Evening star., 1901-07-13
New York is a Town That Loves tt
Be Humbugged,
VALUE OF A POLICE PULL
Why the Roof Gardens Are Fall
ing Off in Favor
SANDWICH MEN ORGANIZE

| Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
| NEW YORK, July IL 1901.
| That large class of New Workers who be-
| lieve in astrology, fortune telling the black
art. seventh-son- son-of-a-seventh-son stunts.
| card reading, future horoscoping, healing
| by the laying of hands, mind reading
and such truck had rude shock the other
day. One of the mghtiest fakirs Of the ira.
that famous laying-on-of-hands person with
the hair, showed himself up. He went forth
and accumulated for himself one stupen-
| dous jag, and. on the whole. he seemed to
| be pretty glad of it. He conducted himself
| much after the fashion of other poor wignts
| in the undisputed possession of what the
New Workers cal buns" that is to say,
he manifested an almost irresistible DISPOSE
tion to tear down with his bare hands all
| of the buildings that didn't suit his ideas
| of color scheme he unsteadily patroiled
| the thoroughfares. and he likewise exhibit
ed perfect Willingness to eat all the cops
| that stood swinging their batonS within his
range of vision.
1t is not going to be set down here that
he blacked his wife'S nce-looking eyes, but
| when the newspaper men called upon her to
| inquire why il was that she so much de-
| sired her husbands incarceration it is GER
| tain that the windows of her soul were in
| deep purplsh mourning. The healer, 1t APP
| peared from his wifeS story, had oeen OH
| the reservation and making war medicine
for quite a lengthy period, and it was her
| wish, she said, that he sort of hobbled up
| in municipal donjon keep, in order that
he might not reach that point in his Joy
| when he would be waging unavailing war
| with green jaguars. smoke-hued porcupines
and butterflies larger than the great aux OF
| the Andes.
| The laying-on-of-hands person with the
plethora of locks falling over his shoulders
made his appearance while the newspaper
| men We're seeking information from his
| SpOuSe,
| in his treatment of them. He insisted that
each and every one of them should mellow
| up on liquid rejection at his expense, and
he grew quite pathetic in his protestations
| that he was an abused man when they de-
| clined his generous suggestion that they
| drink themselves to beyond the verge
| of helplessness. All in all. he conducted
| himself this occasion much after the
manner of a gunners mate from a battle
| ship who is ashore for the first time in sew
| eral months There was nary mote of his
| fine hirsute spirituality upon him on this
occasion, and his wife sorrowfully acknowl-
edged that he hadn't been a little bit spirit
| ual since he had decided to mobilize his
regular-she said it was regular-midsun-
| mer drunk.
Feathered His Nest.
The newspaper men who visited the heal
| er's apartments found that the chap had
been in pretty fine case indeed His apart
ments were little short of sumptuous-a
suite across from Central Park west, quite
fit for the occupancy of bookmaker. The
furniture was choice, the general appoint
ments in the extreme Of the mode, and
works of art-Some of them, indeed,
smashed by the unanimously joyous lay
! ing on ofhands person since the launching
| of his toot-were scattered all over the
| rooms. From which it was obvious that he
had prospered even more here in New York
than he had ever proSpered out In the west
ern country-and this chap with the super
fluffy of greasy chestnut hair is known to
a h1yo.f .,rl
thing by himself in the progress of his
tours of some of the large western cities
He has been here for some time, and, until
the n1mbus fell away from him owing to
| his ill-timed embarkation upon his pro-
| longed jamboree. there was a block-long
line of swagger carriages in front of his
| plant every day.
| 1t may seem incredible that New York
persons of wealth and intelligence-many
OF them women, whose names figure almost
| daily In the society" columns of the news
| paperS-Should have reverently approached
| this colossal humbug for treatment for
their ailments, but such is nevertheless the
fact He charged them any old price
charged them, perhaps, in accordance with
what he conceived their ability and their
| willingness to stand. He took as low, it is
| said. as s. for his little act and he got as
| nigh as $1,000 from patients sufficiently pin
| headed to imagine that he had cured them
| OF their physical and mental ills. 1t is un-
! derstood that, in spite of the pretty size
| able sum he has been bestowing upon the
| brands
| of wine. he has sated away most of the
| heavy sum that he has drawn from the
| New Workers.
| A Gullfble Town.
The metropolis Of America is the easiest
kind of picking for the grafters who pro-
| fess to manipulate the supernatural and
| the preternatural house painter kneads
putty. The town is perennially packed and
| jammed with them, and not only do they
become lollingly rich within a few years
| The establishments maintained by num-
| e1Cus of these cheerful workers are almost
unbelievably splendid-5th avenue itself is
| not free from them. Simple or involved
| transparent or mysterious, their trickery
| catches on and brings in the money They
| have devised innumerable variations of the
| old-time schemes to befool the superstiti-
ously inclined out of their change but the
| wise New Workers "go to- their humbug-
| glng practices, money in hand, the Vicar
| of Wakefield's boy Moses went to" the
| purveyors of the green spectaces.
| In burst of emotional confidence the
| champion of them ALL the unbeatable Mad
| anne Blavatsky, once remarked to the
| writer, with a perspiry smile. that the deni-
| Zens of New York were world-beaters when
| it came to gullibility, and the ever-delight-
| full Blavatsky was right. The puffy, grimy
| hag, with unclean finger nails, who yester-
day professed to tell you whether your fu-
| ture husband wife was going to be of
| light or dark complexion, and who delv-
| cred these pronulciamentos at a dollar a
! throw, in a room reeking with the evil
| aroma of cabbage onions. is tomorrow
| the sumptuous fat person delivering the
same inscrutabilites at the rate of $40 for
| ten-minute seance in West Side man.
| sion, the hall of which is sprayed by rose
| water from fountain
| Fairly Hand Them Money.
No matter where or how these unscrub-
bed delivers in the occult hold forth, the
New Workers seek them out and hand them
| money. Only a few weeks ago a fellow
| advertised. with an amount of gall that
| would have enabled him to take cities In
| other ages, that he had the power of trans
| muting the baser metals into gold His
| ads appeared in ell Of the yellow journals
| They set forth that he could switch any old
| thing in the metal line into gold that would
| be accepted at the mint. Now, difficult as
| IL Is to believe. this man Of the monolithic
| nerve promptly had more business than he
| could begin to take care of. He charged
| his customers very high fees, and told them
| that the process required several weeks in
tie Ho eof bo}r H.,