Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1917-09-12

Mother Shipton's Prophecy Hoax
Human beings are so credulous and
so anxious to believe in the strange
and magical that they are very ready
to accept alleged prophecies" as to
what the future is to bring forth.
Hundreds of persons are now claim
ing that they prophesied the war
but when you examine their prop
hecies" critically you will find in ev-
cry case that they were SO vague and
non-committal that they might be
construed as foretelling anything un-
der the sun.
Most of these pretended prophets"
are generally exposed and proved to
be either imposters or self-deceived
cranks... Every conceivable prop
hecy" has been made in connection
with the war. Many derive their
clues from the Scriptures, others
from the stars, others from strange
signs and omens-while still others
just make up their representations
out of whole cloth. But the falsity
of all these prophecies is proved well
enough by the fact that they all dis
agree with one another, like perJured
witnesses in a case in court.
The most notorious prophecy which
has ever become current is what Is
known as Mother Symptoms. Mother
Shipton was a historical character.
She lived in England in the reign Of
Henry VIII and it was claimed that
she foretold the death of Cardinal
Wolsey and many other eminent per-
sonages of those times. Probably she
was nothing more than a shrewd
Judge of cause and effect and train
ed reader of human character, and
that she took advantage of the child
like simplicity of the public in order
to feather her own nest. She is best
known by her prophecy in poetic form
as follows:
Carriages with out horses will go,
And accidents fill the world with
woe
Around the world thought will fly
In the twinkling of an eye.
Waters shall yet more wonders do,
Now strange, yet shall be true.
The world upside down shall be,
And gold be found at root of tree.
Through hills man shall ride,
And no horse nor ass be at his side.
Under water man shall walk,
! Shall ride, shall sleep, shall talk.
| In the air men shall be seen,
In white, in black, in green.
Iron in water shall float,
AS easy as a wooden boat.
Gold shall be found mid stone,
In a land that's now unknown.
Fire and water shall wonders do,
England shall at last admit Jew.
And this world to an end shall come
In eighteen hundred and eighty-one.
Millions of people, all over the
world have placed as much faith in
Mother Symptoms prophecy as they
would in their Bible. They have tri-
umphantly pointed to the various
things which are foretold in it there
and which have come to pass, and
they believe she must have been a
seer with supernatural powers of in
sight into the future.
"What fools these mortals be-" as
Puck exclaimed. Now let us see the
true history of this prophecy" of
Mother Shipton. In 1862 an Eng
| lishman named Charles Hendley pub
/ lished "life" of Mother Shipton. AS
a hoax he included in it a prophetic
poem of his own makeup, and this
! is the prophecy" that so many peo-
pie have been taken in by.
Hendley wrote the poem in 1862,
as he. afterwards frankly acknow-
lodged, but he pretended that it dated
back to 1885, when Mother Shipton
was still alive, and that she had writ
ten it. The whole thing can be in
vestigated by those who care to go to
the trouble, for in 1881 book called
Mother Shipton Investigated" was
published by w. H. Harrison in
London.