The record-union., 1897-07-27
UNDER WORLD FRAUD.
SKETCHES OF SOOTHSAYERS
OF THE METROPOLIS.
Sway of the Fortune Teller and
the Charlatan in the Tene-
ment Districts.

other world. They introduce n play ct
action and motive that suge1sts a life
quite alien from the wall-ordered ways
OF the city. Such was the intelligence
this week Of the arrest Of i brooklyn eX-
Minister on the charge of being for
tune teller and an astrologeT. Those are
arts that seek rather the country lane
and the desert than the streets of the
metropolis, and they stand for ideas that
presumably have been left far behind in
the marches of civilization. No ore c'ln
practice them in these parts without de-
Tying the law. But II rs s1Ch items OF
information, recurring al frequent inter
walls, which inspire the belief that dill
ferent point of view than the conVen-
tional one obtains among part of the
population.
Rome the historians observe, WAS
never so crowded with soothsayers and
false prophets as when the pagan gods
and the old beliefs had been laid aside.
The adventurers who gained livelihood
by predicting from the entrails of fowls
are not without their cOunterparts on
the east side of New York, and multi
tude of fortune tellers and charlatanS,
plying their vocations in out -of-the-way
places of Manhattan Island enforce the
conviction that even here, in some of the
tenements, allegiance has not yet been
yielded to the age of reason. Here
and there in the whirl of the city's life
is seen the figure of false prophet, and
never is he quite without following.
Yonder a breathless group sits in the
darkness at a mediums feet Yonder
multitudes make their devotion before
the bone of a saint Yonder in tawdry
cabinet a seamstress is having her silly
secret wrung from her by a seeress.
Surely the children of Orloff the Dream
er, are many.
Inspiration comes easiest in the waste
places; the prophet avoids the streets of
a city. And yet New York has had its
divine healers. The first that was
known of Schlatter, the mysterious Al
satan peasant, whose bones We're found
not long ago in the sandheaps OF the
southwest. he was a shoemaker living
in the outskirts of this city, and walk
ing in weekly to get his orders. There is
more than one person here now whose
minor ailments were relieved by this
gentle craftsman. Schlatter'S imltator,
Schrader has made his unnoted pilgrl-
mage hither and Newell, the Vermont
blacksmith with the healing hands, has
also appeared on Broadway. New York $
native contribution to the guild OF dl-
vine healers is just now passing through
the processes of the courts. The WIZ
ard of Marion street" entertained po-
liceman unawares not long ago, and
prescribed his magic ointment for such
various ills that he came into collision
with the law.
A GOOD FIELD.
The cosmopolitan population or New
York is a breeding ground for super
stitions which it is sometimes dlff1cult
to localize. Russians, Syrians, Italians
and Germans bring with them their own
native practices, and they thrive IN the
air of the tenements. Unobtrusively
the "hexerei' of the Pennsylvania Ger
man and the voudou rites of the Loulsl-
ana darkey. and stranger methods of
healing are carried on in the crowded
districts. and it is only when some poor
peasant. late from the provinces, with
a tale of a love philter or the evil eye
seeks redress from the magistrates, that
an inkling of them comes to light.
Rv the code of criminal procedure
he is set down as a disorderly person
who tells fortunes or where lost or
stolen articles may be found The
offender is liable to be brought into
court and required, under such oond
as may be named, to give an undertak-
ing to keep the peace for a year. + all
ing in this, the offender may pe I'M
prisoned at hard labor in the penlteh-
tiarv for six months. The law IS eX-
nlicit but it is seldom invoked. Hun
dreds of fortune tellers ply thelr traoe
in the city, and particularly IN certain
mars of Sixth avenue and the neighpor-
hood below Washington Square thelr
signs are hung out with no thought
of concealment.
Among the uneducated classes these
adventures are sure of a pretty con-
s+ant business. The women are thelr
chief patrons. and some of them con-
eul+ them on almost the same troubles
that they are wont to lay before the
oonfassing priest. The husband may
take to drink when there is dissensloI
inside the family; the wife dons heI
shawl and visits a soothsayer. he Is
taken into councils where a woman
would learn the whereabouts OF the
husband who has deserted ner Oh
where a shopgirl would secure loVe
novder that would restore her sweet
heart from the favor of q rival. Sucn
a case has been going on IN the JeF-
eev City courts. 1t was on Such
mission bent that Stewardess on
Pacific Mail steamer was aDle TO lul
,,ieb the facts on which John DE Leon
tha notorious astrologer of East tourth
street was sent up for fifteen years,
after a career of kidnapping that
brought him $4,000 a year and that
linked New York with the capitals OF
many South American countries.
As in the days of the Delian Apollo,
the oracles of fate are spoken out OF
the mouths of women. Most or the
fo,t,,ne teIlers wear skirts and are of
,o,,al if somewhat tarnished origin
MANY of them have gypsy or at least
oriental blood in their veins, ana on
Tho lower West side is an occasional
Indian who intersperses periods OF en-
+e,-,,,ira at weaving spells. Quite a
rT,,her of the weird sisters confess To
Af.;eo,, blood. but they cast horoscopes
for black and white without faVor.
NECROMANCERS.
The interiors of the apartments
where necromancers' charms are oe-
vised are all of one pattern, ana tna'
has frequently been expiolteu III 'hs
courts. There is the anterooIh Wnei
the visitor is expected, ana theh l .heie
is the cheap mystery OF the ihiiei
apartment, with its half hghts, ns
screens scrawled with eabihstic signs
its walls decorated with the emoieiils
of the Zodiac. and finally, as the cur
tains part, Madame herself, large anu
gross and dark, with her turpah anu