I give you a view in into #America of 1733.
This Almanac, a regular publishing for many years, was a narrative on life in our country four hundred years ago. The snippet below supplies the prognostication for the year 1739. Not much has changed.

The PDF is available on #LOCALS

A TRUE PROGNOSTICATION FOR the Year of 1739.
Courteous Reader,
Having consider'd the infinite abuses arising from the false prognostications published among you, made under the shadow of a pot of drink, or, so, I have here calculated one of the most sure and unerring that ever was seen in black and white, as hereafter you ' ll find. For doubtless it is a heinous, foul, and crying sin, to deceive the poor gaping world, greedy of the knowledge of futurity as we Americans all are.
Take notice by the by, that having been at a great deal of pains in the calculation, if you
don't believe every syllable, jot and tittle of it, you do me a great deal of wrong; for which either here or elsewhere, you may chance to be claw'd off with a vengeance. A good cowskin, crabtree, or bull's pizzle may be plentifully bestow'd on your outward man. You may snuff up your noses as much as you please, 'tis all one for that.
Well, however, come, smite your noses, my little children; pull out your best eyes, on wi' your barnacles, and carefully observe every scruple of what I'm going to tell you.

OF THE GOLDEN NUMBER.
The Golden number, non est
Inventus (which is now commonly called Pi), I cannot find it this year by any calculation I have made. I must content myself with a number of copper. matter, go on. No

OF THE ECLIPSES THIS YEAR.
There are so many invisible eclipses this year, that I fear, not unjustly, our pockets will suffer inanition, be full empty, and our feeling at a loss . During the first visible eclipse Saturn is retrograde : For which reason the crabs will go sidelong, and the ropemakers back-ward. * Mercury will have his share in these affairs, and so confound the speech of the people, that when a Pennsylvanian would say panther he shall say painter. When a
New Yorker thinks to say this he shall say diss, and the people in New England and Cape May will not be able to say cow for their lives, but will be forc'd to say keow by a certain involuntary twist in the root of their
tongues. No Connecticut man, nor Marylander will be able to open his mouth this year, but sir shall be the first or last syllable he pronounces, and sometimes both . Brutes shall speak in many places, and there will be above seven and twenty irregular verbs made this year,
if Grammar don't interpose.— But who can help these misfortunes?

OF THE DISEASES THIS YEAR.
This year the stone-blind shall see but very little; the deaf shall hear but poorly; and the dumb sha'n't speak very plain. And it's much, if my Dame Bridget talks at all this year. Whole flocks, herds, and droves of sheep, swine and oxen, cocks and hens, ducks and drakes, geese and ganders shall go to pot; but the mortality will not be altogether so great among cats, dogs and horses. As to old age 'twill be incurable this year, because of the years past. And towards the fall some people will be seiz'd with an unaccountable inclination to roast and eat their own ears: should this be call'd madness, doctors? I think not. But the worst disease of all will be a certain most horrid, dreadful, malignant, catching, perverse and odious malady, almost epidemical, insomuch that many shall run mad upon it; I quake for very fear when I think on't; for I assure you very few will escape this disease, which is called by the learned Albromazar - lacko'mony.