Preparation for the End of the World

Preparation for the End of the World.—Some of the people of Birmingham, England, conceived recently that the end of the world was at hand, and adopted various queer means to mitigate the effects of the dreaded event. Old women went to their Bibles, and younger women to bed. Three women, failing to get the protection they sought from a policeman, clubbed their pennies to buy a Bible. Other persons, thinking that the world was to be set on fire by the collision of two stars, believed that it would be safest to avoid the streets. A story is told of an old nurse, on another occasion, who, imagining that a very heavy and dark thunder-storm meant the end of the world, went up-stairs and put on her best cap. In another thunder-storm, conveying a similar suggestion, a panic-stricken sufferer lamented that the parson was not at home. On the morning after a storm on the island of Sark, which nearly blew the house over, the old housekeeper addressed her master: "Eh! Mr. B——, did you hear the wind? Eh! I thought the day of judgment had come." "And what did you do?" the master asked. "Eh! Mr. B——, I got up and made myself a little cup o' tea."