The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-09-03
ANOTHER PREpIcrER.


 we were old enough to read words of two syilabies we hay, been reading lu- cu5rations, predictions and theses about the final wind up of all mundane af- fairs. It has been slated to come many | times and in all imaginable ways. One tells us that we will all be burned; an- other that we are to freeze; still an- l other that we must starve. and so it goes. Many have predicted the time and manner of the end but they do not harmonise. Perhaps that is whs- none of them succeed.
 l But we now have a new one in the person of Professor Edward Scribner Stevens. and strange to say he doesn't come from the University of Chicago. | is unique, to say the least of 1t. To begin at the begiuaing. as it e we are to understand that this old earth of ourt when it first started to twirling around. had its poles fixed at right an- gles to the sun. and turned on it's axis just as a grindstone does. making tho days and nights of equal length all the 1 sition up to the time of the flood. When that great overflow took place it upset things generally. We have not read the professors article in full and do not know exactly how he accounts for the change. Whether there was 4an overplus of wa.er. and consequently of weight. on one side. or whether the | rth !, f+ happened. we are not fully informed. but from some cause the flood caused old earth to slip cog, as we might say, and get onto the angle with the sun, | which it has since maintained. In short, it has been off it's nut
 So much for the Stevens idea of present conditions. and then comes his | says the globe is gradually working itself back to it's original and normal position. but if that was all. there would be no cause for apprehension. If 1 it would take its time about it and go very slowly. it would, we might infer, l get back to its bearings without ere ating any disturbance, It would be I sons. and we would accustom ourselves to the change and go on without hurt. Things might seem a little strange to those who were here to witness it but no great catacylsm would result.
 1 But that Is not the program that Pro- lessor Stevens has outlined for the earth and its inhabitants. He argues | 41 will continue to increase. and that in about three-quartcrs of a century the poles will be near enough to jump the intervening space and then the earth will drop lack into its bearings with 8 shock that will upset things to such an extent that all of the cities of the earth will be destroyed. It will shake to pieces all the words of man and all humanity will go down to ruin ever lasting.
 That. we insist. is not @ pleasant prospect for the future, aud we are even now beginnig to feel sympathy for those who will be here when the final shake-up comes Some of us will prob ably not be here to feel 1t. but those ] for an interesting experience. And speaking of this dire prediction and it's author. The Portland oregonian says:
 The language of this prophet Is in keeping with the importance of his prediction. He states that earthquakes are caused whenever the velocity of the terraquous oblate snheroid which we inhabit becomes excessively accel- erated in it's paracentrtc devotion rom its accustomed orbit and the momen- mosphere increases in corresponding ration" This interesting diagnosis of thecase proves that even the business or predicting the end of the world has l shown vast improvement since Mother Shipton in crude. commonplace Eng llish, asserted that the world to an end \ will come in eighteen hundred and eighty-one.
 Mother Shipton in her prophecy would. of course, prevent Frank Daniels using them for a monologue, as would be pos . sible with those of the learned doctor, nrophecv taken as a whole, has points | of superiority over that of pr. stevens. Recall in particular her prediction that "earriagS without horses tb shaat os sS' Tbe Tbs horseless carriages are here. and they brought the accidents and woe rtgat along with them, cause and enect tray cling hand in hand m , Lnls %onqest er 1e st ra and rhyme properly adjusted, the oId Iadv went wrong on her dates. put she certainly made good on porlon or her prophecy; wnise s shan ba be obliged to pamain from Pennsylvania for nearly century, and by that time we VIII have lost interest.
 t.a aud