The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1919-07-02
'AVIIARONIIPREDCTE.D|.I
BFMOTHER.SH|PTON

To those who doubt the wisdem Of
sophseIes and still believe in modern
nesromaney, recent events in aviation,
cuIniinatinE-1n the crossing of the At
laatic ocean. will seem to be. another
verihcation of the famous prophecy
Of Mother Shipton. supposed to have
been made. in the time OF the Tudors,
late in the fifteenth century, and part
Of which was:
CarriaRes- without horses shall go.
And accidents on the world With voc
In the tWinkling of an eye
WaterI shall YET more wonders do,
ThTouEh hills nan shall ride.
And no horse or ass be at his side.
Under water men shall walk.
Shall ride shall SlRcp, shall talk.
In the air men shall be seen,
In white, in black, IN green.
Prophecy Just Hoax.
Unfortunately, however, for the idol
worshipers, the Mother Shipton
s-nrophecy" was just a hoax to which
Charles Hindley confessed in 1873.
Richard Head wrote in 1884 a Life
and Death Of Mother Shipton,' in
which he endeavored to prove the ex-
istenee some two centuries previously
OF a teeress who, among other things,
had foretold the death OF Cardinal
WelSey. He did not succeed in eS-
tabIishing to the satisfaction Of later
investigators that she ever lived at
all. But the wonderful prophecy IN
question colIspses under the weight OF
Hindley's own story. Hindley re-
printed Heads book in 1862, and gar
bled II. The prophecy in question was
Hindley's, and not Mother Shipton's,
and was made in a spirit Of jest. He
no more laid claim to supernatural
gifts than would H. G. Wells.
Another of the bogus Mother Ship
ten prophecies menaced a village in
Somerset, England, with destruction
by earthquake and food in 1879, and
vas so widely believed that hundreds
OF families abandoned their homes on
the eve Of the expected disaster, while
spectators swarmed in from far
around to see the town destroyed.
Set Date for World Ead.
The willingness of some persons to
be humbugged. Notwithstanding ex-
perience. was shown by the fact that,
although the prophecy for 1879 failed
completely. the fraudulent lines sup
piled by Hindley-
And this world to an end shall come
Iur eighteen hundred and eighty-one
caused great alarm throughout Eng
land and even in other countries in
that year, and resulted in the moving
OF many thousands Of persons from
their homes into the fields. The
tendency Of the cFedulous to sever all
home ties on the supposed approach
Of the crack Of doom has never been
satisfactorily explained by the psy-
chologists.
Flying has fulfilled the last OF the
so-called prophecies OF the famous,
but probably non-existent, old witch,
except those TO which reference has
been made. ForecRsting the death OF
Wolsey. if, indeed, it was done at all,
ought not to have been difficult in the
troublous time in which Wolsey lived. |
some OF the. other prophecies" al
ready had come to pass when Hindley !
wrote his forgery Of Heads book.
had reached ., primitive
stage Of development half 4 century |
before Hindleys wrote. and no fewer
than fourteen submarines had been
patented in England prior to 172T !
Hindley was not even man OF imag-
nation. He was merely q practical |
joklF who fooled more credulous peo-
pie than any other man in his CEN |
fury.