PEEPS INTO FUTURITY

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11122, 14 January 1899, Page 6

PEEPS INTO FUTURITY

KEMAKKABLTC PfiEDIOTIONS THAT HAVE BKEN FULFILLED. Ju t previous to the assassination of the Empress of Austria the Emperor was heard repeatedly to remark, 'I fear something awful is about to transpire. I wish the jubilee year were safely over.' This brings to mind (remarks a writer in the London Daily Mail ') other instances of forecasts fulfillod. Just over 30 years ago a visitor to Edinburgh was being shown over tbe High Court of Justiciary. Ho made some remark concerning the dock and its dntii-p, and in reply tho oflioial jookingly avid the visitor micht some day bo sentenced to be haugod in that very room. Tho sightseer was the notorious; Dr. Prltchard ; two yoara had baroJy passed when iv the dock bo had bo cloeoly inspected he was doomed to j death for poisoning his wife nnd molher-in-law. To many watchers of the political weather - cock the rapid riao of Mr Asquith to renown as a btatesman was short of miraculous ; to tho lute Homo Seoretary hioisolf, however, it was but ; the natural outcome of bio own resolve.

When a youth' at tbe City of London School he informed all and sundry that he meant to take high honors at Oxford, enter the Honse of Commons, end become an Influential member of the Cabinet. The Earl of Bqsebery, so It is historically recorded, while passing his boyish years at jiiton, foretold that in the coming years he wonld win the Derby and more important still, be Prime Minister. Both Lord Eosebery and Mr Asquith prophesied the thing they know. A gentleman conceived the Idea tbat be would only live a certain time, so he made a nice calculation of bis fortune, whioh he so apportioned as to last just the same period as he guessed his life would extend to. strangely enongb his calculations came correot to the letter, for be died punctually at the time he had previously reokoned ; he had so far exhausted his estate that, after his debts bad been discharged, a solitary pair of slipp.rs represented the entire property he left. His relations bnried him, and a representation of the slipper was carved on the tomb. To day in a churchyard at Amsterdam his grave may be seen, the only inscription on the tomb beinz two Flemish words, Effennyt'(l.e., 'Exactly'). The late Mr George Moore came to London from Cumberland a poor, friendloss, boy. He entered a great commercial house, and from the beginning he deolared he would eventfully marry his employer's daughter and beoome bis employer's partner. He accomplished both ambitions, became very wealthy, and a man of whom his generation might well be proud. When Warren Hastings was a lsd his great gtief was that his family had lost their parental estate at Dajlesford. and he was constantly heard to say, ' I will buy it back.' He grew up to make both history and famous name, and be died at Daylesford. AmoDg the many records of Harrow Sobool is that of a boy, the son of a poor, local tradesman in a very small way of business. His schoolfellows often taunted him about his family poverty. Their thoughtless jeers, although hurting his feelings, drew from the lad the retort, 'I Intand before I die to ride in a coach and four.' The years sped by, and lo and behold ! the poverty-stricken youngster of Harrow had developed Into Dr. Parr, the greatest scholar of his time, whose customary and favorite means of locomotion was a coach and four. The seventh child of tbe German Emperor and Empress Is a daughter, their other six ohildren being sons. The House of Honenzollern has a tradition that in one year three Emperors of that house will reign in Germany, the third will have sevon sons, and will bring rusn to tho nation, as well as the Empire to an end. This direful prophecy has tteen the .fullfillment of Us first part ; Whether the arrival of a seventh son will bring the calamities predicted the future will show.