The deviser of these books keeps his office in a rear tenement open
from early morning till late at night, and there is generally a
roomful of anxious patrons awaiting their turns.
At a single sitting, price $1, the man or woman who wants to know
may select three questions. She puts the number corresponding to the
questions on a slip of paper. The numbers do not run in regular order
through the book or through any section of it.
The slip of paper is kept concealed by the questioner, and later on,
when she is in the actual presence of the oracle, she writes those
numbers again on another slip of paper, hidden from the fortune teller
by a book cover. She also writes her name on two pieces of paper,
which she places in two Bibles, opened at random by the fortune teller
after she has named any three words she happens to see on the page.