The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-10-31

+ .
SON. Now and again during the latter
part OF the middle ages the same ex-
traordinary phenomenon was wit
messed, though in a lesser degree, and
ever since the modern revival of oc-
culttsn there have not been wanting
cratic prophets of the Jean Stofler
type
Years ago a Mr.. Baxter created a
sensation in England by his prediction
that the world would certainly come
| to an end in 1887. Thousands believed
in him and great was their surprise
when they discovered he was mis-
taken. Yet such is the credulity of
human nature that their faith in
him remained mistaken and, no mat
ter what year he selected as the final
one of the worlds existence, they ac-
cepted his prediction as gospel truth.
Able Dnpin's Prediction.
Equally bold. though doubtless not
as popular as Baxter, is the Able Du-
pin. cure of the village of Dion, in
France. and author of a book with the
Following extraordinary title: The
grand coup or universal cataclysm
will ravage the world between the 10Th
and 21st of September, 1896. according
to the scriptures. The prophecies of
the old and new testaments compare
with those of the, fathers and with the
secrets of La Salette, in which is fore
told the great war which will destroy
nine.-tenths of the human race, the
coming of antfchrist and his reign,
after which the church will triumph
over her enemies and the reign of
Christ begin on earth" The author
fixed September, 1896, as the time
when the great coup" as he called it.
would take place, but he added that if
1t did not take place then it would
;y,I,
The appearance of comets has fire.
quently given rise to similar predic-
tions. This was the case when the ia
nous comet of 1880 appeared. Whis-
ton ascribed the deluge to it's former
appearance, and such an excitement
did it cause among all classes of the
people that Bayle wrote treatise to
on these portents. Nine. De Levigne,
writing at the same time, said:
We have a comet Of enormous size.
Its tail is the most beautiful object
conceivable. Every person Of note is
alarmed and believes that heaven, in
terested in their fate, sends them a
warning in this comet. They say that
the courtiers Of Cardinal Mazarin, who
Is despaired Of by his physicians. be-
lieve this prodigy is in honor of his
passing away and tell him Of the terror
with which it has inspired them. He
had the sense to laugh at them and to
reply facetiously that the comet did
him too much honor
Scared by q Comet.
Camille Flammarion, the distin-
guished French astronomer, says on
the same subject: 'In this century
predictions concerning the end Of the
world have several times been assp-
ciated with comets. It was announced
that the comet of Biela. for example,
would intersect the worlds orbit on Oct
20, 1882, which did as predicted. There
was great excitement. Once more the
end of things was declared at hand.
Humanity was threatened. What was
going to happen? The orbit-that is
to say, the path of the earth-had
been commended with the earth itself.
The latter was not to reach that point
of its orbit traversed by the comet I'M
til November, 80, more than month
after the comets passage, and the lat
ter was at no time to be within 2o,000,-
600 leagues of us. Once more we got
off with a good fright"
I'm his entertaining book, La Fin du
Monde" Mr.. Flammarion gives a
graphic description of collision be-
tween the earth and a comet which is
to take place some time in the twenty
fifth century These two heavenly
bodies, the earth and the comet,'' he
writes, will meet like two trains
with resistless momentum, as If i'm
PEELED to mutual destruction by an in
satiable rage. But in the present in
stance the velocity of shock will be
S65 times greater than that of two ex-
press trains having each a speed Of
100 kilometers per hour."-New York
Herald.