Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-12-27

Deep rooted in the breast OIL every
woman is pulsing and quenchless de-
sire to pry into the future.
1t is the rehitage of the eternal fem
inine from her common mother-the
lady who lost Paradise through eating
the unripe fruit of the tree of knowl-
edge of good and evil.
There is something irreSistibly allur-
ing to the feminine mind in the mystic
mysteries OF fortune telling. Whether
astrology, palmistry, or clairvoyance
be the cult; whether the seer reads her
future in the stars, the cards, the Ian
guage of tea leaves or coffee grounds,
woman ever reverently listens to the
utterance of any oracle whatever who
will essay to lift the veil from before
the face of the future and tell her
fortune"
What do you most regret leaving
behind?" asked George Sand of a dy-
ing girl. With faint sigh the maiden
replied My future!"
And it is that untried possibility that
is dearest of all untrodden paths to
every woman. 1t is the elysium in
which she hopes to dwell. The prom
Used land, where dreams shall come
true, and all the discords of today be
turned to a tuneful tomorrow. No
wonder that the sex, which inherited
curiosity from the same ancestor who
lowered her with fine taste for for
bidder fruit, longs to pierce that
future.
| And actresses, for some occult and
tnscrutable reason, seem more rabidly
DESTROYS than other women to cross
with silver the palm of the seer.
Bernhard is no Exception.
did l ever have my fortune told?
do not understand yOu," said Sarah
Bennhardt, when asked the other day.
''But yes she said. Il have had my
destiny disclosed by all possible pow
ers of diyination-black arts and
magic-may stars have been read, my
hands, the bumps and holloWs on my
Uranium, by cards, by my handwriting,
by my gloves, my handkerchief, by all
sorts OF good and evil spirits
and did it ever come true?"
Some things, of course. 1t has not
always happened that | could remain
stranger to the oracle, and sometimes
! have been told things of my past
which every one knew, and things of
my future that were bound to occur;
but l can not really say that / ever
learned anything that proved or ad-
vantage, or that | was ever able to
shape my course any more wisely
through advice of any oracle.
i must tell you one experience that
was really curious. During my first
American tour, | was accompanied by
Nine. COlombier, an actress of my
company whom l then cherished as a
sister, but who afterward became an
embittered and relentless enemy. One
might in Philadelphia Tomasso Salvini,
who was playing four nights in a week
at another theatre, came to see me,
and asked me to pay a visit to a clair
Voyant who had told him wonderful
things of his parentage and his past.
Philadelphia is such a tranquil city,
Really longing for excitement, | ac-
companied Signor Salvini to his oracle
the following day.
"She told me some very wonderful
things about my girlhood and the child
hood Of my parents, and then she de-
clared that a dove would wound my
heart. That sounded so absurd that l
laughed aloud. This apparently
wounded the prophecies, who came out
|of her trance in a rage and refused
further revelations.
''AfterWard she consented to SIT for
ISignor Salvini and while in a state of
Iclairyoyance wrote a letter, in which
IShe explained that the dove would
wound me was Nine. Colombier She
mentioned the name of two men who
would be tools of the woman in her
enterprise. Months later it came
true, as YOU say, and the two names
which | had never heard before were
}Teally those of her associates in a bit
ter attack upon me.