The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1901-01-18
ASTROLOGY FAKIRS.
THE MODERN SAMPLE SHARPER THAN
HE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

Connection Between the Planets
Have No Trouble In Hooking Vic-
Tins.
"Astrology as profession is in vast
ly more furnishing condition today than
1t was in the middle ages" declared
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 gen.
orally ran his telescope foundry in some
rickety old tower, with black cat as a
side partner, and was mighty lucky If he
succeeded in lodging the stake as a
wind up. At present he has a suit Of
rooms in metropolitan skyscraper, die
tates his correspondence to beautiful
typewriter hours and does a land office
business In market forecasts at 50 head,
postage prepaid. 1t seems incredible, I
know, but millions of dollars are I'M
doubtedly invested every year under the
immediate direction of fakirs who pre-
tend to read the future in the stars
My attention was first attracted to the
subject in 1898, through the peculiar or
ders began to receive from an old GUS
toner who had been taking an occasional
business. He knew nothing about the
intricacies of the market himself and gen.
orally 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 mar
ket. l 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 lit
tie pumping. He finally admitted in rath-
err shame faced fashion that he had be-
come a client of a Boston astrologer who
called himself Zobaria and sent him a
weekly letter of advice supposed to be-
compiled from observations of the PLAN
cts. 1 looked over the fellows circulars
and other literature, and a more amazing
lot of balderdash never laid eyes on. 1t
was a weird tumble of astronomical
terms, occult gibberish and modern
Stock Exchange slang, and 1 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 absurd
ity of the whole proposition" continued
the broker. This fakir,' said l, 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 Unreasonable vastness. The
human mind can never begin to conceive
their grandeur and their immensely, and
all we know is that they have been fol-
lowing 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 stockholders In Liver.
pool and New Orleans! 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.
Il gave him up as a hopeless case, but
the incident caused me to look into the
matter, and upon little inquiry found
IS or 20 spectators here In the city who
were investing their money regularly on
the advice of Zobaria and other profess
sional astrologers of the same stamp.
OF course they represented q mere frac-
ton 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, L find Mars In the ascend
ant, Indicating impending change; IRA
nus and Jupiter in the third plane, indi-
eating rising market; Sirius conjoins left
wing of last horoscope and so on and so
on. 1t is hard to believe that some peo-
pie can possibly swallow such palpable
fraud, but found to my surprise that q
good many of the dupes were men and
women of superior education and, ap-
parently, more than average intelligence.
Later on l had a clerk in my office
who had formerly worked for an astrolo-
ger Of some note in New York city, and
he told me many amusing things about
the business behind the scenes. His
boss was an ex-medicine man who for
years had managed big tent show in
the west for liver regulator company.
He had picked up smattering of scien-
tifc terms in the role of long haired doc
tor, and, being naturally q smart, bright
fellow, 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 five girls grinding them out oil the
LlIne MY young HAL lolu lie lAdl 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 50 a letter.
The market tips were prepared for the
concern by a 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 wher-
ever he could. Being an expert his opin-
ions had some real value, and he fire.
quently hit it right. That was the gang
who read it in the stars This is a
queer age we are living in."-New Or
leans Times-Democrat.