The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-11-25
ASTROLOGICAL" FRAUDS.
Intelligent People Who Allow Them
selves to BE Humbugged.
New Orleans Times-Democrat.

"Astrology as profession is in a vastly
more fiourishing condition to-day than it
was in the middle, ages" declared a we'll
known cotton broker, of this city. mo.
I'm not joking" he went on earnestly;
''it's a cold fact. Back in the sixteenth
century an astrologer generally ran his
telescope foundry in some rickety old
tower with a black cat as a side partner,
and was mighty lucky If he succeeded in
lodging the stake as a wind-up. At pres
ent he has a suite Of rooms in a metropol-
itan skyscraper. dictates his correspond
ence to beautiful typewriter houris and
does a land-office business in market fore
casts at 81 head, postage prepaid. 1t
seems incredible, 1 know; but millions of
dollars are undoubtedly invested every
year under the immediate direction OF
fakirs who pretend to read the future in
the stars My attention was first at
tracted to the subject in 1898. through the
peculiar orders / began to receive from
an old customer who had been taking an
occasional flyer in cotton ever since had
been in business. He knew nothing about
the intricacies Of the market himself, and
had generally asked my advice before in
yeSting. All of a sudden, however, he
changed his tactics completely and would
come in with precise and definite instruc-
tons, 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 been investing in some of the ready
made tips that are hawked about the
country, and. being curious to know the
source Of his information, l subjected him
to a little pumping. He finally admitted,
in rather q shame-faced fashion, that he
had become client OF a Boston astrologer,
who called himself 'Zobaria,' and who sent
him a weekly letter of advice, supposed to
be compiled from observations Of the
planets. l looked over the. fellows cir
culars and other literature and more
amazing lot OF balderdash / never laid
eyes on. 1t was weird tumble of astro-
nomical terms, occult gibberish and mod
ern stock-exchange slang, and 1 defy any
human being to tell what he was driving
at. That was probably the very thing that
made 1t impressive.
81 tried to point out the gross absurdity
of the whole proposition" continued the
broker. This fakir,' said 1, is talking
about planets that are thousands Of times
larger than this little earth of ours. They
are billions uEon billions OF miles away.
and rush through space in orbits Of i'm
measurable vasIness. The human mind
can never begin TO conceive their grandeur
and their immensely, and all we know is
that they have been following out some
great universal law since the beginning Of
time; yet here is a little tuppeny happen
ny confidence man in Boston who asks you
to believe that this stupendous procession
of worlds is set in motion TO govern the
manipulations of a handful Of paltry stock
jobberS in Liverpool and New OrleanSi 1t s
the craZiest and most comical idea ever
brached outside of an asylum The old
gentleman shrugged his shoulders. He's
hit it right a powerful lot of times he re-
piled. L gave him up as a hopeless case
but the incident caused me 10 look into
the matter, and upon little inquiry l
found eighteen or twenty spectators here
in the city who were investing their money
regularly on the advice of Zobarfa ard
other professional astrologers of the same
stamp. OF course, they represented a
mere fraction OF the total number of local
clients. The fakirs sent out tips on cot
ton, sugar rice wheat and industrial
the same way. For example,: 'I End
Mars in the ascendant, Indicating impend-
ing change; Uranus and Jupiter in the
third plane, indicating rising market:
Sirius conjoins left wing of last horoscope
and so on and so on. 1t is hard TO believe
that some people can possibly swallow
such a palpable fraud, but / found to MY
surprise that good many Of the dupes
were men and women of superior educa-
ton and, apparently, more than av-
erage intelligence. Later on / had
a clerk in my office who had formerly
worked for an astrologer of some note in
New York city, and he told me many anus
ing things about the business behind the
scenes. His boss was an ex-medicine
man who for years had managed a big
tent show in the West for liver-reguiator
company. He had picked up a smatter-
ing of scientific terms in the role of long
haired doctor and, being naturally a
smart, bright fellow, hit on the strology
graft, as he called it, and launched out
for himself. He got the forms for horo-
scopes from an old English almanac or
'ephemera, and, as business increased, he
had four or five 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-medicine
man was shrewd enough never to accept
any money for investment himself, but
confined his operations strictly to giving
advice for which he charged 81 a letter.
The market tips were prepared for the con-
Germ by picturesque dipsomaniac who used
to be a prominent figure on Change but
had gone to the dogs and was glad to
pick up an odd dollar wherever he could.
Being an expert. his opinions had some
real value, and he frequently hit it right.
That was the gang who read it in the
stars This is queer age We are living
in. 1 forget to mention that the old gem
tleman who patronizes Zobaria is a ram
pant skeptic as to religion. He says he
wants some positive evidence before he
accepts the scriptures as work OF in
spiration."