The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-09-20

therefore, she diagnoses the case correctly
and hands out the desired remedy. In the
hundredth case, which may vary from
the accepted model. abe is wrong, But
this never troubles her.
The accepted mode Of fortune telling
Is with cards, and the Italian fortune
tellers have curious cards with quaint
medieval looking pictures on them. repre-
senting all possible situations in life. We'd
dings, funerals and christenings are pict-
ured. wills in which money Is to DO left to
the sitters, cofins in which they are to
be buried. churches in which they are to
be married; the omnipresent letter. which
is always on the way, boats and railway
traina for prospective journeys; mysterious
women, da'k-browed or blondes, calculated
by their e oks to make all the trouble the
seeress says they are bound to.
She uses several different packs OF cards
to each fortune, though 1t is hard to tell
why she should. as the result seems to
be the same The cards look as If they
came from Italy, where they might have
been in use in the Middle Ages; but they
are all made In a factory on Park Row.
One mild-mannered little Genoeee fortune
teller was encountered in q dubious tene-
ment on Baxter street one Saturday night
who used ordinary playing cards. She
explained naIvely that she got some regular
fortune-telling cards once. but the first
time she used them she fell down in fit,
and she was sure the pictures on them
were devils and were cursed, and she would
not use them any more.
This was an interesting instance OF super
stition on the part of the seeress herself
As for the sitters, the girls who have sad
taste of public school life are much more
sceptical than their mothers.
There are sad little stories Swallowed forth
in the fortune tellers room. Patient,
bareheaded women sit there with babies in
their arms seeking information of a husband
who has deserted them, or perhaps Of a son
who has run away from home.
They tell their story without reservation
and with a wealth Of dramatic infection,
and peer at the cards with pathetic eager
ness. Sometimes their husbands are under
arrest and they want to find out their chances
Of escape. or ill, and they want to know if
they will recover. Women have been
known to spend the last nickel they had in
the world in thus trying to learn the future.
Illness in the Italian colony brings out
another class of pro essionals whom the
women call witch doctors. Their treat
ment seems to consist Of mixture OF mas
sage and mystery.
They rub the sick woman with some kind
| Of oil, muttering nominations or charms
over her the while, charge fee ranging
| from 90 cents to 81 and 20 away, strictly
charging the patient to say nothing Of
| the visit to any regular practitioner.
| This is necessary in their business, for this
sort of contraband traffic is calculated to
rouse the ire of physicians and nurses.
There are also peripatetic fortune tellers
who 20 from house to house IN the tene-
ment districts with their packs of cards
| IN a little handbag, asking the lady OF
the house" If she would like 70 have her
fortune told. A stout blonde Swede has
been pursuing this occupation or some
years. Occasionally she slips past the
ianitor in houses OF q better class and plies
her trade among the middle class apart
| ments.
She charges 25 cents fortune, and con.
fesses that she makes q comfortable living
out OF it, A trace Of superstition WIS found
ia her too, for she insisted that when she
got a sitting at the flrst place where she
called in the morning she was sure to have
good day, while the opposite was likewis.
dismally true.
She manifested laudable ambition t.
be up to date in her profession. She con
fessed to having visited the high priced
professionals uptown those charging one
two or even Ave dollars a sitting, in order
10 study their methods and compare
results.
Il cant see ms their fortunes arc any
better than MINE shs said; they dom
come ont any truer. anyway.
This is probably quite true. but the pso