Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-10-18

Review OF the Subject rom
Early Times.
On the front of house on Washing
ton street, near the corner of Com
mon, is modest sign bearing the in
scription card and Cup Reading"
says the Boston Herald. One is 10th
to believe that in this age of enlight-
eminent fortune-telling is carried on to
any extent-that there are any per-
sons living who
"Can look into the seeds of time
And say which grain will grow and which
will not
Yet there are plenty of fortune-tellers
in our midst who practice their calling
by the aid of cards, the sediment of
tea or coffee in cup. by astrology, by
clairvOyance or what not, and who find
plenty of dupes anxious to WOO the
''fickle fortune" who, if they do not find
fortunes themselves, contribute largely
to the fortunes of those charlatans. 1t is
the curse of man that he never is con-
tented with his lot. It is to be doubted
if Vanderbilt, an Aston or a Jay
Gould is for one consecutive sixty min
utes perfectly content with that sta
ton of life into which it has pleased
God to call him." as the church cate
chism hath it.
Man never is, but always to be, blest"
The present is always good enough,
and bad enough, for that matter, and
why any one is DESTROYS of lifting the
vail of futurity to ascertain what it
may have in store is something beyond
the writer's comprehension. Dickens,
in his ''Barnaby Rudge," causes Sir
John Chester to say: "All men are
fortune hunters, are they not? The
law, the church, the court, the camp
see how they are all crowded with fort
une hunters, jostling each other in the
pursuit. The stock exchange, the pull
pit, the contingencies the royal draw
ing-rOOm, the Senate-what but fort
une hunters are they filled withp" 1t
is even so; but it is YET to be learned
that the position of fortune hunter
has been bettered by the aid of NEGRO
NANCY, no matter what shape that
necromancy may take. As Master
Ford says: 1--WE are simply men; we
do not know what's brought to pass
under the profession of fortune telling.
She works by charms. by the figure,
and such daubery as this is beyond our
elements. We know nothing" Fort.
une telling has been practiced from the
earliest ages, and there have been
dupes and gulls for all time The fort
une teller can well say with honest
Isgo:
g. Thus do ever n AXE my fool my purse
The majority of those who consult
the oracle Of the cards are females. and
of these shop girls, or to speak it more
politely, salesladies, make up the
greater part. They have a peculiar
penchant for prying into their future
and are especially interested in the
question of their loves. and whether OF
no their lovers are faithful, and if they
will make good marriage. The ma.
jority Of them believe in the cards
with an implicit faith. and. for the mat
ter of that, so do those that humbue
them.
Almost commencing with the intro
duction of card playing, cartomancy,
as it is called, or the art of divination
by means of playing cards. had an
existence. The earliest work known
to exist on the subject was written
by Francesca Marcolini. and printed in
Venice in 1910. In William Rowland
judicial Astrology Condemned -
which was published in London in
1852. is related singular story. which
runs as follows: "Cuffe. an excellen,
Grecian and secretary to the Earl Of
Essex, was told twenty years before
his death that he should come to ar
untimely end. at which CUTIE laughed
and in a scornful manner entreated the
soothsayer to show him in what man
ner he should come to his end, WHIT
condescended to him. and, calling 70,
cards, entreated CUTIE to draw out O
the pack any three which pleased him
He did SO, and drew three knaves, ani
laid them on the table by the wizard,
direction, who told him If he desired t.
see the sum of his bad fortune. to tax,
up those cards. Cutie, as he was pre-
scribed, took up the first card, ant
looking on it he saw the portraiture o
Aimself cap-a-pie, having men encom
passing him with bills and halberds
Then he took up the second and saw
the judge that sat upon him; and tax
ing up the last card he saw Tyburn
the place Of his execution and hang
man, at which he laughed heartily