Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1886-10-08
ITALIAN ELECTIONS.
The Important Part Played by Clairvoy-
ants on Election Day.

The Important Part Played by Clairvoy-
ants on Election Day.
Italian elections have one peculiar
characteristic, and that Is the part
ken by clairvoyants. The clairvoy-
ant does a thriving trade, particularly
in the small towns and villages, and is
even patronized in large and populous
cities. In the middle of the Faro Be-
naparte, a pug-nosed, satyr-featured,
little man, and middle-aged, busy,
bustling little woman officiate all day
long in the middle of a circle of their
credulous clientele. The majority of
the crowd consists of raw recruits from
nelghboring barrack-c country lads,
whose Arcadian manners have not yet
become refrigerated by contact with
the skepticism of city life. Clerks,
workingmen and workingmen's wives
and daughters form the remainder of
this interesting group. The officiating
agent distributes numbered tickets at
soldo, or cent apiece; and when he
has made sale of some half dozen of
these billets, he bandagcs the auguress
over the eyes, and, turning her around
three times, he bids her hail the setting
sun. Facing the western horizon, she
inclines her head forward and mumbles
some inarticulate prayers in a voice of
Sibyl-like solemnity. Her companion,
at the close of this ejaculation, invites
her to seat and mesmerizes her with
sundry waves of the hand, where
upon he calls out one of the numbers
and asks the auguress to tell the
fortune of the person who holds such
number. Then, in monotonous, sing
song voice Qor, of course, it can not
be otherwise, as she is just like a child
repeating its lesson), she predicts good
luck invariably to everybody, without
making the slightest allusion to sex or
age-introducing, however, the word
Glove" now and again. and warning
the person addressed against certain
enemies. AL the people firmly believe
in clairvoyance. 1t is suggestive of
the eternal nature of human credulity
to think that in the very land where
long ago thirty thousand pagan gods
and goddesses were worshiped, for
tune-tellers can still be honored and
venerated.
If an aspirant to seat in Parliament
in some portions of ltaly-particularly
in the rural districts-is roguish
enough to have recourse to such ex-
pedients, he secretly approaches the
local clairvoyant and ''tips" him a
hundred or two hundred francs for his
services. Now, it is well to know that
"A goodly number of rural electors will
vote only for candidate who "would
| h,.in
know which of the candidates is thus
Privileged Not by natural means,
but by supernatural. They there
fore consult the fortune-teller on the
point just as their forefathers con-
suited the oracle of Delphi; and in the
majority of cases they are commanded
to record their suffrages in favor
of the fortune teller's paymaster.
say in the majority of cases, for in or
der not to arouse suspicion of bribery,
the augur or auguress sometimes varies
the list of favorities, on the ostensible
grounds that if it would be lucky for
elector A to vote for would-be Deputy
b, it does not follow, owing to the iux-
opposition or mutual distance of certain
planets Sic] that elector c would be
favored if he went and did likewise.
At Reggie Emilia several electors
pumped for King Humbert on the con-
dition that once his Majesty became
Deputy he should take up the reins Of
power as an absolute monarch. At
Montemarlo not a soul approached the
rooms, the officials in the polling
booths having been left quite alone all
day long. In different southern prov
inces the bulletins were as follows: Il
vote for the man who promises TO give
me mealpe diem, and who will keep
his promise" Il consider all parlia-
mentary candidates INSCRIPTIONS liars,
and have accordingly decided to vote
for none" Deputy, No. l, myself; No.
2, my wife; No. 3, my mother-in-law?'
Seven votes were recorded for Pope
Leo XIII. at Chaippapo. Elsewhere
several members of the College of Car
dinals were proposed. The clergy took
no part in the election, as Leo XIII. is
opposed opriests having any thing to dc
with politics in ltaly-not on principle,
but as a matter of policy for the pres
ent.-Cor. N. Y. Mail and EgpreSs.