The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-07-19
SECRETS OF THE STARS,
Fees That Have Been Paid to Astrol-
ogers by Wall Street
Spectators.
Some of the Predictions That Have
Come True, Strange to
Say.
Horoscopes of Wcll-Known Characters
Explained by an Expert-Hindu
Astrological System.

Written for THE SUNDAY INpEpENDENr.l
IT IS EARNESTLY INSISTED UPON
az by some highly imaginative dreamers
I who fancy themselves scientific ma
tsrialists, that the light radiated from
the printing press has banishod super
stition. to a very great extent, at least from
among civilized peoples. Some inherited
regard for trivial signs and omens, they ad
init, still fingers among women and rather
feeble-minded men, but they felicitate
themselves that they nave kicked
off this terrene ball. out into the in
fnity of space, all of the countless multitude
of fairies, trolls, sy!phs, undines, gnomes,
ct. al, never to return, and with those
''viewless creatures of the air." have got
rid of the congeneric so-oalled occult
sciences, including magic and astrology.
Perhaps they have--not.
1t may possibly be mildly surprising to
them that nstrology has to-day not only
more believers, but more who understand a
good deal of its strange and difficult COM
putations, laws and jargon, than have sx-
listed at any one time within at least three
hundred years. Such is nevertheless the
fact. Several years ago. a New York Sun
way AO"SR0FCA Gil 0StlOloAlCd1
department, dcvoting a column each week
to the deductions and forecasts drawn by &
thoroughly competent astrologer from thu
horoscopes of individuals sending in simply
the place and exact time Of their birth
and statement Of their sex. Tho
applicants for attention in that col
umn were from one to five hundred
a week. Only a verv small percentage
of them could obtain the desired favor,
rarely more than o%ne-fourth of the small
est number of petitions. That eagerness
has continued up to the present time and
the letters received are in themselves suffi-
cient demonstration that those who ask the
casting of their horoscopes are by no means
the ignorant and vulgar, but in a great ma
jority of cases persons Of intelligence, edu-
cation and culture.
A couple of years ago a st. Louis paper
undertook to do the same thing, but in it's
brash inconsiderateness of liberality was
rash enouph to promise to do up the
horoscopes Of all who applied. In a few
weeks the editor found he would have to
give his entire Sunday Issue up to horo-
scopes, with q heavy encroachment on Mon
days space, to make his promise good and.
unable to see any way of compromise, saved
himself by stopping the department. alto
gether.
OF course it will be said that those facts
only demonstrate the existence OF a great
deal of idle curiosity, and perhaps a leaven
of credulity, such as prompts many per-
sons to patronizs fortune tellers. Let it 20
at that. There are better evidences Of the
hold astrology has as a fin du steele fad. In
New York and Boston there are numbers of
shrewd. practical men, Spectators in the
stock, produce and cotton markets-par-
ticularly in the Observation-Disclosures paw
regularly SIS per month for forecasts Of
the days and even the times of days, when
operations are advisable and when it will
be best for them to carefully refrain from
doing business. And they govern them
selves accordingly. One OF them said to
the writer:
II knew friends who were getting point
ers, for every day in the month, from an
asttologer in Boston, and l made applica-
tion for the same service. He was so busy
at the time that he would not add me to
his list. and / had to wait several months
to get in. Then | sent him the place, date,
and minute of my birth, from which he
constructed what / understand is called a
map of nv nativity. showing the positions
of the planets when | WAS born, and on
that as a basis. taken in conjunction with
the relative positions of the planets each
day in the Month, he makes his forecasts of