MOTHER SHIPTON’S PROPHECIES SAW INTO FUTURE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 80, 9 August 1950, Page 7

MOTHER SHIPTON’S PROPHECIES SAW INTO FUTURE

The prophecies of Old Mother Shipton (1486-1561) are resurrected periodically for the benefit of succeeding generations to show how most of our modern ways of life were forseen centuries ago. In the following version, taken from an Irish paper recently received in the Bay of Plenty, the latter parts bear the imprint of a hand much more modern' than that of Mother Shipton. Horseless Carriages Horseless carriages shall fly Over the earth and in the sky Faster than the speed of sound, Round the world and round and round,

Till there’s neither peace For saint or sinner, cursed or blest, Rich and poor shall all be one ' Till man and master both have none; Though few will have enough to eat, Favourite dogs shall sit at meat. Woman shall man’s right acquire, And ape his manners and attire; Women’s counsel shall be sought By knaves and fools at every court, Till minds of all men are bemused, The world bedevilled and confused; And women’s voices shall be raised In taverns where good ale wa? praised; And none who sit and drink their wallop Shall know the good wife from the trollop. x x x x Man shall hear what others say Twenty thousand miles away;

Men the eye hath never seen Shall move like ghosts upon a screen; And music good and music bad Shall fill the air and drive men mad East and West shall quarrel sore, And each shall threaten total war, Which, if started, shall not spare A man, a beast, a bird in air, Nor glowing bride with wedding ring, No woman, child, or living thing. If war should come this awful strife Shall be about a way of life. East And West One for East and one for West, But each shall think his own the best — One’s way his power to increase And one to chew his gum in peace; Yet if the world must end and heavens fall, There’ll be no way of life at all. x x x x If reason fails you’ve had it chum, In nineteen, hundred and umpty one.