Ke Alakai o Hawaii, Volume VI, Number 6, 8 June 1933 — TRICKS OF THE FORTUN ETELLERS [ARTICLE]

TRICKS OF THE FORTUN ETELLERS

By FOREST HILLS

Mlllions of Americans are enthralled today by the fake "powers" of a host of who pretend to be able to tell fortunes. All of these frauds foo! their victims by reallv simple trtcles.

Most tricks are simple when you know how they are done. Yet few of us ever leam these secrets because the masters of trickery, the professional maglcians, as apprentices are pledged never to reveal to laymen how the.y perform their tricks, Bu{ now in their aftxiety lest myrlads of Americars be weaned away from modem understanding of nātural laws and }>e plunged Haek lnto the futllity of the ancient world, some of the best magicians on earth aie disclpsing certain of their own jealously guarded methods in order to expose the socially dan-

geraus trickery of the fortune tellers. . For at least 40 centuries the world has been afflicted wlth a mania for divtning the future, This old hunger for advarxce knowledge of what is going to happen ean be appeased mueh better by the application of eewnmon sense to all problems, yet many refuse to believe this. Most of these are persons who laek eommon sense. Before there was, any such thing as scientifle understandMfig, there was excuse for the credulous to entertain belief in the notion that certain gifted individuals possessed un- ; eommon powers enabling them jto pull aside the curtain that | veils the future. There is no such | excuse today but there is, be- | cause of the depression, an ex- | traordinary hunger in people j who have lost faith in their own | judgment for some supernatural guidance in making decisions. In consequence, America toda3f seems to be shot throush,wit4 credulity for anythlng that īs Qf|, fered as a mystic recipe Ioī; reading the future. ' !

It is by no means the poor Ignorant who are guiding fcheijr llves by these fa|se prophets. In, ail large cities ol the country are affluent teachers of th3srsillincss who find aU their patronage among the rich and socia!ly prominent;

Within mashie shot of the eapitoi in Washington there are dis r played the window signs dozens of fortune-tellmg fakes. Not all are astrologers. Some are tealeaf readers; some palmists; some card readers, and yet othnumerologists. Some of them b oast that among their clientelfi are members of congress. There are, according to John land, one of the world's forejno§t magicians, at teast 25,000 fortuxie tellers of all species in New Yock City. He īncluded in his coun,t spirit mediums who accept fees fw their work. In Chicagq, he saw the card index of a purvey--6r of trtck appliances, "gimmicks." and discovered that this discreet merchant had than 2.000 customers, eaeii engraged in. some variety of fOrtune telling.

Mulhol}and, editor of tJgue Sphinx ; the maga2ine of the #e®Bfc&aal magkians, aad crcmy pf all the world's great has bcen inve*Ug;Uing for yeaxs and has been favored by Lhe fact that what he investigates is essentlally a black-leg ,branch of Ms own craft Magiclans of 4d pretended to be sooth sayexs, ftowadaj*s; I leamed from the fortune teliors use any ot the devises and niueh of the shiewd understanding of human a#i«ype that is a large part 0 f the magicians* craft. As it aai' ®tapic!an on the stage cauld teli fortunes as eonvinclnglj- as ti;e best of the charlatans.

'•Do you thJnk *itli a bag of trl«ks ci\n be a "»»!' elan?" Mulhollan<i askcd me. suxd beforo I could— - ! 'To be contimKHl next wssk}