Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-11-26
ASTROLOGY THEN AND NOW.
Middle Ages Fakfr Not in 1t With the
More Modern Variety.

From the New Orleans Times Democrat.
"Astrology as profession is in vastly
more f1ourishing condition today than it was
ic the middle ages declared a well-known
cotton future broker Of this city. mo,
I'm not Joking" he went on earnestly; ITS
a cold fact. Back in the sixteenth century
an astrologer generally ran his telescope
foundry in some rickety old tower, with a
black cat side partner, and was mighty
lucky if he succeeded in lodging the stake
as wind-up. At present he has a suite
Of rooms in a metropolitan sky scraper,
dictates his correspondence to leautiful
typewriter hours and does land Office
business in market forecasts at 81 a head,
postage prepaid. 1t seems incredible 1
know. but millions Of dollars are undoubt-
edly invested every year under the imme-
date direction of fakirs who pretend to
read the future in the stars.
my attention was first attracted to the
subject in '9S. through the peculiar orders
I began to receive from an old customer
who had been taking an occasional flyer in
cotton ever since 1 had been in business.
He knew nothing about the intricacies of
the market himself, and generally 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
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, I subjected him
to a little pumping. He finally admitted,
in rather a Shame-faced fashion, that he
had become client Of a Boston astrologer
who called himself Zobaria' and sent him a
weekly letter Of advice supposed to be COM
piled from observations of the planets. l
locked over the fellows circulars and other
literature. and a more amazing lot of bal
derdash I never laid eyes on. 1t a
weird tumble Of astronomical terms, occult
gibberish and modern stock exchange slang,
and defy any human being to tell what he
was driving at. That was probably the
thing that made it impressive
II tried to point out the gross absurdity
of the whole proposition" continued the
broker. "The fakir,' said I, is 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 inn
measurable vastness. The human mind
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 little tuppeny ha'penny
confidence man in Boston who asks you to
believe that this stupendous procession OF
worlds Is set In motion to govern the
manipulations of handful of paltry stock
jobbers in Liverpool and New Orleans! It's
the craziest and most comical idea ever
preached outside Of an asylum The old
gentleman shrugged his shoulders. He's
hit It right powerful lot of times he re-
piled. I gave him up as a hopeless case.
but the incident caused me to look into the
matter, and upon a little inquiry / found
eighteen or twenty spectators here In the