
chiefly American, and extending back to
period far anterior to the revolution. They
are yellow with years, thumbed and dog
cared, veritaole mummies of the ephemeral
literature to which they belonged. The
hands that held and the eyes that scanned
them are dead and dust long since; but
these little brown pamphlets remain to
amuse collectors with the quaint conceits
and simple vanities of eur forebears
The word almanac" comes from the
Arabic .'Al Manah,' namely, 1.-The sun
dial" Friar Roger Bacon of gunpowder
fame would appear to have first used it in
his "Magnum Opus" Ammo Domini 1861. The
earliest printed almanac was that of the
astronomer and astrologer. Purbach, pub
lished at Vienna in 1857. Continuous cal
endar alinanacs were inaugurated by Engel
OF Vienna in 1881, and to Nostrodamus the
notorious magician, Is due the discredit
OF having introduced so-called ''prophe-
cies' as an essential part of these publica-
tlons. In England, until 1913. almanacs
were the monopoly of the Stationers Com
pany,. and miserable impostures they in
TaIia6ly T were. Which brings one to the
United States. their predecessors, the
North American Colonies" and the many
quaint and curious almanacs thereunto ap-
pertaining.
lished at Philadelphia in 1857 by William
Bradford. 1t long remained the most pop
ular work of it's kind Until in 1892 Benia-
min Franklin's famous Poor Richards AL
haO IN -
macy. Osher notable old almanacs of CO.
Ionial America and the United States were
Watson's Almanack of Connecticut: Roger
shernans Astronomical Diary and Alma
mack, printed at New London by r Green;
Nehemiah Strong's Allnanack of Hartford,
Conn; Beers Almanack, also of Hartford
the Connecticut Pocket Almanac
Roger Sherman's AlfnanncL.
1t may be of interest to glance through
one (by no means the Oldest or ouaintest,
of the quaint old ya4manaes. or alma
racks, now at the writer's elbow. It's
antique cover bears the following lengthy
inscriptions: IA
An Astronomical Diary, or an Almanack
tor ,e the me year of our Lord Christ, 1853 being
tLe ilfst after Bissextile or Leap Year; And
IN the Twenty-sixth year Of the Reign of
our most Gracious Sovereign King George
y. herein is contained the Lunatioiis
&C" sScnpIes, Mutual Afpects Of the Planets
pun, pun, moons Killing & Setting, Rifing, Set
tlng q Southing of the Seven Stars Time
OF High Water, Courts, Obfervable DAYS
spring s Tides Judgment Of the weather,
North & the Meridian Of New Iiendon in
Sonnecticuk. by Roger Sherman. New
1853" 0 ~ l. "reeh'
The almanac begins with calendar of
tne months each month being headed with
quotation, opposite or otherwise. "col-
lected outaof Mr.. Pope's Effays-' Eclipses
are duly 'prognosticated, and storms of
RAIN or snow are prophesied twelve months
on with cocksureness which the United
States weather bureau well might envy.
The quotation for August runs:
1rlttania Freeborn Sons. How happy
under a Georges mild and gentle sway.
a king whose Godlike mind is big with joy,
10 guard his subjects and their foes de-
1t must have required considerable
stretch of the imagination to ascr ribe TO
George II 'godlike mind The "almanack''
ends chow does history repeat itselfD with
an editorial upon the currency question,
which, 1t seems, was a subject of much
merry discussion in New Hampshire Rhode
Island and Connecticut Just then Roger
Sherman roundly condemns Rhode Island
ana New Hampshire for allowing their bills
OF credit to depreciate.
The Currency Question Even Then.
I'm the year 175G,'' he says, those bills
currently paffd at the rate of 81 shillings
old tenor, for an ounce of silver; but now
"a shillings Is the least sum that Span
ish dollar can be pure hased for which weighs
but about II pennyweight and an half at
which rate an ounce would cost 73s So
that the depreciation that has been since
1850 will ammount to f176.OOO old tenor up
on the whole of what has been in the hands
of the inhabitants of Connecticut. Is not
that large tribute to pay to those two
no benefit? Honestys the best policy!'''
Nehemiah Strong was by his own ac-
count. at least. an important parsonage.
He first published his 'Almanack' at
Gray in 1894, year which he describes
as from the creation 57i3, and the eigh-
teenth of American Independence" The
learned author is set down as IN. Strong,
late Protector of Mathematics and Natur-
al Phylofophy in Yale College," In 1893
Strong moved his "Almanack' to Hartford,
Conn.,, where Elisha Babcock became his
publisher He still remained late Profess
or of Yale College" Twenty years later
Gin 1870 Strong continued to be "late Pro-
fessor, etc." and to publish at Hartford.
The contents of his work are much the
same as those of Sherman's. One of the
quaint zodiacal charts of the human body
rude WOodcut-figureS on the first page.
The quotations over each month are from
a doggerel poem entitled The Monk and
the Jew and one is amused to recognize
therein the old joke of forcible conversion
and subsequent drowning th prevent re-
lapse, which is still doing duty in comic
song and vaudeville sketfh. lists OF courts
are mingled with anecdotesgand sprightly
verses-the latter satirizing ladies head
dress in church and tieatertib by the way
close the almanack fof 179th,e Strong grew
more staid in his issue, pf 17739.
Prophecies of Isben WA tson.. ~.
Eben watson's Register ana Almanac Of
Connecticut Q778 deals irb astrological
prophecy. Over the north Of June Watson
writes: America is governed by Mars.
Great Britain by Venus; this same Mars
and Venus have meeting this month In
the sign Gemini. but as Mars was never
subjugated to gunarchial power, It's to be
hoped he will brave It out and oppose every
female artif1ce to circumvent him."
The almanac gives a list Of the gallant
cfficcrs'' of Connecticut who had par
ticipated in the glorious campaign OF
1775.n aud among them one finds that