SHORT STORIES FROM THE VAST WORLD
The end of the world

It is more than once, since the year 1000, that the catastrophic end of our poor world has been announced; but this prediction still impresses the populations as strongly. Thus in Libau (Latvia) ultra-clairvoyant prophets having set the final upheaval for next February 6, at precisely 9 o'clock in the evening, the inhabitants of the city think only of completing their human destiny as comfortably as possible and, fearing to die in their beds, have vaults built where, after a Christian funeral, they will go to await the fatal hour.
The gravediggers are, it seems, overwhelmed; but, philosophers by profession, they do not complain about this additional work and do not worry about who will bury, in turn, the gravediggers.