King Electricity

1895

FARMER DUNN PREDICTS A REVOLUTION FOR EARTHLY FOLKS.

The Whole Atmosphere Soaked With Electricity — The Day Coming When It Will Supply Light, Heat and Motive Power. Coal a Curiosity.

Elias B. Dunn, the weather observer, has been studying atmospheric electricity. The sergeant, as they used to call him, the farmer, as they call him now, said that he will live to see the day when electricity, collected from the atmosphere and stored by some means which an Edison or a Tesla will have to devise will revolutionize the world.

The prophet expects that cities will be lighted and heated by atmospheric electricity; that railway trains and cars will be run, lighted and heated by it; that coal will become a curiosity; that steam heating will be granny talk to the children of the next generation; that the telegraph and telephone companies will lose their monopolies; that war will become a farce, because a touch of electricity will make the British grenadiers or the German Uhlans or the Scotch highlanders sit down on the cold ground powerless; that even the dreams of communication with the inhabitants of Mars will become realities, and that a man will be able to strike up electricity as he does a parlor match.

There will be no more trolley strikes, because there will be no more trolleys. Mankind will tap the atmosphere for almost every convenience or necessity, except food and clothing, and even the clothing will be woven and the food cooked by atmospheric electricity. Street cleaning will be as easy as the magician's "Presto, change!" and everybody will live comparatively happy ever after.

Mr. Dunn is sure that his ideas are practical and practicable. The atmosphere is his constant study, and having introduced general humidity to the public as the principal element in uncomfortable days he has determined that the most potent element for good in the air we breathe shall no longer be wasted.

"Why," he said, "The whole atmosphere is soaked with electricity. The earth, as is well known, is a storehouse of electricity. That it passes from the clouds to the earth we can see in every thunderstorm. Earth is a good conductor, especially damp earth, and water is the best conductor possible.

"Every person is possessed of body electricity. The vital force is all in the electrical power you contain in your body. When the day is damp, you become weakened through the loss of your bodily electricity, because the atmosphere is a greater conductor of the electrical fluid than your body, and consequently what is in your body will pass to this moist, damp air.

"That is the cause of that tired feeling. This passing of the electricity to the atmosphere enervates you to such a degree that a person in a naturally weak state will collapse or become much worse by the loss of this bodily electricity.

"The atmosphere being charged with electricity, and the earth being a storehouse for it, if there were some controllable method of storage devised by which you could draw off a moderate amount of electricity at will and keep that force on tap all the time, with an appliance by which power could be generated — and there is no reason why that can't be done — then atmospheric electricity would make all the wheels in the world go round.

"The coal barons would be done up," said Farmer Dunn savagely, thinking of the coal bill for his house in Brooklyn. "There would be no more need of coal. There ought to be enough electricity in the atmosphere to supply light and heat as well as to do all the work except the housework. I'm afraid it won't do away with the servant girl question, though it will modify it. I expect to live to see the day atmospheric electricity on tap. It will run everything on earth.

"It is well known that there is a greater number of deaths in the early morning, say from 1 a. m. to 4 a. m., than at any other time. Dickens was aware of that, but he didn't know the reason. You remember that poor old Peggotty, in 'David Copperfield,' went out with the tide. That's right. And it is in the early morning, that the daily ebb of the atmosphere occurs, when the daily atmospheric pressure is least. If at that time the atmosphere is in a state of saturation, very heavily charged with humidity, then the electric force leaves a person's body and flows to the atmosphere, greatly debilitating him when he is in a weakened condition. Now, should a person in that state be kept in extremely dry surroundings, so that he could be furnished with an adequate supply of artificial electricity and at the same time have the humidity reduced, there would be, in my opinion, a greater chance of prolonging life.

"If the doctors could provide means to supply in such circumstances artificial electricity instead of natural, it would probably be very beneficial. Just think of it! Here we are, spending millions of dollars to generate electricity, when it is all around us, and we are breathing it! Here's another thing: When a current of electricity is generated, where does it go? It can't die. It is somewhere. I should judge that it is simply adding to the amount of electricity in the atmosphere.

"It is natural to suppose that as long as the earth is given to us for useful purposes the atmosphere was not given for nothing. Of course it gives us health and breath, as the earth gives us what we eat, but since the atmosphere contains electricity, and we can use the earth as a power for carrying it, as is done by telegraph companies, why not use the electricity in the atmosphere?

"Once begin to use it, and there is no telling where it would end. War with atmospheric electricity as a factor would have to cease. The problem of signaling to Mars would be solved. With atmospheric electricity in control we could communicate with all the inhabited planets." — New York World.

The Curse of The Romanoffs

1895

Baron von Humboldt's Prophecy Regarding Nicholas of Russia.

James Russell Lowell used to tell this story to intimate friends. It was told him by John Lothrop Motley:

"In 1853, just before the Crimean war commenced, the venerable Baron von Humboldt came to London on a very important confidential mission. He called upon Lord Palmerston and said: 'I know a war is imminent between England at her allies on the one hand and Russia. If you will temporize, make diplomatic delays, do anything to gain time for a year or two, there will not need to be a war.'

" 'Why?' Palmerston asked.

"'Because Nicholas of Russia will die within two years. The fatal curse of the Romanoffs is on him. Do you not know that a great seeress told Peter the Great that no male member of the Romanoffs would ever live to see his sixty-fifth year?

" 'But Nicholas is not yet 50,' Palmerston announced.

" 'I wish to save an immense flow of human blood,' said old Humboldt solemnly. 'I know that the czar will die within two years.'

"Lord Palmerston was greatly impressed with Baron Humboldt's statements. But he could not hold his own hand then. France, in view of Louis Napoleon's ready recognition by Palmerston, and all Europe followed his lead, was then ready to take the field. So the Crimean war had to go on. But Nicholas of Russia died within four months of the two years' limit given him by Von Humboldt."

Leaving the prophecy out of the question, it is a fancy of history that the Russian czars have all died before 65. Alexander III's grandfather, the half insane Czar Paul, and the four heads of the Romanoffs before Nicholas all died before 50, and of the same disease that has been so deadly to Alexander III. Alexander I, at one time Napoleon's great ally, then his enemy, who so aided in the downfall of the French empire, died when he was 48 of "monomania bordering on insanity," says history. Metternich, the great Austrian premier of that date, bluntly declares he was insane.

The Grand Duke Constantine, who was really entitled to the Russian throne, waived his right in favor of Alexander I. He had sense enough to be aware that he was not mentally fit to rule such an empire as Russia. He died in his fifty-second year of what would now be called cerebrospinal meningitis.

The Grand Duke Michael was killed in his forty-eighth year by a fall from his horse while in a fit. He had shown signs of madness so often that it was a question whether it was safe for him to be at large. So goes the long but never ending record of the Romanoffs for two centuries.

Alexander III was personally a most kindly man and remarkably free from the grosser vices. He drank a little red wine sometimes, but no strong liquors, and he abhorred drunkenness, as did his father before him. — Washington Post.

Sees Commercial Use of Flying Craft Soon

1916

Aviator Says Aeroplanes Will Be Used for Express and Mail Service Within Few Years.

"I expect to see aeroplanes in daily commercial use within two or three years. They will be used for high-class express and mail service and there will be no trouble of these machines crossing the ocean."

This was the statement made by Art Smith, 22 years old, champion "loop-the-loop" aviator, who is in a Chicago hospital for treatment of a leg which he injured in an accident in Japan.

Smith said he would not fly again himself, but that he planned to become interested in a $5,000,000 plant for the manufacture of aeroplanes in Japan.

"I think some of the aeroplanes in military use in Europe now can fly across the Atlantic," said Smith. One of the latest Curtiss machines in the British army has three motors and measures ninety feet from tip to tip of its wings. It is equipped with boats and can travel on water."

Smith has had a romantic and brilliant career as an aviator. He built his own aeroplane in Fort Wayne, Ind., when 16 years old. It was in this machine that he flew with his sweetheart to Hillsdale and was married. It was the first aeroplane elopement.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 9.

Newark Soldier is Convinced By Gypsy War Will Soon End

Ohio and Alabama, 1917

One of the Newark boys at Camp Sheridan, Ala., writes a friend of a queer coincidence that happened him a few days ago. In company with a comrade they engaged a livery auto in Montgomery to show them points of interest, taking two lady friends with them as companions.

They were out in the country several miles when something happened to the machine and the chauffeur told them it would require about an hour to repair the same. The soldier boys and lady friends started on a little hike and walked about a mile and a half when they came across a gypsy camp and all had their fortunes told, the writer of the letter being last.

The soldier asked her numerous questions and finally said, "When will the war end?" "In latter November or December," replied the fortune teller. "How do you know?" inquired the soldier. "Just as I know that the driver of your auto is lying under his machine back in the road, dead," replied the gypsy.

They hurried back to where they had left their car, the young women almost hysterical and the soldiers doubtful. There was the chauffeur under the car and life was extinct, as foretold by the gypsy. An examination proved that he died from apoplexy.

The young Newark soldier vouches for the truth of the story and is now convinced, although never a believer that some people are gifted with second sight.

—The Newark Daily Advocate, Newark, Ohio, Nov. 10, 1917, p. 6.

Britisher Reads Stars and Sees New World War to Begin in June 1926

1919

There will be another world war beginning in June 1926, according to a writer in the British Journal of Astrology. This prophet, who signs himself "Sepharial," asks for a serious hearing, inasmuch as he claims to have published a year in advance in each case the exact date of the war of 1914 and of the cessation of hostilities.

"The first phase of the next war," he writes, "will begin with Turkey, whose perfidy will lead to its final overthrow in 1921-22. This time Prussian intrigue will dominate the position in the near East, affecting Greece, Turkey and Russia. But, according to my calculations, the great crisis will not be reached until June 1926.

"In this great way, which may be regarded as Prussia's counter to the war of 1914-18, the malevolent forces take their rise in Vienna and Berlin, ascend to Petrograd, penetrate through the whole of Russia and descend via the Black sea and Turkey in Asia, on to Syria and Palestine."

Another allied victory is predicted by Sepharial.

War in 1915 Predicted in 1760

1915

The following prophecies about the war are taken from a book printed in Turin in 1858 entitled "A Collection Of Some Remarkable Prophecies and Vaticinations."

A Swiss hermit who died in St. Gall in 1760 predicted there would be "famine, hunger, devastations and considerable mortality thruout Europe in 1915."

An anonymous French monk wrote toward the end of the eighteenth century that "in 1915 the Turks, Heretics, Schismatics, Catholics and Idolators of foreign nations will go against each other with anger and fury," adding:

"The first spark of the great war will start from the north. The war will last about two years and the armies of the enemies will not invade the apostate empire, but they will surround and wait until the rebels return to their duty. They (the rebels), however, will not make any act of submission or of repentance, but continue their excesses, so that all the powers of Europe will be allied against them."

This prediction ends with a description of Te Deums and thanksgiving services in all churches and temples "for the victory of the Allies."

General Grant Proved Poor Prophet

1915

General Grant showed himself a poor prophet in an autograph letter which was sold recently. He wrote the letter to his father from Camp Yates, near Springfield, Ill., where in May, 1861, he was drilling recruits.

"My opinion is that this war will be of short duration," he wrote. "A few decisive victories in some of the Southern ports will send the secession army howling and the leaders in the rebellion will flee the country."

The letter sold for $92.50.


Eating to Grow

A certain Columbus, Ohio, newspaper man is proud of the precocity of his 5-year-old niece. As typical of her mental agility as well as her capacity for humor, he tells the following:

"We were visiting recently at my brother's home. When dinner was called the child politely but firmly announced that she had no idea of dining and would remain away from the table.

" 'Why, Mildred, you must eat three full meals a day if you are ever to grow up and be a lady,' remarked my wife, who happens to be a woman of substantial proportions.

"Carefully surveying her gratuitous adviser, the little miss said: 'Auntie, do you eat four meals a day?' "

Pawnee Rock in Kansas

1900

Historic Indian Battle Spot Disappearing Year After Year

Nine miles northeast of Larned, Kansas, is a low, disintegrating pile of red sandstone, which is all that is now left of the once imposing Pawnee Rock.

This rock, which received its name from the tribe of Indians known as the Pawnees, has an interesting history — a history acquired during the time when this part of the country was a wild and dreary desert, inhabited only by the Indians and herds of roaming buffalo. On this rock have been waged many bloody conflicts between the Indians and travelers of the famous Santa Fe trail, and also between the different tribes of plains Indians. Surrounded by vast prairies with the trail running along its base, it afforded a good hiding place and battle ground for the savages.

In its primitive state Pawnee Rock rose to a considerable height, and from its summit a beautiful panorama spread before the lover of nature, and even now, from its reduced height, can be seen for miles a widespread landscape. Comparatively little remains to be seen of that once imposing promontory of the Kansas "desert," for the hand of man has done more in twenty years to efface it from the earth than the elements in centuries of time.

The material obtained by the destruction of this landmark of the early days, is used in the construction of dwellings, bridges, etc., by the inhabitants in the fertile valleys surrounding this spot.


Unlimited Possibilities

Chicago remarks that at her present rate of increase she will outstrip New York in population within twenty-five years. Wait till the census of 1930 and Chicago may be setting the pace for London itself. — Mexican Herald.

Author of "Flying Machine" Poem Sees First Airplane

Author of "Darius Green and His Flying Machine"

1910

John Townsend Trowbridge Wrote the Poem 40 Years Ago, and the Whole Country Laughed

Boston. — Among the thousands of persons who witnessed the recent aviation meet at Boston there was no more interesting spectator than John Townsend Trowbridge, author of the poem, "Darius Green and his Flying Machine," which made the whole country laugh 40 years ago.

Despite his advanced age, 83, Mr. Trowbridge journeyed from his home in Arlington, Mass., to this city in order to take his first look at a machine which had been his dream from boyhood — a machine which would fly. He was introduced to several of the aviators, among them Glen Curtiss, Grahame White, Wilbur White and others, and the old gentleman was immensely pleased to meet them.

When Mr. Trowbridge wrote about Darius Green, 40 years ago, no one of that time expected to see a flying machine that would fly. There were lots of machines that wouldn't, but the idea of usurping the realm of the birds carried something uncanny with it. The baleful results of experiments of those times were always looked upon, more or less, as deserved.

Speaking of the days of Darius Green, the poet says: "I never dreamed when I wrote that poem that such a thing as a flying machine was possible in my time. I never had the thought of actually seeing one. While I have never attempted to build one, I have followed the aeroplane development from the first, and it has always seemed to me that the greatest factor and the hardest to overcome would be the motive force.

"I have never known that there were such powerful motors, and motors so light, as they are now using. They were a revelation to me. I don't care to make any prophecies as to the future, but it seems to me that the large machine for carrying passengers is possible, and only a matter of time."

Wisecracks About the News

1911

That New York person who shot himself five times and failed to kill himself will probably die some day of the pip. You never can tell.

A Washington man has started suit for $300,000 for the loss of his wife. All of which leads us to remark that she must have been some wife.

"In the future," says Doctor Wiley, "the air will furnish heat, fuel and power." It might do so right now if some way to extract the coal from it could be found.

That Kansas City man, as we understand the case, did not want a divorce merely because his wife smoked, but on account of what she smoked.

Europe's wine shortage this year is said to be the greatest for a century. Still there will no doubt be enough for us who buy it only for medicinal purposes.

A writer in the New York Medical Journal says whisky is not a cure for snake bite, but kindly refrains from expressing an opinion as to its suitability for fish bait.

Bright Future for Beekeeping is Seen

1920

Enlarged American Consumption of Honey to Continue

If American beekeepers are able to meet increasing demand, the enlarged American consumption of honey will continue, says the annual report of the chief of the bureau of entomology, United States department of agriculture.

During the war our exports of honey to the allied countries increased at least ten times, and the domestic use also went much higher. The increased export demand has continued since the end of hostilities, and the bureau sees reason to expect that this market will continue to be an important factor in American beekeeping.

Local sales of honey near the points of production have increased more rapidly than sales in the larger markets, but this can readily be remedied, according to the report, by the further development of the business of bottling honey.

The tendency to collect the bees of the country in the hands of commercial beekeepers is viewed as a wholesome sign for the development of the industry. Prevalence of two destructive brood diseases, and especially the necessity of careful study of beekeeping problems in order to obtain maximum crops, make it almost impossible for the person having only a few colonies to give the care essential for good beekeeping. Only the man who makes beekeeping his chief work may expect to get proper returns, says the bureau.

Horseless Vehicles May Be Used By the Army

1896

War Horses of Steel

Cavalrymen to Be Mounted on Motor Cycles, Artillery Hauled Without Mules

Horseless vehicles will probably be used in our army before very long. General Miles is now studying the question, and later the army may purchase or have built a horseless vehicle to be tested at one of the posts.

Before many generations, it is predicted, battles will be fought by navies, so to speak, patrolling the land as well as the sea, in ironclad vessels. True, the horseless vehicle, as we now know it, cannot be depended upon to climb fences, run over steep rocks or such obstacles, but it is contended that with these machines in use will come good roads.

The value of movable forts was greatly appreciated in ancient warfare, but modern rapid movements in battle made them useless; but with these forts propelled by steam their utility becomes at once apparent. An armored fortress moved by a power from within, and containing a picked body of sharpshooters, could work havoc on an enemy.

The army wagon has always played an important part in the protection of small bodies of men attacked from ambush on the march. Where there is animal power exposed, however, that propelling force is soon exterminated with a single bullet. The horse is much more easily hit than the man. War statistics, including all the world's battles fought between 1800 and 1865, show that for every 100 cavalry or artillery soldiers killed there were 120 horses. But a traveling fort could not be destroyed nearly so quickly as a warship, for the reason that there no water to rush into the former. A hundred holes can be shot clear through it, and yet it will go on unless the vital machinery be broken.

The adoption of the horseless vehicle, as is contemplated, for the simple army train, may lead to the adoption of these armored land vessels some day. At each of its forty-one military posts our army employs two or more wagons. There are two styles of army wagons prescribed by the Quartermaster-General. The larger, the six-mile wagon, is for transporting army supplies to and from railroad stations on the frontier posts. The other, known as the escort wagon, is pulled by two or four mules. It is used in the more thickly settled regions for the same purpose, as well as for official errands.

These wagons have been used in the army since the war, with but little alteration. Both would be important factors of the army train in the event of war with a foreign Power. They are slow, but sure, as are the Government mules which draw them. But the Government mule will not long be use in these advanced days, when all the armies of the world are striving to solve the problem of rapid transit.

The movement is fast on foot to mount our regular soldiers, as well as militiamen, on bicycles. When these are in use marches of a hundred miles or more will be made in the light of one day. Forced ones of double length will easily be made in twenty-four hours. The bicycle needs but a little oil and is always ready. It is, therefore, apparent to progressive military men that with the advent of the bicycle must come the advent of the horseless carriage in the army provision train.

Another important bearing of the compact road motor upon modern warfare will be the possibility of hauling field cannon without the aid of horses. The field piece is the clumsiest of all instruments of warfare to manage during a retreat. For this reason alone cannon are so often deserted in the field to fall into the hands of the enemy.

When good roads make the horseless conveyance popular we will have to propel our cannon at a rapid rate, on the march, to keep up with the rapid pace of the bicycle cavalry and infantry, and the provision wagons propelled by the storage battery, naphtha, gasoline, petroleum and other motors.

It is said that a New Jersey inventor has prepared plans for an acetyline automobile carriage, soon to be built and run in Washington this winter. This promises to be a very cheap motor, employing the new gas renowned for its low rate of cost.

Developments in the lightness, compactness and power of motors will also probably permit air-ships to be made and utilized in war.

A striking vista of a great military engagement a century hence now begins to appear to the mind's eye. Imagine that a great foreign host is falling in upon us. Myriads of floating fortresses are guarding our shores from far out to sea. Our seacoasts are scattered with impenetrable fortifications built at every point which might prove tempting and beneficial to an enemy.

Our armor covered cavalry fly about the country upon their two-wheeled war horses of steel, propelled by powerful light motors. Rapid monitors patrol the continent, now netted with glazed highways, and flocks of warrior birds, driven by compact engines, soar above the enemy's fleets or forces, dropping death upon them, as did the fabulous rocs, the giant birds told of in the "Arabian Nights." — New York Herald.

Animals and Birds To Talk

1915

So Says Garner, Who Has Spent Years Studying Monkey Language

Los Angeles, Cal. — "There will come a day," says R. L. Garner, who tutored Maeterlinck in the ways of animals, "when all animal and bird life will become articulate. A dream? Cannot the bee teach us a higher communism — the quick, effective elimination of the unfit and shirker? Cannot the birds tell us their secret of flying? Would we not like to know why the oriole, the oven bird or castle building ant are so much better engineers than we?"

Garner says he thinks the gorilla and chimpanzee more civilized than man because they are more monogamous. He spent twenty-five years studying these animals in the Congo and after a vacation will return there. It is from the gorillas and chimpanzees, he says, that "will come the first twin cables from which scientists will hang a bridge on which man and his lesser brothers of the world will meet in oracular converse."


Scientist Whips Polecat

Then University Gives Professor Two Weeks' Leave

Berkeley, Cal. — T. C. Hine, professor of the chemistry department of the University of California, fought a hard battle with a polecat in the library of the university recently.

Victory perched on the crown of the savant after he had bombarded his antagonist with some of the choice volumes of the university library's modern literature and followed up this strategic move by tossing a hat box over the invader.

A quantity of chloroform poured through a tiny hole in the box stopped the polecat's activities.

The professor has been given a two weeks' leave of absence.

Uses of the Phonograph — Backmasking, Mashups Foretold In 1878

1878

Uses of the Phonograph.

For public uses we shall have galleries where phonograph sheets will be preserved as photographs and books now are. The utterances of great speakers and singers will there be kept for a thousand years. In these galleries spoken languages will be preserved from century to century, with all the peculiarities of pronunciation, dialect, or brogue. As we go now to see the stereopticon, we shall go to public halls to hear these treasures of speech and song brought out and reproduced as loud, or louder, than when first spoken or sung by the truly great ones of earth. Certainly, within a dozen years, some of the great singers will be induced to sing into the ear of the phonograph, and the electrotyped cylinders thence obtained will be put into the hand-organs of the streets, and we shall hear the actual voice of Christine Nilsson or Miss Cary ground out at every corner.

In public exhibitions, also, we shall have reproductions of the sounds of nature, and of noises familiar and unfamiliar. Nothing will be easier than to catch the sounds of the waves on the beach, the roar of Niagara, the discords of the streets, the noises of animals, the puffing and rush of the railroad train, the rolling of thunder, or even the tumult of a battle.

When popular airs are sung into the phonograph, and the notes are then reproduced in reverse order, very curious and beautiful musical effects are sometimes produced, having no apparent resemblance to those contained in their originals. The instrument may thus be used as a sort of musical kaleidoscope, by means of which an infinite variety of new combinations may be produced from the musical compositions now in existence.

The speaking phonograph, will, doubtless, be applied to bell-punches, clocks, complaint boxes in public conveyances and to toys of all kinds. It will supersede the short-hand writer in taking letters by dictation and in taking testimony before referees. Phonographic letters will be sent by mail, the foil being wound on paper cylinders of the size of a finger. It will recite poems in the voice of the author, and reproduce the speeches of celebrated orators. Dramas will be produced in which all the parts will be "well spoken — with good accent, and good discretion;" the original matrice being prepared on one machine provided with a rubber tube having several mouthpieces; and Madame Tussaud's figures will hereafter talk, as well as look like their great prototypes! — Scribner.

—Daily Star, Marion, OH, April 22, 1878, p. 2.

Prophet Predicting World's End Dec. 17 Says 'I Told You So'

1920

I TOLD YOU SO, PROPHET PORTA SAYS OF QUAKES

By United Press Leased Wire

San Francisco.—The violent earthquake shocks in Mexico last Saturday night were part of the seismic disturbances he predicted as a result of the conjunction of six planets on the same side of the sun, according to Professor Albert F. Porta. Porta was credited with predicting the end of the world on Dec. 17.

"The Mexican earthquakes and those which occurred in the Canary Islands, Jan. 1 to 3 are to be considered as the product of the 'league of planets' which I predicted last August," Porta said today. Porta claimed other of his prognostications would be verified within a few months.

—The Appleton Daily Post, Appleton, Wisconsin, January 8, 1920, page 5.

After World War I, Battle of the Sexes Predicted

1916
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WARFARE OF THE SEXES PREDICTED BY PROF. PHILLIPS

Says Clash Will Come After War and Will Be Epochal

CONFLICT TO BE BITTER

Will Equal in Severity Anything Known Since Days of Mythological Amazons - Independent Women Basis for Gloomy Forecast

London, Jan. 7.-Warfare between the sexes such as has been unknown since the days of the mythological Amazons, is predicted for England after the war by Prof. Marion Phillips, D. Sc.

Prof. Phillips bases this gloomy prediction upon the great mass of women who will be independent. A mighty commercial war is expected to follow the conflict of arms, in which unprecedented competition will be the chief factor.

The war has already opened numberless positions in the working world to women, and the contention is that they will fight against giving them up when peace is declared.

The prediction is made that suffragette militantism on an enormous scale will follow, and there will be bloodshed if attempts are made to force women back into the niche they formerly occupied.

The remedy suggested by Prof. Phillips is absolute equality:

The same work and the same wages for men and women; the same responsibilities and the same competitions.

"The scene which confronts us is a gloomy one," says Prof. Phillips. "A horde of men and women, many wasted by the hard work of these years of trial, trade depression, and a wave of poverty and exhaustion, are all held by the future years. Men will return from the war to find their places taken by women, and women will be displaced because work has ceased.

"In this scene are all the elements of sex warfare of a very terrible nature - sex warfare in which the male workers and the women dependent upon them are ranked against women who must work or die."

--The Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, New York, January 7, 1916, page 2.

The End of the World

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ARE AGAIN AWAITING END OF THE WORLD

Holy Rollers Certain That It Will Come on June 21.

Duxbury, Mass., April 15,-The end of the world is coming again, according to another vision of Eva Brown of Pawtucket, and hundreds of Triune Immersionists began a convention here to prepare for the expected event. This coming end of the world is to be "without fail."

June 21 is the date set by Miss Eva's vision for the world's finish. Eva announces that "something terrible is to happen on June 21."

The Triune Immersionists have been called Holy Rollers and "End of the World Leaders." But the first of these names is the one which they use themselves. It comes from the triple form of immersion, which is conducted at the conventions. Hundreds were immersed last year.

At that time many gave away their earthly goods and chattels and waited confidently for the termination of this earth. When the expected failed to happen the immersionists went over their calculations and ascertained that a mistake had occurred.

--Fitchburg Daily Sentinel, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, April 15, 1910, page 12.

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Eva Brown, a young woman associated with that eccentric religious body known as the Holy Rollers, predicted the end of the world for June 21st. Families among the faithful were disrupted, believers sold their property instead of giving it away, as logically they should have done, and others abandoned their business. Yet here we are still doing business at the old stand. The earth is speeding on in its orbit, and the eternal grind of human affairs is going on in the usual fashion. It would save some people a lot of trouble in the opinion of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, if they could take a course in the history of religious delusions. For 2,000 years prophets of terrestrial ruin have been fixing dates for the final wind-up; yet the catastrophe has never materialized.

--Olean Evening Times, Olean, New York, June 27, 1910, page 2.

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PAWTUCKET, R.I., June 17.-Pretty nineteen-year-old Eva Brown, prophetess of the sect known variously as "Latter Day Reigners," "Holy Rollers," "End of the World Leaders" and "Triune Immersionists," whose prophecy of the end of the world caused many members to dispose of their property and migrate to Duxbury, Mass., last fall, to await the termination of the earth, has the faithful again in a turmoil over her prediction that something awful is going to happen to this mundane sphere on June 21.

As a result a thousand or more members of the faith are preparing to hold another convention at Duxbury. Miss Brown does not say whether the "something terrible will be the actual end of the world, a heavy frost in the tropics, or the appearance of a mouse in church at prayer meeting.

When the expected failed to happen the other time the Immersionists went over their calculations carefully and ascertained that a mistake had been made. Miss Brown has announced in advance that there will be no mistake this time.

--The Racine Daily Journal, Racine, Wisconsin, June 18, 1910, page 7. (The grainy picture above is from this source.)

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PREPARING AGAIN FOR END OF WORLD

Holy Rollers Take Miss Eva's Advice; Scheduled For June

Duxbury, Mass., April 15.-The end of the world is coming again, according to another vision of Eva Brown of Pawtucket, and hundreds of Triune Immersionists began a convention here to prepare for the expected event This coming of the end of the world "is to be without fail" June 21 is the date set by Miss Eva's vision for the world's finish. Eva announces that "something terrible is to happen on June 21."

"On June 21 the sun leaves Aries and enters Cancer," she said. "This signifies some unusual development, the exact nature I do not care to say. What will happen on June 21 will be of special significance to everybody on this earth."

The Triune Immersionists have been called Holy Rollers and "End of the World Leaders," but the first of these names is the one which they use themselves.

Hundreds gave away their earthly goods and chattels and waited confidently for the termination of the earth last year. When the expected failed to happen the Immersionists went over their calculations carefully and ascertained that a mistake had occurred.

--Indiana Evening Gazette, Indiana, Pennsylvania, April 15, 1910, page 4.

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Anticipating the end of the world on June 21st more than 400 religious enthusiasts at Duxbury, Mass., have worked themselves up to a state of frenzy. They eat but two meals a day and drink hot water for a beverage.

--Olean Evening Times, Olean, New York, April 19, 1910, page 2.

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WORLD ENDS TOMORROW

At Least That Is the Prediction of Holy Rollers' Prophetess

Duxbury, Mass., April 18.-By the courtesy of Prophetess Eva Brown, the Holy Rollers learned that the end of the world will come at 15 minutes before noon on Tuesday, April 19. To prepare for the end, sixteen converts waded out into the frigid water of the mill pond at Ashdod Sunday and were forced beneath the water in the triple baptism of the tri-immersionists, while a rejoicing multitude; stood upon the bank and sang.

Men and women of 55 went through the ordeal, as well as girls from 18 to 25 years of age, 15-year-old boys and one little girl only 8 years old.

--Fitchburg Daily Sentinel, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, April 18, 1910, page 9.

Comment: The above article may have misunderstood what date Eva Brown meant.

There's an article at this link that says:

Three hundred Triune Immersionists, defeated in their hopes of the end of the world, are now sadly plodding back from West Duxbury, Mass., to the homes they left shortly ago, some as far away as Virginia, to pick up again the thread of the earthly life they thought they had laid down forever. Not only that. Many of them are going back to face scenes of desolation and destitution. Believing the usefulness of worldly goods outlived, they gave up their jobs, abandoned their businesses, sold their property and donated all they had to the church.

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Comment: And from an entirely different point of view:

END OF THE WORLD IN THREE YEARS

Paris, Feb. 1.- A coterie of scientists have practically pronounced a death sentence on the, earth, and the time of execution is fixed for the year 1912. The scientists are chiefly French who are responsible for this latest sensation in the way of predictions of the "important-if-true" kind. They say the sun will be at a low ebb of activity in the year 1912 and that there will be a hardening of the earth's elastic crust. The vast masses of hot material comprising the earth's interior will have to throw off their pent up, squeezed up energies. There will be explosions, volcanoes, earthquakes. eruptions. The whole planet may be rent and torn as the moon was when it lost its life.

--Olean Evening Times, Olean, New York, February 1, 1909, page 1.