Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-18
DRIVE OUT THE FhKERS

Los Angeles has a reputation in one
direction that it would fain dispense
with.
1t is overcrowded with takers.
The tourist and the casual visitor
rarely comes in contact with them, for
their ways and works are familiar to
him. They are just the cheap, ordi-
nary humbugs who are as promiscuous
and loud in New York and Chicago
as they are in Los Angeles. They are
the same the world over.
The fortune teller, the psychic healer,
the fake spirit medium. all have
spread their nets and their snares
throughout this city and for years have
coined money-not from the tourist or
the casual visitor, but from permanent
residents and vast army of gullible
people who hunger and thirst after the
mysterious and are satisfied to be hum
bugged without stint.
1t is time to stop the foolishness.
A little of it is bearable, as a source
of amusement to the intelligent, but
as a wholesale grab of the public's
money it has become nuisance.
The Herald is engaged in practical
effort to unmask these humbugs. It is
endeavoring to show the people the
open and shameless deceptions that
characterize the schemes of the takers
and to call out a warning against fur
ther patronage of them.
In this effort The Herald desires to
be distinctly understood that it will
not reflect upon any persons religion
or belief in ethical principles. The Her.
aid does not presume to question honest
spiritism or psychic research, concern
Ing which even the most learned knows
so little. The fight is against those
scheming individuals who have seized
upon these mysterious forms of mani
festation to humbug and deceive the
people for the dastardly purpose Of
making money out of honest mems be-
lief. This is the crime against human
ity which should invoke and does in
woke the righteous Indignation of every
honest man.
The city of Los Angeles licenses this
horde of takers under the one title
fortune tellers." They are permitted
to ply their trade" by the best muni-
cipality under the sun, and the city is
morally responsible for their hum
buggery.
In the series of elaborate articles
presented in The Herald from Sunday
to Sunday it has been and will be made
plain to the people and to the NUM-
cipal authorities that the licenses of
nine-tenths of the so-called fortune
tellers" OF all kinds and descriptions
should be cancelled upon the ground
of fraud. The faker is a conscience
less scoundrel, who often plays upon
the sacred feelings and sentiments of
the human heart and laughs at the
gullibility of his victims. People gem
orally have not the time, patience, dis
position or means to ferret out these
frauds. and hence they go on giving
up to humbugs hard earned money that
may be needed for the necessaries OF
life. A great newspaper like The Her
aid is able to discover those things
which all honest folks have right to
know, and it is in the furtherance OF
this right that the series OF articles
unmasking humbugs is made to appear
in the Sunday Herald.
1t may be stated incideDtally that in
procuring the necessary facts for these
articles The Herald has met with
threats OF personal violence and by vol
leys OF abuse from those who have
been caught dead to rights" In their
constituencies humbuggery but this
will have no deterrent effect whatever.
The faker in Los Angeles must be ex-
posed and driven out, The people have
had enough OF him.