Ernest S. Green and his war predictions

Forgotten prophet: Ernest S. Green and his war predictions
– August 19-22, 2010

Recently I have begun the lengthy but thoroughly absorbing task of preparing a complete listing of the contents of every issue of every astrological periodical I have been able to collect to date, which will eventually (touch wood) be posted on my forthcoming website for open reference.

My current work-in-progress is on the journal ‘Star of the Magi’, edited by News E. Wood, which ran for just over four years from November 1899 to December 1903. I was extremely fortunate to purchase the complete run some years ago. It was a bit of a gamble since the journal did not feature in the periodicals section of Gardner’s ‘Catalogue Raisonné… Astrological Books’ (a.k.a. Bibliotheca Astrologica) at all, causing me initially to doubt the extent of its astrological contents.

In fact the early issues have no astrology in them at all; but in July 1900 the American astrologer Ernest S. Green (another pioneer to have sadly slipped through the fingers of James Holden and Robert Hughes in their researches towards their otherwise invaluable reference ‘Astrological Pioneers of America’) was appointed as the magazine’s first of several regular columnists on astrology; and the coverage of this topic was subsequently gradually expanded until the journal reached its peak, and ran at between four and six large pages per issue during this period.

Green’s outstanding article appears in the very first month of his column. It is entitled ‘Uranus: the Historian of America’. In a later issue, an outraged John Hazelrigg writes in to claim that the ideas for Green’s article were stolen from his chapter ‘Inductive Astrology’ in the first edition of his book ‘Metaphysical Astrology’, without credit. By that time, Green had voluntarily severed his ties with Star of the Magi after bearing the brunt of regular attacks on his methods by the second astrological columnist appointed by the magazine, initially in parallel with him, Willis F. Whitehead. [Whitehead, incidentally, championed heliocentric astrology and successfully predicted the re-election of President McKinley in November 1900 using heliocentric methods, while Green unsuccessfully predicted the reverse result using geocentric methods.]

However, Green goes further than Hazelrigg in applying Hazelrigg’s observations of the importance of Uranus to American history to forecast into the future. I quote:

“We may expect the next disturbance from Uranus in 1913, when he will be crossing the “Dragon’s Tail,” as he was at the beginning of the seven years’ Indian warfare, which began in 1832, but this time Saturn will be transiting the radical places of Uranus and Aldebaran in the ascendant. Unless there is a powerful benefic influence from some of the fixed stars and the other planets at that time (which I have not yet calculated) there will certainly be another war at that time. At least, 1913 and 1914 will leave an important page in American history.

“The next complete revolution of Uranus will occur in 1942, when Aldebaran will have exactly reached the conjunction of the radical place of Uranus, and he himself will be there. Just what will be the result of such a powerful magnetic influence at the vital point of our nation’s nativity is uncertain, but if there is not a great war there will be a reconstructive period covering seven years, out of which the nation will arise as it did in 1783 and in 1865; but it is to be hoped that before that time gory conflict will be no more and that the grave problems of that time will be settled without the thundering of cannons and flashing of sabres, but we fear it will be the same as of yore. However this may be, the war of 1942, from an astrological standpoint, will be the last, for it will probably be the greatest war ever fought in modern times, and the reaction following will result in the burying of the sword forever, and the “nations shall learn war no more”.

“ERNEST S. GREEN”.

It seems a little ironic that the peace-loving Green was effectively jousted out from the very journal in which he made this outstandingly accurate prophecy of the major world wars of the following century by the belligerent (in debate terms, at least), rivalrous Willis F. Whitehead. Whitehead was ostensibly a personal friend of the editor, News E. Wood, who effectively sided with Whitehead in allowing his attacks on Green to pass, and in describing the journal’s relationship to Green as unsatisfactory in his notice regarding the latter’s resignation.

Heliocentric astrology was seemingly at its peak of popularity in turn-of-the-20th-century America, with Frederick White, editor of The Adept, being another enthusiastic exponent, although not to the exclusion of geocentric astrology, and Hiram E. Butler another still (though it is interesting to note as an aside that Butler’s heliocentric ephemerides are scathingly reviewed in the pages of Star of the Magi on account of their reported total inaccuracy with regard to the positions of certain planets).

Green’s death was announced in the September 1902 issue. Lyman E. Stowe, in Stowe’s Bible Astrology (1907), in which Stowe (p. 223) takes pains to draw attention to the relatively advanced ages of a host of the leading American astrologers of his day, himself very much included, reports that Green was, however, nearly 80 when he died.

Incidentally, the other well-known contemporary astrologers of his personal acquaintance whom Stowe discusses in the same chapter include Henry Clay Hodges (Alvidas); Professor Loren Chadwick (whose very interesting articles appear in certain astrological periodicals of the era); Dr. (L. D.) Broughton; Professor Chaney; Frederick White (editor of The Adept); Frank Earl Ormsby (editor of Planets and People; author of ‘The Law and the Prophets’); ‘James Cross’ (Raphael VI by a mistaken first name); (Hiram E.) Butler; Dr. A. J. MacDonald; and Alan Leo. He also mentions several with whom I am hitherto unfamiliar: Professor Hatfield; Charles Taylor; Walter H. Lewis; and a male ‘Sullivan’ of Yonkers, N. Y.. Does anyone know more about these latter characters?

One of the most amusing notices in the pages of the Star of the Magi occurs when the Astrological Magazine of India (if I recall correctly from reading it earlier) is reported as mis-attributing some comments by Ernest S. Green to the English astrologer H. S. Green, and causing some offence to the latter in the process! Whitehead is quick to support H. S. Green relative to Ernest S. Green, until such time as H. S. Green’s book ‘Theoretical Astrology’ is published in 1903, whereupon he bemoans H. S. Green’s round condemnation of the ‘invention’ of heliocentric astrology.

PS: Ernest S. Green appears to have written and had published at least two books on astrology, which, coincidentally or otherwise, share their titles with other better known works. I have yet to see a copy of either for sale anywhere. I suspect they are critically endangered pieces of the fabric of astrological literary history: see below.

1) A Perpetual Planetary Hour Book (NB: I wonder if this was the original so-called ‘Perpetual Planetary Hour Book’ that caused Llewellyn George to call his best-selling later work of the same title by the prefixed epithet ‘New, Improved’ from a very early date – even the 1929 edition has this, and in fact the Library of Congress records an extremely early edition of 1907, predating the first edition of the author’s famous “A-Z Horoscope Delineator” by three years, which is also called, ‘A New, Improved Perpetual Planetary Hour Book’. Presuming this to have been the true first edition of George’s book of this title, it seems implausible that George did not crib the basic title of his book directly from that of Green). NOT IN OCLC! Presumed critically endangered, if not actually extinct. Does anyone know where a copy exists? Perhaps one was donated to Kepler College? If anyone finds a copy, please advise!

2) Astrology Made Easy – published by Frederick White. 1 COPY RECORDED IN OCLC at Minnesota Historical Society Library. [Obviously, not to be confused with the abundant work of the same title from 1898 by H. F., a Fellow of the Universal Brotherhood, or indeed with later 20th century books of the same title such as that by ‘Astarte’.]

*****

– (In response to Mark Cullen’s reporting that Evangeline Adams predicted the outbreak of a major war in 1942:)

Interesting about Evangeline Adams and her reported prediction of World War II. I looked up the reference in Karen Christino’s ‘Foreseeing the Future’ just now and note that the source appears to be a magazine interview in the New York Herald of 1923, some 23 years after Ernest S. Green’s prediction. According to Karen Christino’s citation from the article, Adams attributed her prediction simply to Uranus being in Gemini, where it had been in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. This strikes me as a very sketchy outline of a rationale compared with the ones given by Hazelrigg and Green 23 years earlier. I would be very surprised if she had not at least read Hazelrigg’s book of 1900, as Hazelrigg was a prominent part of the American astrological establishment throughout the early decades of the 20th century and his books very well known among astrologers throughout those decades. Ernest Green’s article might be more questionable as a connection through to Evangeline Adams. It might be worth asking Norman Winski if there are any copies of ‘Star of the Magi’ in her library which he purchased. But it may be a moot point. She was only 32 in 1900 and still at a relatively early stage in her professional career.

I have a very early printing of Hazelrigg’s ‘Metaphysical Astrology’ before me. I cannot be sure that it is a first printing because there is an inconsistency between the copyright holder’s name (The Metaphysical Publishing Company) and the declared publisher’s name (The Philosophic Co., New York). This question might merit further investigation. But certainly there is no sign that anything has been edited or revised, and this printing clearly predates the Revised 2nd Edition (which I also have before me) published by The Author in 1915, whereupon the book had been retitled “Astrosophia, or Metaphysical Astrology’.

Anyhow, Hazelrigg in the earlier printing is using a horoscope of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, at 0:15 p.m., Philadelphia. I have not yet calculated this myself, but the chart he draws, reproduced in his book, gives 12 degrees 55′ Libra ascending, not Gemini.

By the time of the 1915 Revised Second Edition he has revised the time to 0:20 p.m. and the ascendant to 14 degrees 42 minutes of Libra!

In the earlier impression (starting on p. 15):

“The national horoscope is replete with testimonies most interesting from an astrological stand-point; but as a full appreciation of these would necessitate a technical understanding of the science, for our purpose it will be needful only to direct the attention of the reader to the position of Uranus in the ninth degree of Gemini on the cusp of the ninth house, in close proximity to Aldebaran (alpha Tauri), a fixed star of the first magnitude, of a fiery, martial nature, at that time in 6 degrees 42 minutes Gemini. Uranus as the eighth planet is the octave expression of Mercury; but whereas the vibrations of the latter are correlative with those of the external mind, the former’s plane of activity is on the odyllic¹ sphere, whence emanates spiritual or psychic perception. In operation Uranus tends to iconoclasm on the material plane, while spiritually his activities are reconstructive. He speaks to the soul, and not to the mind; to intuition rather than to reason. He accordingly produces in the world of causative effect a marked antagonism to the conventional order of things, independence, opposition to all restraints, reconstruction, remarkable changes, etc..

“It has been ascertained that Gemini among the constellations bears chief rule over our affairs; therefore it will be interesting to note the electro-magnetic effect upon this country of the passage of Uranus through Gemini, which occurs once in every eighty-four years – giving seven years to each sign of the Zodiac. Astrology, far from being a visionary science, is founded upon inductional methods of observation, and these examples will afford one the opportunity to reflect on some of the quaint analogies in nature; though a more extended acquaintance with its arcana would doubtless disclose a systematic design which knows neither chance nor coincidence, but is regulated by that immutable law of cause and effect which neither the sophist with his subtleties, nor the bigot with his obstinacy, can decry.

“Though Uranus did not come within range of our telescopes until 1781, his mutations previous to that are easily determined by mathematics. Thus, in 1690 we find him entering Gemini…. “A most independent and aggressive spirit was rampant in the colonies at this period…. The colonists were also involved in difficulties with the French and the Indians. Hale’s History of the United States records:

” “The war with the French and the Indians, which began in 1690, was not yet terminated. For seven years were the frontier settlements harassed by the savages, and the English employed in expeditions against them. A history of these would consist only of repeated accounts of Indian cunning and barbarity, and of English enterprise and fortitude. Peace between England and France, which took place in 1697, was soon followed by peace with the savages.”

“…[T]he cessation of hostilities between the warring factions [was] coincident with the passage of Uranus out of Gemini.

“Circling in his orbit he again entered this sign in the spring of 1775, contemporaneous with which we find a spirit of independence asserting itself among the colonists, a belligerent condition of mind which culminated in the Declaration when Uranus reached nine degrees of the sign. Nor were matters finally resolved until 1782 – just seven years from the commencement of the difficulties – when Uranus left the house of the Twins….

“His Revolution of 84 years brought Uranus again into Gemini in June, 1858, and this entrance was immediately followed by grave interior complications. The first decisive measure of secession was when South Carolina declared her independence, on December 20, 1860, a date that corresponded with the arrival of Uranus at the ninth degree of the sign! One of our best known astrologers at that time made the following prediction concerning the crisis: “Until Uranus gets out of Gemini, which will not be before the summer of 1865, I do not look for any peace for this country.”* The men of State, versed in the craft of political chicanery, declared positively that the conflict could not exceed six months; the astrologer, wise in his contemplation of nature’s laws, knew differently.

“*Broughton’s Planet Reader, Philadelphia, January, 1861

“Facts similar to these are what help to constitute the logical basis of judicial astrology; they are the irrefutable evidences which go far toward entitling it to the dignity of a reasonable and exact science.

“From these inductive processes it requires but little facility in seership to anticipate the revolutionary changes in existing theories and institutions that will mark the next transit of this planet through Gemini, which will begin in June, 1942. He will attain to the ninth degree of the sign in October, 1943, at which time his influence upon our affairs will be accentuated as never before, for Aldebaran, the fiery fixed star to which we have referred, will, through his annual motion of 50 and a third seconds, have advanced to a partile conjunction with the radical place of Uranus. What inferences are to be deduced from the concentration of these electro-magnetic potencies around this vital point in the national horoscope? Our country will pass through extraordinary scenes. Grave questions, affecting alike our domestic and political economy, will seek their adjustment, perhaps through methods of force. These will be radical changes in the constitution of government. Seven years will be consumed in the solution of some of the gravest problems which shall so far have confronted us. But this transitional era, superinduced through turbulence and confusion, will be followed by a reconstructive period that will usher in a new order of things, and we may then look for the enfranchisement of man into a brotherhood of truer equality, and a socialism broader and more practical than any hitherto espoused. Tempus omnia revelat.”

It is notable, I think, that Hazelrigg does not directly predict a world war but does predict the necessary adjustment of questions affecting the ‘political’ economy (which I presume to refer to foreign policy affairs, given how it has been presented by Hazelrigg in express distinction from the ‘domestic’ economy) ‘perhaps through methods of force’, as well as radical changes in the constitution of government and greater brotherhood. I find it is hard not to see the formative processes leading to the eventual establishment of the United Nations in his words, with hindsight at least.

Both Ernest S. Green in 1900 and Evangeline Adams, 23 years later, are unequivocal in predicting war, however. Ernest S. Green’s article seemingly draws heavily on Hazelrigg’s chapter, but factors in additional indications to directly predict war. Furthermore, Hazelrigg does not even mention the 1913-14 period in his article, yet Green directly predicts war in this period in his article.

You might have a very good case, Mark, in your suggestion that Evangeline Adams could have arrived independently from Ernest S. Green at the same conclusion, although I strongly suspect that both were heavily influenced by Hazelrigg’s chapter in the first place.

I think also that Broughton’s prediction of 1861 would still have been legendary all over the United States, and among all mundane astrologers especially, in 1900. Indeed, as late as 1906, residual complete sets of Broughton’s journal were being offered by Broughton’s heirs in their advertisements within the pages of the posthumous 2nd edition of Broughton’s astrological textbook “The Elements of Astrology” (1st edition 1898; 2nd edition 1906) for just a dollar per set. In other words, Broughton’s prediction based on Uranus in Gemini was widely available to astrologers, new as well as used, for the best part of half a century after he made it.

Green is using the same time for his figure for the United States as Hazelrigg in the earlier impression of his work (i.e. 0:15 p.m.).

Regarding Green’s prediction of war in 1913 or 1914, while it is true that the United States did not enter World War I until a few years later, war broke out in 1913 in the Balkans as a prelude to the full-scale European war that started in the same region a year later. So arguably Green was not so wide of the mark on an international scale.

Obviously the 1942-focused predictions of all three astrologers are a more direct hit when it comes to the involvement of the United States in World War II, since the specific event that precipitated this was in December 1941 and war was declared shortly afterwards.

One thing for sure is that Evangeline Adams in 1923 was not the first to make the specific prediction of an international war in 1942, and the underlying ideas had been well-established for decades among the American astrological community. I would be surprised if there were not further magazine articles of relevance to be uncovered in the archives in fact, some probably very specific, and she might well have read some of these even if she missed the article by Ernest S. Green! Unfortunately, astrological periodicals of the early 1900s in the United States are extremely scarce, often with only one library in the country holding examples of each title, and incomplete sets then. The situation is not so severe for British periodicals, as the British library has complete sets of nearly everything.

By the way, I’m not a mundane astrology specialist by any reckoning, so I am merely reporting what has been said without seeking to analyse it too critically on a technical level. But I do find both the techniques used and the history of the predictions made fascinating; and unravelling the transmission of ideas through consulting primary sources really brings that dimension of astrological history to life.

PS: ¹ – ‘Odyllic’ (from Hazelrigg) means ‘of or pertaining to a hypothetical force proposed by Baron von Reichenbach (1768-1869) as pervading all nature, being manifest in certain people of the sensitive temperament and accounting for the phenomena of mesmerism and animal magnetism’ (New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 1993 edition: pp. 1977 and 1979).

*****

PS: Ernest S. Green’s article ‘Uranus, the Historian of America’ (in ‘Star of the Magi’, July 1900) was also reprinted, I have just discovered, in ‘Coming Events’ September 1900, in England, providing a second possible source of transmission to Evangeline Adams.

I only have just under two years (out of more than five published between October 1896 and March 1902 – Gardner, incidentally, has his dates for this publication slightly wrong, suggesting incorrectly that it ended in 1901, which assertion is disproven by the announcement of its suspension of publication following the March 1902 issue in an issue of ‘Star of the Magi’ a few months later) of ‘Coming Events’ unfortunately. It seems to be very rare second-hand. But in its time it was one of the leading astrological journals in Britain, and a creditable rival to the ‘first series’ of ‘Modern Astrology’ magazine (whose dates spanned 1895-1903). ‘Coming Events’ enjoyed a close relationship with ‘Star of the Magi’ for a while, with frequent exchanges of comments between the astrological columnists in the two journals. I think it is easy to underestimate how well-connected astrologers were, through printed periodicals, to each other’s work and thoughts, internationally as well as nationally, 110 years ago.

*****

– (In response to Mark Cullen’s question regarding whether or not Luke Broughton cites a national horoscope for the USA:)

Good question. I have looked up Hazelrigg’s reference in my copy of Broughton’s Monthly Planet Reader and Astrological Journal, January 1861, and find no time of day or rising degree suggested in the article there. I have also leafed through all the earlier issues and articles before this and found absolutely no discussion of the Declaration of the Independence before this issue. What he does write (pp. 1-2 of the January 1861 issue) is nonetheless historically relevant to the foregoing discussion in this strand, so I’ll quote it for the record. It is in the context of a discussion on the Declaration of Independence of South Carolina, which he gives at December 20th 1860, 1h 15m P. M..

“South Carolina declared her Independence on the 20th December, 1860, at 15 minutes past 1 o’clock in the afternoon, when 17 degrees of Capricorn was culminating, and the first degree of Taurus was ascending. Venus is lady of the scheme, and is in the seventh house (the house of war) in evil aspect to Jupiter. Saturn is lord of the tenth house (which denotes the governing party) and it is in evil aspect to the planets Mercury and Herschel. Herschel is in Gemini, the ruling sign of the United States. What fearful omens are these? I tremble almost to unravel the signs of heaven, civil war is portended, and I am afraid that things will be in an unsettled condition for some years. But South Carolina will be the greatest sufferer, as she will be greatly in want of means to maintain her soldiers, and her people will be very much dissatisfied with the new government on account of the high taxation. But we are of the opinion that the union is broken never to be united again.

“We might here remark, for the satisfaction of the skeptic, that the sign Gemini rules the United States, and when Herschel entered that sign for good in the Spring of 1775, the American Revolution broke out, and on the 4th of July, 1776, when the Americans declared their independence, the planet Herschel was nine degrees in Gemini, and in the Spring of 1782, the planet Herschel got out of Gemini for good and entered into Cancer, and in Hale’s History of the United States, we find this sentence – “early in the Spring of 1782, pacific overtures were accordingly made to the American government, and both nations desisted from hostile measures.[“] It takes about 84 years for Herschel to perform one revolution round the heavens, and that planet entered Gemini again for good in April, 1859, the Harper’s Ferry affair broke out, when Herschel was 7 degrees in Gemini, within 2 degrees of the same place that he was in, when the Declaration of Independence was made; and on the 20th of December, 1860, when South Carolina declared her Independence, the planet Herschel was just in the very same degree that it was when the United States of America declared their independence. The union has just lasted one revolution of the planet Herschel round the heavens, and until Herschel gets out of Gemini, which will not be before July, 1865, we do not look for any PEACE for this country.”

So there you have the full context of Broughton’s legendary prediction! It seems that to Broughton, as apparently also to Hazelrigg, the ascendant at the Declaration of Independence for the United States was not a material consideration in the forecasts he made here. The traditional connection between Gemini and the United States is cited by both astrologers, however.

Obviously Broughton was wrong in one part of his prediction – that the secession of South Carolina from the rest of the United States would be permanent. But as for the rest, I’m not a Civil War historian so that’s for others more knowledgeable to assess!

It is also notable that, unlike Hazelrigg and Ernest S. Green, he makes no mention of the fixed star Aldebaran. It would seem not entirely out of the question that Evangeline Adams had studied only Broughton (via a chain of teachers, perhaps) and had not ever set her eyes on Hazelrigg or Green, especially as the substance of her prediction was Civil War in America, which would then spread to the rest of the world, which obviously was not what transpired in 1942 in practice.

PS: I have added in, within a pair of square brackets, a set of closing inverted commas to represent where Broughton’s quotation from ‘Hale’s History of the United States’ clearly ends even though he actually fails to use the necessary punctuation himself!

PPS: It might be as well to place Evangeline Adams in her historical context as a very busy, ambitious and successful practising personal consultant astrologer who cultivated a high profile in the general media but did not participate much in the peer-to-peer astrological community at all.

Although she clearly did buy books, she might not have been as well-read as the kinds of astrologers who regularly participated in the dedicated astrological journals (I have yet to find any evidence of any articles by her in any astrological journal). She gained a high media profile, and wrote popular astrology articles for the general popular press; but I suspect she would not have been considered a technically advanced astrologer by the kinds of astrologers who wrote columns for or edited the serious astrological journals. They might have respected her as a media advocate of astrology without considering her one of them. More historical research into her contemporary reception by the leading ‘serious’ astrologers of her day might be interesting. Perhaps Karen Christino could answer that question based on her existing research, however.

In ‘The Bowl of Heaven’, Adams does mention (p. 15) that in the mornings her secretary and staff reported to her on the latest research developments in the field, however, so she clearly took a keen interest in what was happening in the astrological community, even though she did not ostensibly directly participate in it herself. Could it be that she had staff that she gave a budget with which to buy books and magazines for her, then got them to read them and distil to her anything that might be new and important?

*****

I have just discovered a first in my personal research to date: evidence of Evangeline Adams making a direct contribution to an astrological magazine. Following from Mark’s and my various earlier speculations expressed in this strand as to whether or not Evangeline Adams was likely to have read Ernest S. Green’s 1900 prediction of a terrible, devastating war in 1942 before she made her prediction of a similar nature for the same year but 23 years later, in 1923, I feel it is necessary to report this finding:

In the June, 1899 issue of ‘Coming Events’, a letter by the then young Evangeline S. Adams, dated April 11th 1899, is printed. One possible reasonable inference might be that at this stage in her career she was more personally involved with reading periodicals and books than she came to be at the height of her success as a consultant astrologer, by which time her busy schedule obligated her to delegate keeping up with the literature to her staff.

Since as noted above, Ernest S. Green’s war prediction that appeared in the July 1900 issue of “Star of the Magi” was reprinted in the September 1900 issue of “Coming Events”, the proof that Evangeline Adams was reading “Coming Events” and in contact with its editor (Sepharial) as early as June, 1899 is potentially highly significant with regard to Adams’s own later prediction of war in 1942.

It would seem inconceivably unlikely that she would have voluntarily written a letter to “Coming Events” if she did not have access to it and read it regularly, whether as a direct subscriber or through a friend or library that subscribed to it. Unless for some reason she opted to cease to read it between the time when she sent in her letter and 18 months later, which would seem highly unlikely in view of her ambition and desire to keep up with new research, this would appear to suggest an overwhelming probability that she did in fact read Ernest S. Green’s article as it was reprinted in “Coming Events” in September 1900, even if she did not have any access to the original source of the article, the journal “Star of the Magi”.

23 years later, when Green had long since departed the earthly realm, she could easily have made the critical part of his prediction appear to be her own when interviewed by the general American press. Perhaps she was so fascinated by the strength of his feelings when she read the article as a young woman that she was driven to study the indicators for herself, and came to independently agree with him.

Adams’s letter to ‘Coming Events’ of April 1899, incidentally, is on the subject of the fire which destroyed the Hotel Windsor in New York the previous month (March 1899). She encloses to the editor horoscopes for Warren Leland and for the City of New York at the time when the fire was discovered, then gives a first-hand account of her experience at the time of the fire, before adding a footnote about Mr. Leland’s subsequent death on April 4th, just a week before the date of her letter. Sepharial obliges her request fully, responding by studying both Warren Leland’s nativity and the figure for New York at the outbreak of the fire, separately and at some length in each case, in the June, 1899 issue.

PS: I checked Kim Farnell’s biography of Sepharial just to make sure I was not merely repeating an account she has already given, but could not find any mention of Evangeline Adams in the index, which is understandable since her letter to his magazine was not of any particular significance to his life, and it should go without saying that Kim’s biography is excellent and very well-researched upon its subject. I personally find the fact that they corresponded briefly through “Coming Events” interesting nonetheless in its indications upon Evangeline Adams and the extent of her learning from sources near and far.