FORTUNE TELLING CRAZE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 249, 9 February 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

FORTUNE TELLING CRAZE.

SOLDIERS' WIVES THE CHIEF DUPES. I One effect of tho war has been to breed clairvoyants in every quarter of the country.' Crystal gazers, palmists, and those who profess to be able to fathom the future by means of a mysterious knowledge of the sun, stars, col-. on red globes, and packs ol playing cards are prospering as never they have done before, mainly at the expense of ; tho wives and sweethearts of soldiers, j ''l find that some women are consult- j ing clairvoyants as regularly as they might go to a doctor," writes a correspondent to a London daily. " Whenever j they receive a letter from the front they take it to the fortune teller to learn whether it contains any hidden s'igns of the future. Other women go tor periodical reports on their prospects 111 business anil domestic life. The results of bogus warnings are sometimes \cry unpleasant " In tho West End of. London a common charge by those who have a tariff '.s if Is for palmistry and t- 2s for clairvoyance. One woman prosecuted recently at Westminster was stated to have been hooked five weeks in advance to peep into the futuro with the aid of crystals and golliwogs. I the London suburbs'and the provitiI ial towns half a crown or live shillings is the usual charge, with magic crystals extra, and palmistry at the war-time price is Is. Soldiers' wives who have to I I ve on their separation allowances are accommodated iu quantities by clairvoyants who have set up in quantities 'specially for these client's. At Manchester a woman who was prosecuted was said to have received 00 or 70 .soldiers' wives at a time, seating them 1 ound a room and telling their fortunes in rapid su'-ccssion at 2d. per head. A police official said recently that officers and oversea soldiers are among the prophet-, patrons, "although I don't ■ hink they believe what they ate told -o readily as women."' he added ('->ll - lirming this, a Canadian soldi; r related his experience in (he hands of n West End clairvoyant . " I went into ;l dark- | 1 tied scented room," he siul. "and u.is confronted by a wizened woman whose frock emitted fumes of patchouli. Having pocketed my L' 22 s, she a-ked my name and then look the letters separ- ' r.t'dy and red nod them to numera's. Alter that she added the vear in .which 1 was born, multiplied the re-ult by; the time the si 111 "is lav- took to reach the earth on flic day of my birth, and . announced impressively that I was 'A ■ clo-ed sewn o'.rillating en llia moon >

When T laughed she became annoyed and told mo curtly that I was in danger of developing tlie habit of taking drugs, which was inherited. That was my fortune.'' No women take the clairvoyants more seriously than those who regularly pay their half-crowns. One woman who was tc.ld recently that her husband, a sailor, would be drowned through the torpedoing of his ship, became so worrjed that she wrote to her husband asking him to corns home, as she and his son were both very ill. He obtained leave, and on arrival home found that all wa.s well.