But they don't use the mails to drum up trade, and they have no
barkers at the doorsteps to cajole the credulous to step inside to
learn what the future has in store for them. And so, in a legal sense,
they are guilty of no fraud. They are not very serious frauds in any
sense, for their tricks are harmless and their prognostications are
vague as the weather predictions of an almanac and as probable as the
sayings of the cart-tail orators who hold forth at the street corners
in campaign time.
"About this time, look for cold winds, with some snow," sagely remarks
the almanac writer, stringing the ten words of his prediction down the
entire column of the month.
"In a few years," says the fortune teller, solemnly, "you will have
good friends and more money than you have now."
"If you vote for this man," shrieks the cart-tail orator, "rents will
be lower and the street cleaner and you will get jobs. The other
ticket stands for graft and greed. Vote for it if you want your
children to run in the streets, because there is no room for them in
the schools."