OCR Text |
Show PR0PHECJE5f thathave ThefcastsoSeeo( OrlF A Of IF the 15Century bearing onlV ) rhl ::-E!h-dAn)enccm History fefJ Their relation to the w ?W5ir MWrfs tm-wky - Purely rmr fTj I"'' coronation of KiiiK l! (ieorKP V. of Kk- lain! lirlngs to in End a torles of peculiar prophecies rontuiuel In un old hut Utile known poem prophe- cies, sdiiih of which wouM appear on uu InveKllRHtlon to have proved oddly correct In rcpinl to certain events trannplrlnt; In American and Kng 1 1 Mil history, tiolh prior to and after the Revolution. Revolu-tion. The na in ii of Merlin Is fclven as tlio author of 'the mystic rhymes, which date back to the fifteenth fif-teenth century and run In couplets fraught with double ineaiiliiK, mid teeming to he tho work of Homo sooth-nayer sooth-nayer or ttudeiit of tho stars who foresaw, fore-saw, or fancied be foresaw. In the heavenly bodies strange portents of the dh.vs to come. The lines can be found In the works of Iieuii Swift, iditlon of lTt'a'i, pne 214, volume 3. They were also printed print-ed In the I'lilted Slates In Kcpti-inhcr, 178fl, three years after e;iee, w ith Knj; land hud liei ii declared, mid piihlihhed In a few foreign Journals; but the earliest ear-liest appearance of the poem was In an ancient KliRllsh work edited and produced In Imdon lu the year 1530. In complete form it rung as follows: "Whrn Mm !tHg Is m"-l nnd mild Tha frantic tnnttirr liall tnb her elilld. Whn Mm t'oi k n'mll woo tlm IViva Th Mother Khali n-ai the thlld to love, Winn men Wo" mol work urutcrKruund The IJon m. VlrKln tru ahull wuuml. W hen Mis t'ovo Mini tlm Cock I ho IJon (hall fight Th J.len ilinll crouch brnealh their mlsht When th CupH (til eimnj the K.ojlr'g nrit Ths Stiri ihnil rle-all In th Wit. When ahlpa ahove tlm clouds nlmll Bill Tha I.lnn'a atrrnifth ahull auruly full. W'lien NKptune'a twek with airlp.-a In red Tlia ah kly I. Ion ahull hide hla h. ad. When aoven Hnd alx ahull miiko hut one Tha I .Ion a mlaht ahull bo undona." appointing a 1 commission, of which Ilenja-mln Ilenja-mln Franklin was one, to visit the French at Quebec, Que-bec, nnd admit ad-mit of French courtship In the idd of the American Involution; Inv-olution; ami bow tha continentals con-tinentals In 1 7 7 fi dispatched dis-patched him to France, to further admit of the con illy attentions to briiiK iihout a wedding of In teres! s ; how-he how-he procured from t h e French kln; 2 ti , 0 0 0 , 0 0 ti f nines, t h e very money w hich m a d v further rebellion rebel-lion pOHHible. And at thU point Knglaiid realized, and for the first time, that tho uprising In the colonies was Indeed a very serious matter, mat-ter, and It provoked the Hrltlshers to learn of our flection for France to a point where "Tho mother the child did cease to love." ThA U rilnp whom the bugbear of probable Invasion Inva-sion by Germany is ever a matter ol anxiety. The laat four lines of the Seer's rhymed Intimation of coming disaster deserves consideration together: "Wlion Nrptnno'a hack with atrlpca la red Tho alckly I.lon ahull hMe hln henI. When aeven hivI alx ahull make Inn ons Tlm I.lon'a rnlKht ahull be undone." Possibly these four lines foretell terrible ter-rible battles c :i the sea, Neptune being be-ing the mythological god of the ocean, and prophesy a naval war In which the waters will be literally ablaze with the red stripes shooting from the cannons' mouths. Or reference may be had to the planet Neptune, instead of the sea god that heavenly body which of our planetary system Is the furthest away from the sun, being 2.74:.,908,n00 miles distant. Within the last few years astronomers have expressed the opinion that Neptune like Saturn, has red or bright belt i about It, end If the telescopes can be : made more powerful these "red . stripes" will be in view. Is It then that we may expect "The sickly lion , shall hide his head?" Or It may be that the last two linei . refer to the United States, or else . Indicate the death and numerical ties f Ignation of King Edward VII. In the I fiist Instance seven and six make 13, i the generally accepted symbol of tha - I'nlted States represented In the stripes of the flag. "When seven and six shall make but one" might stand tor the time when all the territories ( now under our flag shall all be admit ted to statehood, and all these new ' governments be represented on oui r national standard. j ' Or the lines might have direct refer ! ence to King Edward's death. Th j 1 seven and six may well Indicate Fng ! land's "Seventh Edward." or spelling J ' out the two words we have: S 1. E 2, , r V 3. E K. N 5. T 6, H 7: and E 1. I) 2. ! ' W 3, A 4. It 5. I) 6 -show Ing clearly ! the seven and six numerals forming 1 one king. I'pon his death "The (Eng llsh) IJon'a might shall be undone." j In connection w ith the final predle- j tlon It Is not too much to ssy that ; England has not for years been In such ! an unsettled state politically or called j ' upon to face so many perplexing prob- lems. ' Edward, seventh of the name, the' f Peacemaker, sleeps with bis fathers,, s and George V. mounts the throne of u his ancestors, while from all arts of ' the great empire people gather to dc " him homage. What of the futurt-' r Has the might of England pano 1 away with the life of her peacemaker " or Is one prophecy to prove fal-e " where so many other predictions mv by the mystic student of the stara In 1 the lout; ago have been fulfilled to th '" uttermost? tCorrrtfht. Hit. tr W. O. Chtm.m on the Chesapeake gave as his dying words the order, "iKin't give up the ihlp," but fate compelled his crew to . trike their colors. The Essex, the first American frigate to sail around Cape Horn Into the Pacific, found a Hrltlsh vessel waiting for her, and In the battle which ensued the enemy came off victorious. In the midst of these disasters the New Englanders were disregarding by a majority of votes what the national government at Washington decreed. They quietly and secretly published a most unsatisfactory unsatisfac-tory report that was supposed by many to have had Ps origin In an attempt at-tempt to break up tho federal power. The south and middle west were loyal loy-al to the federal edicts. Jackson's marvelous mar-velous victory at New Orleans, while possibly one of the most pronounced military successes In the history of civilized warfare, was achieved after peace had been declared, and hence cannot bo said to have had any benr lng on the ending of hostilities. Th-terms Th-terms of peace were hugely brought about through French Influence, as be cause of the military conditions ex lstlng between England and France the ltrltlsh found It Impolitic to fol low up the American ramimlgn. al though the war was In their favor Here, then. Is an apt Illustration ol how the French (the Cock) protected the Eagle's nest (America). So mud for the first line; the next Is espe dally prophetic: Tha utare anall rlae all In the Weal." Immediately after ne war of 1SH the stars began to ii'her In our flag anJ they all came from the west, foi It should be remembered that In thost days any country lying on the sun down side of the Alleghany mountain) was considered west. Hence the open In? up of the great western terrl tory with the Immediate admission o the new states brought forth th "rise of the stars all In the west" un t this day, when the flag has slnc 1812 seen 30 stars rise In the west "When ahlpa ahove tha rlnmla ahal! aat The IJon'a alrength ahall aurely fall." It requires no great stretch of Im agination to apply the above lines t( I i,e present era when aviators are th heroes of the hour, and long continue flights In airships have ceased to b a novelty. And one might take the "falling of the Hon s strength to re fer to the lessening of the PiUIrI navy's far famed rower when confront ed with the rossiblllty of attack b; enemies floating In the air. When i certain Frenchman not long ago cross ed the channel In an airship and land ed safely on Prltlsh soil, great wh thi alarm manifested tbroejctiout thi realm of King George. The event al moat caused a panic among those t Many diverse opinions are held as to tho ability of mere man to peer into the future, but without entering Into an argument on the subject, It Is at 'east Interesting ip ppte how curiously certain of the prophecies made by the dead and forgotten rhym-ster rhym-ster coincide with the march of actual act-ual events when submitted to the process proc-ess of deduction. We can take the first couplet as referring re-ferring to the history of America, and more particularly to the colonial period. The white settlers had planted plant-ed civilization, by means of lie Soto's sword, Champlaln's guns and the missionaries' mis-sionaries' prayers, deeply In the forest, for-est, and the Indians may be said to have become temporarily subdued through awe of these combined elements. ele-ments. The red man was subjected to meek and mild influences by the tact and religious examples of such men as Koger Williams and William I'enn, whose kindness Is a part of Indian tradition to this very day. Hence, "when the savage' (evidently the North American Indian) "Is meek and mild, the frantic mother" (meaning England) "shall stab her child' (the American colonies). When and how England enacted thli needs scant comment other than thai the courts of the colonies. Just prloi to the Revolution, used the sword ol Justice to destroy the rights of th American subjects of the crown. Al this point England actually and nol figuratively stabbed her children. When tha Cock ahall woo the Iove Tha mother ahall reuae the chilJ to love," Now, the cock for ages has beer emblematic of France, as the IJon bai of England, and the cartoonists ol early days Invariably dcHlgnated thi French "as proud as the cock." It France, victory at arms or civic trl urophs were always, as at the presto time, proclaimed by the display of th rooster. The dove referred to wai undoubtedly Intended for Columbia, ol the I'nlted States or colonies. Thi word Columbia means "Hnve llke" oi "Columbo." the original meaning o Columbus, the noun base of the prop r adjective Columbia, but accepted b; Americans as a proper noun. Our colonial history abounds will Illustrations as to how eagerly Frsno courted the good will of the Amerlcai colonies, and an equally emphatic tab In the drama Is the Jealousy of Eng land at the display of 'any colonla regard for the French government This second couplet Is ceper'ally wel Illustrated In the continental congresi pobbesses an heraldic sketch designed by Franklin while In Europe, actually actu-ally Indicating England's cruel though motherly treatment of her children, the thirteen colonies. Indicating Indicat-ing the French concern In the welfare wel-fare of these struggling dependencies a remarkable similarity to the lines under consideration. In theso heraldic her-aldic pictures Franklin represents the colonies as of the calm and peaceful animal kingdom, the crane and also the dove, In fact a committee delegated dele-gated to devise a signature for the United States, reported In 1712 "that the goddess of America (Columbia) have upon her dexter hand perched a dove argent (w hite)." While the elaborate elab-orate design was not accepted by the continental congress It Indicates that In these days the colonies were often 1 symbolized by a dove, lu fact, that peace-loving and mtndlng your own business was Anally accepted In the symbolism of the "olive branch." In the rlt;ht talon of the adopted eagle ' I also Indicated In the peace tincture of ' the American shield which according to law Is an argent (white or silvery) ' peace emblem, upon It blazoned six ' red strliws. 1 "When men Ilka molea work undernround I The l.lon a Virgin true ahall wound," During the last years of the Kevolu- tlon the continentals frequently at-' at-' tempted to make approaches to the camp and redoubts of the Hrltlsh by underground passages. This tunnel method was evidently a French suggestion, sug-gestion, sa It was a part of early ' French military tactics. The digging , In the ea'rth Is also well Illustrated In , the winter headquarters at Valley i Forge, where tho felling of trees to , establish their log cabins was slow . work; and when the cold winter set In many were the holes In the ground t that served as lodgings for the freex-t freex-t Ing troops. The line, "The IJon a , Virgin true shall wound." might be . taken as a reference to the terrible , massacres, expeditions of plunder and . destruction In Virginia, named the Vlr- gin colony In honor of Queen Eliza- beth. This country of the virgin was . Indeed wounded, for no other section of the country suffered such bloody j military attacks. It was estimated by , Jefferson that the raids of Penedlct , Arnold through Virginia coat the enormous sum of $15,000,000 In property, prop-erty, besides the thousands of lives j sacrificed under conditions of the moat frightful torture. ' "Wher tha rv'e and tha Cock tha Lloa 1 ahall fltht x Tha IJon alinll crouch bencnth their might." This could be accepted as referring to the united forces of the colonists (the Dove), and the French (the Cock), at the final engagement before Yorktown. This siege and battle resulted re-sulted In the American victory, and therefore the union of Americans and French resulted In the "IJon" being compelled to "crouch beneath their might." "When tha Cock ahall guard tha Kagle'a neat. Tha alara ahall rlaa all In tha Weat." Here we find an allusion to the subsequent sub-sequent history of the three nations American. French and English. When Independence was recognized, the symbol sym-bol of the I'nlted States appeared In the form of a bald engle, "The bird of freedom and Imperial poAcr." The second test of martial power between be-tween Aniertcan and England came In 1 S 1 2. and on both sea and land we suffered severe losses, the rapltol at Washington being destroyed by the enemy en-emy and the city Itself falling Into possession pos-session of the Prltlnh. Hut the shielding shield-ing attitude of France toward the eagle's nest (the young republic represented rep-resented by the American eagle) made It possible for the states to attain victory vic-tory from what the world had almost pronounced defeat. The New England Eng-land states were never In sympathy with the war, and. Indeed, an Interesting Interest-ing non national page, bordering on secessions! attitude, falls Into the history his-tory of the puritanic section of our country- The lnvaalon of Canada w as a decided failure. Hull's surrender has always been considered unsatisfactory unsatisfac-tory and totally unnecessary; he was court-martialed and sentenced to be shot: but his Revolutionary military record saved his life and he was par- j doned. The brave Captain Lawrence , |