The return of Halley’s Comet in this Year of Our Lord 1910 has already
called forth several memorable prophesies.
On January 20th the French astrologer and prophetess Madame de Thebes,
who predicted the disastrous French floods of this year, as well as the
coming of Inness’ unexpected Comet, uttered the following prophesies:
“This year, 1910, will be one to look back to with
trembling.
“The earth is under a terrific strain from Comets and
planetary revolutions. Human destiny is red. That
means blood. Political events are black. Terrible
changes are imminent.
“This winter, France will be swept by terrible
floods. Paris will be under water. The influence of
form changes in other planets and the coming of a
Comet will affect us for the worse.
“The strain of the stars will be most severely felt
in America. The people of America will have to pay
dearly for all their riches and sudden prosperity.
With the coming of another Comet disaster will
descend upon America.
“A financial crash is impending, to be followed by a
long string of suicides. Black ruling us, men will
commit all manner of crimes and knaveries for money.
“The times are swaying toward degeneration. We are
swinging within the evil influence of a strange
orbit. Our souls are jarred from their proper
bearings. I dare not say all that is revealed to me.
It would be too terrible.”
Soon after this prophesy was uttered came the first of such suicides.
Adam Toma, a wealthy landowner of Szozona, Hungary, cut his throat
because of the Comet. He left a note saying that the Comet was the
cause of his death.
Cardinal Gibbons later expressed his profound belief that the Paris
floods of this year were sent by God as a punishment to the Parisians
for their frivolities and sins, of which the Comet was a fiery warning.
Commenting on Madame de Thebes’ predictions and her connection of the
Comet of 1910 with this year’s spring-floods in France, Italy and
Germany, the French astronomer Henri Deslandres, late Director of the
Astronomical Observatory of Meudon and member of the French Academy of
Sciences, said:
“However distant Comets may be, it is not at all
impossible that their enormous tails, measuring
75,000,000 to 125,000,000 miles in length, may come
in contact with our atmosphere. The theory that
a Comet may disturb the atmosphere of the earth,
causing rains of great duration, and consequently
inundations and the sudden overflow of rivers, is
not at all absurd. It can be sustained by scientific
reasoning.”
It should be remembered here that Laplace, one of the greatest of all
astronomers, credited the deluge to a Comet.
Before Madame de Thebes’ ominous prophesy concerning Halley’s Comet and
its effects upon America were cabled over to this country, another,
no less dire prediction of financial disaster in the United States,
coincident with the appearance of Halley’s Comet, was made by W. E.
Corey, the President of the American Steel Trust.
[Illustration: THE COMET OF 1910, FROM A TELESCOPIC PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT
GREENWICH.]
Mr. Corey then warned his friends to “call in their money and get from
under” because a calamitous financial crash and general business ruin
would surely come during the Spring of 1910.
The most ominous of all prophesies connected with the coming of
Halley’s Comet this year was made by the venerable General Ballington
Booth, the head of the Salvation Army. Speaking in London, immediately
after Halley’s Comet had been located, early this year, General Booth
said:
“We are, this year, rapidly approaching the end of
all things, with similar results, but far surpassing
in horrors any disaster that has gone before.
“All things will be wound up. Besides a deluge of
water sweeping parts of the world and its inhabitants
there will be fierce destruction by fire.”