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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



have told fortunes from the hand for 

 pay; and, though one styled himself 

 " professor " and the other was a 

 " madame " and not a common way- 

 side gypsy, they werehoth held guilty 

 of common juggling and were pun- 

 ished accordingly. The puhlic prose- 

 cutor said that he did not lay any 

 stress on the fact that pay had been 

 taken ; he asked for a conviction sim- 

 ply on the ground that fortune-telling 

 was against the law, and he carried 

 his point. The judge observed that 

 similar proceedings might be taken 

 against young ladies who tell for- 

 tunes at church and charity bazaars; 

 and the prosecutor admitted that such 

 was very likely the case. These 

 young ladies, he said, would have to 

 look out for themselves. 



We must say that this action on 

 the part of the Canadian authorities 

 strikes us very favorably, and we 

 should be greatly pleased if we could 

 see similar proceedings taken nearer 

 home. It is a lamentable fact that 

 hundreds of persons who ought to 

 know better amuse themselves by 

 lending their countenance to the 

 practitioners of all kinds of silly and 

 dishonest arts, and so far assist them 

 in practicing their frauds upon a 

 more ignorant and helpless class. 

 We are all familiar with the stories 

 which pass current in private circles 

 of the extraordinary revelations and 

 predictions made by ladies and gen- 

 tlemen who go off iu trances and 

 see the past and future unrolled 

 before their upturned eyes with all 

 the distinctness of an actual panora- 

 ma. But there is one thing which 

 these interesting and highly gifted 

 individuals do not like, and that is 

 to get into the courts, or anywhere 

 where they can be called upon to 

 give a succinct and definite account of 

 their doings and pretensions. They 

 are not ambitious of going into a 

 trance before the magistrate, and 

 giving an exhibition of the powers to 



which they lay claim in their adver- 

 tisements, much as that might be 

 expected to help their reputation 

 and their business. For that very 

 reason it would be an excellent 

 thing to bring them where the light 

 of common day could be thrown 

 upon their performances ; and. if 

 there is no law under which this 

 could be clone, our legislators, who 

 make so many needless laws, might 

 very well pass one, the general effect 

 of which would be to enforce the 

 responsibility of all persons public- 

 ly pretending to the possession of 

 any kind of supernatural power. It 

 would tend to cool the faith of even 

 the most beuighted dupes to see 

 their favorite seer cutting a foolish 

 figure before a judge who simply 

 wanted to know what it really was 

 for which he charged money. In 

 the Canadian cases both operators, 

 when they got into court, showed a 

 great disposition to minimize their 

 claims to any power of foretelling 

 events by palmistry or otherwise, 

 and so it would be in every similar 

 case. It is one thing to deal with a 

 gullible maiden who wants to know 

 the color of her future husband's 

 hair, and quite another to converse 

 with the officers of the law. 



Most of the frauds which have 

 any continued success owe it. in 

 part at least, to an undue faith in 

 the personal integrity of the practi- 

 tioner. It seems a rude as well as 

 an unkind thing to suppose that So- 

 and-so, whose demeanor is so modest 

 and frank and simple, whose senti- 

 ments are so elevated, whose whole 

 personality seems calculated to in- 

 spire confidence, is really an out- 

 rageous deceiver. In many cases 

 people have said in effect that, if they 

 had to choose between believing a 

 miracle and doubting the ver.icity of 

 this or that engaging individual, they 

 would believe the miracle. Yet time 

 and again the engaging individual 



