Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24
FINE OFFER MADE
FOR CLAIRVOYANT
Prof. Muensterberg Is Promised
Half Profits of Business-Har-
ward Man Declines.

Dr.. Hugo Muensterberg. the psy-
chologist of Harvard University, has
had an opportunity to go into part
nership with one of the most success
full clairvoyants of the country.
The clairvoyant came to the psy-
Geological laboratory and offered the
distinguished teacher half the in
come of the profitable business, not
because he believed much in the Har-
ward brand of psychology, but be-
cause he had lots of clients who
thought more highly of it than of his
own. Business was bound to boom
once the firm was started, declared
the clairvoyant, and he argued the
case with DR.. Muensterberg, giving
him inside information as to the man
ner in which the money could be
coaxed from the pockets of clients
into the cash drawer of the concern.
DR.. Muensterberg has decided not
TO accept the hattering proposition
And this for many reasons. chiefly
because as psychologist, he has
unusually good chances to get
glimpses of the filthy underworld
even If he does not frequent the
squalid quarters of the astrologers"#
OF this filthy underworld" DR..
Muensterberg has some startling
things to say. He does not have in
/ AAiiAAh tiiE NlC6 VI Tile SOtldl unueT-
world. the white slave traffic and the
spread of infectious diseases. But he
Is speaking of the vice of the intel
| lectual underworld which gives the
same sham fulfillments to the human
longing for knowledge and truth"
Tribute to spirituaIists.
I He declares that the bigger towns
have their red light districts with
their resorts for intellectual vice.
and pays his respects in scathing
terms to the spiritualists and PSYCHE
cal mediums, the palinists and astrol-
ogers, the spiritual advisers and the
sychotherapists, who "have a regu-
lar organized industry which brings
its steady income to thousands" In
| these places "the servant girl gets
her information as to the fidelity of
her lover for fifty cents, the clerk who
wants TO bet on the races pays So, the
| great. banker who wants to bet on
stocks pays $50 for his prophetic tips
and the widow who wants messages
from her husband pays $500, but they
all come and pay gladly
In an article in the current num-
Der of the International. DR. Muen-
sterberg discusses exhaustively this
intellectual underworld The arti-
Gle is full of sensational statements
and disclosures. For example, he
says:
81 know of large beautiful high
school, with well-trained teachers,
who have had a solid college educa-
| ton. I have found out that prac-
tically all these teachers are clients,
and for 81 sitting gives them advice
at every turn of their lives. E
| The prophecies of this fraud have
deeply influenced some of their lives
and shape the faculty of the school.
The double life of Jekyll and
! Hyde is more natural than this. >
| 1t would not be desirable for the high
! school teachers who are to be models
| of virtue to live a second life as gam
| bers and pickpockets, but it is more
! dangerous If they are the agents of
/ intellectual culture and indulge at
i the same time in intellectual prosti-
! tuition"
/ 1t is through his mail that Dr.
Muensterberg gets a great amount of
/ his information respecting this
superstition and mental crooked
ness" From "the correspondence
with which the underworld has be
sieged" him he extracts some letters
| TO illustrate his conclusions as to
| this form of intellectual vice, The
most frequent type of letters is frCm
/ persons evidently diseased, and all
/ these he disregards in his article.
i But Of the healthy crowd" he says:
There is no limit to their manu-
scripts. Their relation to old
! fashioned or to new fashioned spell
/ ing is not always a harmonious one.
| Nor should | call them always polite.
1t is surprising how often the
/ handwriting is pretty. coquettish or
/ affected, but almost half of my crank
correspondence is typewriter.
| When the newspa pers tell Of a mys
/ terious case minds of this type I'm
mediately feel attracted to mix in.
When the papers reported
! that | was experimenting with Bell
| lah Miller many persons from
| Maine to California felt tempted to
write long letters to me- The whole
performance showed lack of judg-
ment which is typical OF that lower
/ intellectual layer; and yet the letters
were often written on beautifully
monogramed letter paper
Gives Many Instances.
And then the writer cites a long
series of examples, all absurd, some
| startling and a few very amusing.
For instance:
II have before me a whole series of
manuscripts from a druggist who is
sure the ego theory is very near