Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-25
THE FORTUNE-TELLER.
INJECTING HER POISON INTO THE DRAW.
ING ROOMS OF SOCIETY.

INJECTING HER POISON INTO THE DRAW.
| ING ROOMS OF SOCIETY.
Professionals shonId be Punished - How
| They Piav Upon Humanity's Foibles-A
Silly but Mischievous Fad-A Queer Case
| Before an English Court.
| IT is necessary, we suppose, as well as right
to punish fortune-telling for money. One
has always an idea. after reading the proceed
ings before the magistrates, as If good powder
| and shot were being thrown away for nothing
| and as If the progress of intelligence would of
itself extinguish that particular variety of mis-
| demeanor. We do not hang witches any
| longer. nobody can precisely say why and the
pumpkins who affirm, as they still do now and
then, that Mother So-and-So has Overlooked"
their children or their pigs receive no help
| from the Bench, beyond a sharp little lecture.
which they do not understand, for their folly
or their malice. Indeed, if they have stuck
pins into Mother So-and-So on the faith of her
witchhood, or have hunted her too Indignantly.
or have set fire to her black cat, they are fined
as II their ofense had not been dictated by one
OF the most ancient of all beliefs. STILL a
fortune-teller who takes money is swndler
usually conscious swindler. and fools must be
protected against swindlers; while there is
something to be said for the idea that the legal
condemnation of folly helps to make it little
more rare. The men who passed the act In.
tended 1t, we fancy. says writer in the Lon
don Spectator, not SO much for the protection
Of servant girls, curious about the complexion
OF their future lovers, as for the punishment
OF kind of blasphemy closely connected with
the worship of the Evil One; but STILL the act
hurts no innocent person, and it does tend to
check particularly injurious kind of lying.
A Strange Proceeding.
WE agree however, with Mr.. Corser, Magis-
trate for the North London Division, that
the law is little strained when it is used to
punish rate-paying italian confectioner for
keeping an automatic fortune-teller on his
premises. The unlucky Mr.. Bianchi, it ap-
pears had toy of the kind outside his shop
LETT there by some keen agent of an automatic
machine company. The passer.by pushed a
penny into the slot, anda figure jumped out
which pointed to some one of a set of silly sen.
tences. amidst which, however, there was one
that would have enchanted Mr. Caine. "Drop
drinking spirits" A constable thought this
monstrous and hauled the contectioner into
court. where. however. the magistrate refused
to punish him unless, indeed the treasury,
upon general principles, prosecuted the ma
chine makers. Until then he only bound over
the defendant to appear when called on and
dismissed him rejoicing, but, one would i'm
q
cura would condemn that machine, but the
magistrate would have regarded it as rather
clever contrivance for obtaining pennies from
the mob. while gratifying their incurable super
st1t1on. We should doubt if poor Mr.. Bianchi
intended any harm at all, and certainly to have
punished him would have been a little hard,
while his betters are committing his offense un-
punished every day.
Fashionable Fortune Telling.
WE do not know if the wealthy buy the auto
matte nachine but there never was
time when fortune telling in drawing rooms was
so rife or apparently SO much believed in. 3d.
ciety rejects astrology altogether, not, we
fancy, for st. Augustine's unanswerable rea-
sons, but because it SO rarely sees or thinks of
the stars; and it has got beyond dreams. which
are supposed to be a result of indigestion. and
to be curable by nitrate of silver pills. or it may
be by nux vomtca; and the drinkers of tea at
o'clock are in secret little afraid of spiritual
ism, as likely to end some day in possible ap-
pearance of ghosts; SO they devote themselves
to rather more inane forms of divination.
Sometimes the fnquirer's fortune is foretold
from her handwriting, which is comparatively
sensible, as there is in handwriting little evil
dence of character, though not much, the
slightest inaptitude of the fingers or defect Of
eyesight depriving the manuscript of all rela-
tion to the writer's mind, as does also i
that writer's resolve to write conven-
tional hand. The most resolute person we
know writes a niggling scrawl, hardly legible,
and indicative, if of anything, of weak indie.
cision; while women with watery minds pour
out those minds in manuscript which Lord
Palmerston who wrote circular order COM
manding uncial English. would have pro-
nounced perfection. Sometimes, again. revela-
ton is sought from the lines on the forehead,
not the bumps, mind-that is a separate folly
but the lines for which the seekers might, if
they knew anything about 1t. plead very ans
cient warrant Priests who were wise or foolish
ages before the sibyl endeavored to sell her
books. convinced herself that every mans des-
tiny was recorded by the foreseeing powers
upon his froEtal bone. and dreamed that If the
spectator only pondered enough, he could dis
Germ his visitors fortune as clearly his tenn
per or his comparative intelligence. The draw
ing room, however. knows nothing Of that, and
only guesses by rule which, one observes
favors the foreheads that ruck rather than the
foreheads that are smooth. It Is not a bad way,
If both sexes are present, of making love with
out being too explicit; but it involves severe
staring, and severe staring is rude.
Human Foibies Studied.
MODERN society would not be rude even If IL
could stare into heaven; and dlvination
by the forehead is therefore usually discarded
in favor of divination by the hand. The Clip
sizes are avenged for ages of ridicule and penal
ties, and palmistry is rage. Everybody who
has time to waste knows something of it. and
there are regular adopts, ladies some of them,
who make out of their proficiency regular,
though, we fear, only temporary incomes.
They tell first the inquirers character, about
which they often make shrewd hits, eking out
the result of attentive observation, or hints
gathered within the room, by the use of certain
common forms, invented, we imagine, for the
behoof of those advertisers who promise full
revelations of character for shilling's worth
of stamps. Fome of these common forms are
really very clever. their object being fattery in
disguise, fattery not of the common sort, but
addressed to the foibles concealed in the
majority of msnkind. No man, for in
stance, is told that he is weak;
but great many are informed that they have
strength of purpose not suspected by their
friends, or an inner hardness which may spring
either from rectitude or selfshness. No woman
is ever assured that she is spiteful; but she is
often told that she usually actseunder sense |
of duty. and that she is even too affectionate-
a useful advertisement when 1t is read aloud. |
The character discussed, the fortune follows, |
and at this point the observer will often notice |
an odd peculiarity The magician wishes only |
to make his or her prophecies definite for it Is
only the definite which is impressive, and def
niteness is quite safe, for nobody, however
sceptical. can deny that any fortune is possible
in the distant future. The inquirer may be-
come rich, though she is poor; her lover may
be dark though she prefers blonde people; and |
she may live to be go though she looks so fraiI.
If she does and remembers the words used the |
sibyl will shine in her memory as prophecies;
while il she does not, she and her friends will
haye forgotten the unfulflled prediction.
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