FORTUNE TELLERS AND CLAIRVOYANTS.
The city journals frequently contain such advertisements as the
following:
"A TEST MEDIUM.--THE ORIGINAL MADAME F----tells everything, traces
absent friends, losses, causes speedy marriages, gives lucky numbers.
Ladies fifty cents; gentlemen, one dollar. 464----th Avenue."
"A FACT--NO IMPOSITION. The Great European Clairvoyant. She consults
you on all affairs of life. Born with a natural gift, she tells past,
present, and future; she brings together those long separated; causes
speedy marriages; shows you a correct likeness of your future husband
or friends in love affairs. She was never known to fail. She tells his
name; also lucky numbers free of charge. She succeeds when all others
fail. Two thousand dollars reward for any one that can equal her in
professional skill. Ladies fifty cents to one dollar. Positively no
gents admitted. No. 40----Avenue."
It seems strange that, in this boasted age of enlightenment, the
persons who make such announcements as the above, can find any one
simple enough to believe them. Yet, it is a fact, that these persons,
who are generally women, frequently make large sums of money out of the
credulity of their fellow creatures. Every mail brings them letters
from persons in various parts of the country. These letters are
generally answered, and the contents have disgusted more than one
simpleton. The information furnished is such as any casual acquaintance
could give, and just as trustworthy as the reports of the "reliable
gentleman just from the front," used to prove during the late war. The
city custom of these impostors is about equal to that brought to them
from the country by means of their advertisements. Some of them make as
much as one hundred dollars per day, all of which is a clear profit.
The majority earn from three to six dollars per day. Servant girls are
profitable customers. Indeed, but for female credulity the business
would go down.
Still, there are many male visitors. Speculators, victims of the gaming
table and the lottery, come to ask for advice, which is given at
random. The woman knows but little of her visitors, and has no means of
learning anything about them. Sometimes her statements are found to be
true; but it is by the merest accident. The clairvoyants do not
hesitate to confess to their friends, in a confidential way, of course,
that their pretensions are mere humbuggery, and they laugh at the
credulity of their victims, whilst they encourage it. It seems absurd
to discuss this subject seriously. We can only say to those who shall
read this chapter, that there is not in the city of New York an honest
fortune-teller or clairvoyant. They knowingly deceive persons as to
their powers. It is not given to human beings to read the future--
certainly not to such wretched specimens as the persons who compose the
class of which we are writing. The only sensible plan is to keep your
money, dear reader. You know more than these impostors can possibly
tell you.
Many of these fortune-tellers and clairvoyants are simply procuresses.
They draw women into their houses and ply them so with temptations,
that they frequently ruin them. This is the real business of most of
them. They are leagued with the keepers of houses of ill-fame. No woman
is safe who enters their doors.
LOVE-CHARMS.
These parties will also offer for sale "amulets," "charms," or
"recipes," which they say will enable a person to win the love of any
one of the opposite sex, and excite the admiration of friends; or "to
give you an influence over your enemies or rivals, moulding them to
your own will or purpose;" or to "enable you to discover lost, stolen,
or hidden treasure," etc., etc. For each or any of these charms the
modest sum of from three dollars to five dollars is demanded, with
"return postage." All these, as well as "love powders," "love elixirs,"
etc., are either worthless articles, or compounds consisting of
dangerous and poisonous chemical substances. Many of the men who deal
in them have grown rich, and the trade still goes on. The world is full
of fools, and these impostors are constantly on the watch for them.