The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-01
TRICKS OF FORTUNE
 TELLERS EXPOSED
Card Index Gives Information
 Of Easy Victims
IN DIFFERENT CITIES
Such Information Is Passed From One Crook to Another and Always Brings High Price.
 Methods Exposed

Roy L. McCardell, the hunnorist, is undertaking the fortune tellers. In an article in the January Hamptons maga-. zine palmists come in for a good deal of his attention.
 "The palmists are sufficient In number to organize an army corps," he declares. ''They can read your thoughts by their wonderful magnetic qualities, and they can read the past, present and future by merely observing the lines of your hand. Tn reality, they read more in a patrons face than can possibly be guessed at from the lines of the hands. These suave, long-haired gentry-most of the palmists are men, though few women hold hands also-are usually polished and superb specimens of idle manhood. men who are too lazy to do actual work, and make a living instead by poses perfume and prognostications. The f1attery so dearly loved by women falls from their lips like petals from a fading rose. There Is no reason why it shouldn't; they know their batter by heart.
 "One of the most successful of the so- called psychics is Khaldah. an affable, polished, clever chap who has been frequenter of Atlantic City for many sum
  to have supernatural powers. He calls himself an 'entertainer.' and has exposed various tricks of his profession time and again, showing to parlor audiences that the pretended psychic powers of others are usually no more than mere adroitness in sleight of hand and clever batter learned by heart.
 ''T could have made a fortune if hol 1f7e fo a . 2 crook said Khaldah. recently, in dis cussing the fun he has had in showing how tricks are done I have always been clever at sleight-ofhand work, and as boy l used to do tricks and indulge in parlor magic. I soon learned that the secre. of all psychic success is that the public loves to be fooled.
 ''' Women delight in believing in the supernatural. They are impressed by the mystic glamor with which the frauds surround themselves. They are the prin- cipal patrons of the mediums and the palmists. They want to believe, and they do believe, in spite of the exposures and the efforts of their friends to convince them that they are wasting their money on wil-o'wisp
 "I have found that it really is a mis- take to try and convince people that the whole thing is a fraud, except so far as mere cleverness and dexterity is con 
 and if one of the high priests comes for ward and tells the truth, as I do, they simply go to others and are persuaded that the others, at least have real psy- chic powers that have been denied me-
 Almost everyone has heard of fortune tellers confronting their clients with per sonal information which Is really amaz- ing. good deal of amazement is put out of business by MT McCardelPs article.
 That there is freemasonry among the psychics, the palmists, and all the other soothsayers, which leads them to protect and aid each other, is well-es- tabisiod fact" declares MT. McCardell. This explains how it is that a patron of one psychic is recommended to try an- other-someone who does something else, and gets wonderful results. The ma terializer will suggest that you might get results from the slate writer. The palm ist will mention a medium whose con trols are wonderful and who has three voices. Thus you are passed on from one to another until you are thoroughly plucked and get tired of the game, or are quite convinced that 1t is all real and make the rounds over and over again.
 .The card index system of catalogued information is used by certain cliques, and sets of names, addresses and dope for different cities commands a. high price when a new psychic comes to town. This dope is the result of careful, de- tailed work the part of certain psychics who rope in new victims. The majority of the patrons who are fre- quent patrons of these establishments are already recorded In the card index bureau of one of the psychics, and the information contained therein is trans nnitted by confidential bulletin, once month, to all other subscribers to the ser vice.
 There are thousand and one ways of obtaining valuable information about any prospective victim. and there have been cases even where mediums and ipsy- ohics, planning to visit some particular town or city, have sent agents six months ahead into the territory to compile gos- sip and facts about the people living in the vicinity.
 Tn the big cities it Is of course hard CT to get this detailed information, but on the other hand victims are far more plentiful. and if the psychic be at all clever the victim can be pumped until he himself furnishes all the information desired Women are especially loquac- ious when visiting a psychic. and as he guesses in the dark, they will instinctipe- Q ly say: That's so,' or No. you're wropg. as he plunges blindly, but whether he guesses right or wrong, they smile and pay the price"