Years ago Mr. PUNCHINELLO had a very old grandfather, and he well
remembers that on the _inside_ of the lid of a certain horse-hair trunk,
the property of that estimable old man, was pasted a bit of poetical
prophecy, the words of which embedded themselves, like the hot letters
of a branding-iron, on the tender skin of Mr. PUNCHINELLO'S mind. The
following is the prophecy:
"Add seventy-four and 62,
And forty and 900 too;
Then, if to this sum you place
Seven hundred and an ace,
You will surely find the year
When they ought to disappear--
Both a Certain Holy 'un
And the last NAPOLEON.
And darkness will come wholly on
The Sun. Day, natheless, will glow
Down in the regions far below."
Now this is certainly a very astounding prophecy. If the numbers
mentioned at the beginning of the oracular ditty be added together
without using the ace, they make the year 1776. Now the value of an ace
in Seven-up (and seven is the uppermost word in the line in which our
ace occurs) is four. So four, added to the former sum, makes the year
1780. But even the first NAPOLEON had not made his appearance in this
year, and so it would seem there must be a mistake somewhere. But such
is not the case. If, after the manner of the regular prophecy-makers, we
treat this sum according to the rule of probabilities, we shall see
that, if "seventeen-eighty" will not work prophecy, we must reverse the
year and call it "eighteen-seventy." This hits the mark exactly, and
makes us tremble at the prophetic power of some of those old delvers in
the mines of dark prediction.
For now we see plainly that not only the Pope and the ex-Emperor of
France will probably disappear this year from the scenes of their glory,
but that the Sun, over which a certain dirty mistiness has been stealing
for some time past, will be entirely shrouded in the blackness of ruin.
The lines
"----Day, natheless, will glow
Down in the regions far below,"
doubtless refer to DANA the less, who, when his sheet is utterly
overwhelmed in its self-made oblivion, will deserve, and probably
obtain, all the brightness and warmth to which the verse refers.
Placing this astounding prediction by the side of the amazing events of
the present year, it is impossible for Mr. PUNCHINELLO to repress his
feelings of wonder and awe!
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