The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-10-05
FORTUNE-TELLING.
The Extent to Which It Is Be-
lieved in To-day.
How the Business OF Foretellins the Fut.
ure IL Carried on in I3OstOn-General
Review Of the Subject from
Early Times.


Review Of the 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-
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
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 Vanderbilt, an Astor 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 counting-house, the royal draw
ing-room, the Senate-what but fort
une hunters are they filled WITH" 1t
is even so; but it is We. 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
ihe oracle of the cards are females, and
ofthese shop girls, or to speak it more
politely, salesladies, make up the
greater part. They have peculiar
penchant for prying into their future,
and are especially interested in the
question of their loves. and whether or
no their lovers are faithful, and if they
will make good marriage. The ma
!ority of them believe in the cards
with an implicit faith, and. for the mst-
ter of that, SO do those that humbug
them.
Almost commencing with the intro
duction of card playing. cartomancy,
as it is called, or the art of divin alton
by means of playing cards. had an
existence. The earliest work known
10 exist on the subject was written
by Francesca Marcolini, and printed in
Venice in l540. In William Rowland's
judicial Ast-ology Condemned"
which was published in London in
1862. Is related a singular story, which
runs as follows: '-Cuffe. an excellent
Grecian and secretary to the Earl of
Essex. was told twenty years before
his death that he should come to an
untj.nely end. at which Cutie laughed,
an0 in a scornful manner entreated the |
soothsayer to show him in what man.
ner he should come to his end, who
condescended to him, and, calling for |
cards, entreated CUTIE to draw out of |
the pack any three which pleased him.
He did SO, and drew three knaves, and |
laid them on the table by the wizards |
direction, who told him if he desired to |
see the sum of his bad fortune. to take |
up those cards. CUTIE, as he was pre-
scribed, took up the first card, and
cooking on it he saw the portraiture of /
himself 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.
But many years later being condemned,
he remembered and declared this pre-
diction.' 1t must be confessed that
this was a pitch of refnement-this
changing the pictorial character of
the three knaves-to which the art of
the fortune-teller by cards does not ex-
tend at the present day.
The method of having ones fortune
told by the cards is simplicity itself.
The Individual who is DESTROYS of
drawing aside the curtain covering the
picture Of futurity. after shutting the
cards to mis- or her content, cuts the
cards into three parts, equal OF net, as