Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1888-10-11
FORTUNE TELLING.
The Extent to Which It Is Be-
lieved In To-day.
How the Business of Foretelling the Fut-
ure Is Carried on in BOston-General
Review of tho Subject from
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-
onment 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 a cup, by astrology, by
clairvoyance or what not, and who find
plenty of dupes anxious to woo the
tickle 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. 1t is to be doubted
If a Vanderbilt, an Aston or Jay
Gould is for one consecutive sixty min
utes perfectly content with that sta
ton OF life into which 1t has pleased
God to call him." as the church cate
chism hath it.
Man never is, but always to be, best"
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,n causes Sir
John Chester to say: "All men are
fortune hunters, are they notP 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 filed withpn 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
lago:
THUS do ever make my fool my purse"
The majority of those who consult
the oracle of the cards are females, and
of tlese 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 tn,
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 card
with an implicit faith, and, for the mat
ter of that, so do those that humbu.
them.
Almost commencing with the intro
duction of card playing, cartomancy
as it is called, or the art of divinatiol
by means of playing cards, had al
existence. The earliest work know
to exist on the subject was writer
by Francesca Marcolini, and printed il
Venice in 1540 In William Rowland
judicial Astrology Condemned,
which was published in London il
1862. is related singular story, whicl
runs as follows: .'Cuffe, an excellen
Grecian and secretary to the Earl o
Essex. was told. twenty years befor
his death that he should come to a
untimely end, at which Cutie laughed
and In scornful manner entreated tn
soothsayer to show him In what man
ner he should come to his end, VIII
condescended to him, and, calling 70
cards. entreated Cutie to draw out {
the pack any three which pleased hin
He did SO, and drew three knaves, an
laid them on the table by the wizard
direction, who told him If he desired |
see the sum OF his bad fortune. to TAX
mn those cards. Cutie, as he was Or,
scribed. took up the first card, an
looking on it he saw the portraiture
himself cap-a-pie, having men encon
passing him with bills and halberd
Then he took up the second and sa
the Judge that sat upon him; and Ia
ing up the last card he saw Tyburi
the place Of his execution and han
man, at which he laughed hearth
But many years later being condemne
he remembered and declared this pr
diction.r It must be confessed tn
this was pitch Of refnemeut-th
changing the pictorial character