Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1883-08-09
A PRETTY PROPHECIES.
The History of one Of tho New York
Fortune TeIieTs.

! York there Is a pretty little woman
who gets into frances and calls her
self a clairvoyant, although she admits
quite frankly that she does not know
who she is Years ago when little
child, she rccollects clasping her arms
around Il swing and looking drcanily
into space until it seemed to her as II
| her soul was discovered from her body
and she had visions. They were not
of her own future. but of the future
Of others, and when she awakened
from this dream or trance only the
latter part Of the closing chapter was
remembered. Her father, stern old
! puritan, WAS at a loss 10 know how &c
exercise this devil, for whippings and
punismlcnts were OF no avail. She
seized every opportunity to test this
power. As sh" grew older, however.
and went To school, the girls rather
shamed her out of what they called
"sEch nonsense" At eighteen, having
4 heart like other women. she fell in
love, married and became the mother
Of two children. With busy hands and
a happy life the old pcrnicious tenden-
cy towards dreams and visions was
well nigh forgotten. No trance
warned her Of III" approach of that
unrclenting visitor. death. He came
as 10 the most ordinary murtals. uucN-
pcctcI and unanuounccd. one morn.
ing while she stood on the porch Of
her little house. with her babe Growing
In her arms, four men approached with
| a horrible burden, the iuanimatc form
Of her husband mang!cd by machinery
Then came sickness, poverty, debt and
/ despair Her children were looking AZ
her with hungry cycs She grew wild
and unlike herself-and was bcset
anew 10y visions and dreams. She saw
visions Of the future happiness until
finally She told a Crcdulous woman one
. day her fortune. Then another came
and another. and presently the desc
late widow became known "a a clair
yoyant--a woman with power 10 di-
| vine the future. She went to sleep
with rigid muscles and staring eyes
and saw peoples lives unrolled before
her as an immense panorama. She
told her visitors. how friends, profess
ing to love them. really were implaca-
blc enemies. She told Of coming sick
meas. Of good fortune for those who in
vested money in snch and such a man
ner. And all this was given forth
with such burning and rapid intensity
that she never failed 30 convince II is
not too much to say that whole lives
have been ordered and altered upon this
woman's word. Friends have been sep.
arated and brought together; wives and
husbands have been rendered happy or
miserable; money made or lost, resi-
dences changed; business put aside.
| Journeys taken from one part Of the
country TO another. The woman her
self. meanwhile. has made money, edu
Gated her children, set up her son in a
lucrative business, and owns her first
little happy home for the summers
rest and recreation. But while she
has been busy ayerting the misfor
tunes Of others, has she kept her own
| sky free from clouds2 All. no. The
light Of her life has gone out Her
beautiful. accomplished, cherished
daughter is dead. Neither trance, nor
vision. nor spell, warned her, and yet
II was no illness. but an accident which
could 1t have been foreseen
might easily have been prevented,
The girl went to ride, the horse took
fright, and she died of internal inju-
ries II spirits come to her mother
and tell her of the destiny of others,
are they not cruel devils which hover
around and leave her powerless to
protect her own?
But II is nothing. nothing at all, ex'
cept that she is highly strung, over
wrought, diseased woman. who needs
treatment by a competent specialist in
her own diseases. She calls the peo
pie who comes to her. appropriately
enough, her patients" One man has
been to see her once week for eleven
years. She limits herself to three
frances a day, and she charges s5 fol
each trance Then she tells fortunes
by cards. and. in one way and another
makes. strange as IL may seem, from
els to $50 regularly day. Even heI
own sorrowful experiences, which sh,
relates quite unreservedly and patheti
cally. do not deter the people who con
suit her from returning again and