The Portland daily press., 1900-11-21
AsTROLOGY THEN AND NOW.
The Fahir ofthe Middle Ages Was Not
in II with the More Modern Variety.

"AstroloRy as profession IL IN vast
ly more flourishine condition today than
it was IN the middle ages" declared q
well-known cotton future broker of this
city. "No, I'm not joking" he went on
earnestly; It's "cold fact" Back In the
sixteenth century an astrologer generally
ran his telescope foundry in some ricksty
old tower, with a blaok cat rs q side
partner, ana was mighty lucky II he
succeeded In lodging the stake as a wind.
up. A. present he has suite Of rooms
In metropolitan sky scraper, dictates
his correspondence to beautiful typewrit-
er houris and does land office business
In market forecasts at % head. postage
prepaid. IL seems incrsdible, 1 know;
but millions OF dollars are undoubtedly
invested every year under the immediate
direction of rakirs who pretend to read
the future In the stars
my attention was first attracted to the
subject In '9S, through the peculiar orders
began to receive from an old customer
who had been taking an occasional flyer
In cotton ever since i had been In busi-
ness. He knew nothing about the intri-
cacies of the market himself, and gener-
ally asked my advice before investing.
All of a sudden, however, he changed his
tactics completely and would come In
with precise and definite instructions,
which he insisted on having carried out
to the letter. At the same time he
switched from the bull to the bear side
of the market. / inferred, of course, that
he had begun investing in some OF the
ready made tips that are hawked about
the country, and, being curious to know
the source OF his Information. subjected
him to little pumping. He finally ad-
mitted, in rather shame.faoed fashion,
that he had become a client OF Boston
astrologer who called himself 'Zobaria'
and sent him a weekly letter or advice
supposed 10 be compiled from obServa-
lions or the planets, looked over the
fellows circulars and other literature,
and a more amazing lot OF balderdash
never laid eyes on. 1t was q weird jun
BILE OF astronomical terms, occult gibber-
ish and modern Stock exschange slang.
and dafy any human being to tell what
he was driving at. That was probably
the thing that made IL impressive
~ tried to point out the gross absurdity
of the whole proposition" continued the
broker. This fakir, said l, rs talking
about planets that are thousands of times
larger than this little earth OF ours They
are billions upon billions OF miles away
and rush through space In orbits OF i'm.
measurable vastnees. The human mind
can never begin TO conceive their grand
eur and their immensely, and all we
know is that they have been following
out some great universal law since the
beginning OF timeI yet here ID little
tuppenny ha'penny confidence man In
Boston who asks you to believe that
this stupendous process OF worlds is set
In motion to govern the manipulations OF
a handful OF paltry stock iobbers in Liver
pool and New Orleansl It's the craziest
and most comical idea ever preached out
side of an asylum The old gentleman
shrugged his shoulders. He's hit It
right powerful lot Of times, he replied.
/ gave him up as hopeless case, but the
incident caused me to look into the mat
tsr, and upon a little inquiry found
eighteen or twenty spectators here In the
city who. were investing their money
regularly son the advice OF Zobaria and
other professional astrologers OF the same
stamp. OF course they represented
mere fraction OF the total number OF
local clients. The fakirs sent out tips on
cotton, sugar, rice, wheat and Industrial
stocks, all the letters beginning In about
the same way. For example: i lind
Mars In the ASCENDANT, indicating I'M
pending change; Uranus and Jupiter in
the third plane, indicating rising market;
Sirius oonjoins left wing OF last horo-
scope, and so on and so on. IL is hard
to believe that sane people oan possibly
swallow such palpable fraud, but
found to my surprise that good many
OF the dupes were men and women OF
superior education, and, apparently more
than average intelligence
Later on l had clerk In my cifice
who had formerly worked for an astrologer
or some note tng New York city. and be
told me many amusing things about the
business behind the scenes. His boss.
nm aadfQtna pQh0 for wears
had managed big tent show In the
West for liver regulator company. he
had picked up a smattering OF scfentlne
terms in the role of long haired DOCTOR
and, being naturally smart, bright TEL
low, hit on the 'astrology graft, as he
called It. and launched out for himself.
He got the forms for horoscopes from an
old English almanac or 'ephemera, and,
as business increased he had four or nve
girls grinding them out all the time. My
young man told me that his mail was
enormous and that most OF his dupes
were residents of small towns In the
South and West. The ex-medieine man
was shrswd enough never TO accept any
money for Investment himself, but con-
fined mis- operations strictly to giving ad-
vice, for which he charged " letter.
The market tips were prepared for the
concern by q picturesque dipsomaniac
who used to be prominent figure on
Change, but had gone to the dogs and
was glad TO PICK up an odd dollar wher-
ever he could. Being an expert, his
opinions had some real value, and he
frequently hit IL right. That was the
gang who read 1t in the stars. This Is q
queer age we are living In.
81 forgot to mention that the old gentle
man who patronizes Zoabria Is rampant
sceptic as to religion. He says he wants
some positive evidence before be accepts
the Scriptures as q work OF Inspiration,