The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-13

hines being the lowest. The operator shuffes the pack first, then the client cuts it. Married persons must out with the left hand, single persons with the right, making the wish at the same time
 Observe that the clients manner of cutting tells the operator wh ether she Is married or single, without the ques- tion being asked Later, when the real fortune comes to be told, the client has forgotten that betrayal.
 The card at the bottom of the cut is noted and the fortune teller shuf- fies the pack thoroughly again and the person who has made the wish cuts 1t Into three packets, face down. These packets are separately examined to see in which of them the cut card Is to be found.
 If the nine of hearts is in the same packet the wish will come true If the ten of hearts, but not the nine, Is with the cut card, it is possible that the wish may be granted, but if the nine of spades Is in that lot 1t is sure disappointment
 The accompanying or intervening cards tell what obstructs or helps the wish. That Is where the skill of the fortune teller comes in.
 When 1t is necessary to decide more weighty things than wishes, more elab- crate methods are employed and the whole 32 cards are used. Here Is the method by which so many of the fortunes of New York's 400 were foretold by the old German woman on the East Side.
 After the client cuts the pack the operat1c deals off 15 cards face down. The r/nainder of the pack is then snuff fled /nd one card Is laid off for the hous/, one for yourself and one for your wisJ. The client must make wish just before the third card is laid off.
 Four more cards are then dealt off on the top of each of these three, making five cards in each pile. Each pile in turn Is then turned up and read by the fortune teller, her skill being shown by the man ner In which she can spin a story that contains leading strings. By the time she gets to the wish she knows pretty well what you had on your mind when you first sat down.
 It would seem as if any person could go through this process for himself without the expense of a professional, but the same result is never arrived at. The same is true of astrology, as no astrol- oger can read his own horoscope. Why? Probably for the reason already hinted at, that the cards and the stars and the palm of the hand have little or nothing to do with the actual reading.
 One curious thing about fortune telling with cards is that if the person asking a question does not believe in such things and ridicules the idea of there being anything in it there is nothing in it for that person. Such persons are wasting time and money going to fortune tellers except from curiosity The same Is true of spiritualists; if you are not in sym pathy with them you get no results
 The proper attitude of the mind Is not one of blind credulity but certain open ness a willingness to listen to what the fortune teller has to say. whether you do not believe 1t or find it only an echo of what is passing in your own thoughts. Nothing will so surely prevent you from getting your moneys worth as to contra dict os to insist that such and such thing could not possibly happen to you.
 No one can so to a fortune teller of the better class without being taken by sur prise at the way he will hit upon some things. It may be indefinite and ann biguous, but he hits 1t sometimes in remarkable way, and these hits finger in the memory long after the failures are forgotten.
 A Well-known author thought he would test one of these fortune tellers once by making a wish about book he had signed a contract for a day or two before and which he knew he would make a good deal of money out of that year, as all his books had been successes. He wished that he might make at least $100 out of the new book that year, smiling to himself