EPIDEMIC CREDULITY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVIII, Issue 81918, 27 February 1907, Page 3

EPIDEMIC CREDULITY.

I "CLAIK \ (.) I'AN TJiS" I\ MELOL'ILS'JO. Superstition is not dead; nor have Silly people ceased to exist. In Mi-i----lounie, says the 'Argus;' there i» a H'cnidoseenee „f interest in fortune teli'l's. predatory humbug* aK> just now fattening on the folly and credulity of thousands of the penl'.e. Ignorant women, who in iess rosy tunes made ihcir living over tin-wash-tub, or in some similar way, are neap;ng up banking accounts which Wilt keep them away from the starch and ti.e blue and tlic soap and tliu wringer/ for ever-. No more aching backs aud sore hands to be atoned for only by lierce raids on the pickled onions of the 1; nisehold where they were washing! -I'hey are now "cialrvovaiues," courted eagerly by the stupid, the credulous, and the curious, and \\it ; i engagements booked ahead, at lialf-a-guinea a l ine, for months to come V p.iysician who iinds himself suddenly lashionable doeV not reap > 0 rich i harvest as these impostors. So long as they prove mere feeders upon loll', tlicv do little harm beyond iiiak.ii; more dege.ieiiile the people who "con suit (hem, Fuit there is evident.that-, in order to gain custom, the io. tuiKi-tellcr becomes guilty of reek I,: - or malicious slanders which disturb ih happiness ef the community. '".Mui:-.-hoincs have teen broken up by the r device," one cnrre>pondei:t- says. i

cau corroborate this," another sa>' feelingly: "I have been parted fro: my wife for the last nvelve month

through nothing but my poor wif/-c-redulity in visitng one of them." W'itli this malicious playing w.tli tiljealousies and suspicions of wives au! husbands, the fortune tellers must b • accounted dangerous; and their dupe--, though we may still regard tliein wit > contempt, warning*. an|l pri.; tection. These lire days of neurot c fancy, and apparently no amount i f advice will keep pcopie of weak imagination away from the ''clairvoyant c's ' clutches. The churches set 'tlvcir faces sternly against the hcresay; but; gullible persons are hard to control. Th ■ impostors themseives are wise, and appeal to religious emotion; for the usual prelude to -their mummeries consistin sanctimonious hynm and prayer. Religious prohibition fails; and the law fails too. There appears to be too many technical obstacles to make it possible to set the law regarding im position in operating against thc.-i----frauds. The very police, it may b- 1 suspected, are not free from the ignorant and silly superstition on which the fortune-tellers prey. At any rate, au injudicious advertisement recently given by the police to one of the ''mc : diums" bad the effect of inducing to ln v such a ru-li of custom that she put, up her price from five shillings to half-a-gulnea. The fools were encourage.! where tlicy should have been protect cd.

Women —even men aUo—"who>e education might have taught them better sense, join the thoughtless throny. They go "just from curiosity," but wit!' some ifoolish longing urging them ju*i the sanu'. Tliis is a tiino of scientific uncertainty regarding many physical phenomena, and wth the air fnl of ideas regarding hypnotism, though! transference', and other things on which Science i> weighing her opinions. '{ln-]).HCudo-se:enti!ie quacks find their op-port-unity. it is* useless to remind pcopie that the "clairvoyante" pretendto exercise powers which no scientific process, but only omniscience, could bestow. Koally, liie.-e seers are too modest. l-'or a mere- iive-shillings' they overcome space and time; they revea the liidden future for the price of n pair of stockings. Did anyone ever before call spirits from the vasty deep for such small payment? The present epidemic of sillines= will, it is to be hoped, prove only a phase. In time it wiil run itself out, .and 'the "seer" who was born to the wash-tub wiil cease her to 'plunge her arms to the elbows in the suds onee more. ' j