Fortune -Telling and Marrimony.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 288, 6 December 1890, Page 2 (Supplement)

Fortune -Telling and Marrimony.

Thbbb is evidently room for a good matrix monial agency in Paris. Pending the form" ation of a trustworthy hymeneal bureau, mauy simple-minded persons, such as cooks and domestic servants generally, continue to be easy prey for fche ingenious sharpers who abound. This Mdlle. Arthdmise, «a cook of no mean professed ability, has found to her cost. She was visited lately by a ehowy female whom she had never seen be-: fore, and who at once accosted her by say-i ing, ' You want to get married, don J t you ?* The cook, surprised at, and no doubt im-; pressed by, the powers of divination thus displayed by the stranger, accepted gladly the latter's proposal to have her fortune told. The wise woman was to find out from the saint what kind of man was to pop the question to the iair Arthemise and lead her to the altar. Certain ceremonies had to be performed before the members of the heavenly hierarchy were consulted. Thus, Arthemiae had to put a gold piece in a glass of water, and then hold out the vessel containing the fluid and the coin at arm'S; length. The cook did all this, and as shej spilled no water the fortune-teller told herj that she was in luck's way. The glass was, DOW to be rolled up marked with the firsb letter of the alphabet, and placed; for twenty days at the bottom of a trunk. 1 Arbh6mise, in the meantime, was to emulate. Apostolic poverty and to give up to. thai fortune-teller all the ready cash and jewels, which she possessed, as if she kept such mundane articles the predictions might be hindered in their development. Accordingly the cook handed over about £12 in money and her trinkets. The fortune-teller took them, and went off to invoke Saint Joseph. Of course. Arthimiee is still a maiden, and her hardly-earned dot has been diminished to a considerable extent; The trick which was played on her was certainly one of the most audacious and successful ever proformed by any of thoso, wide-awake persons who study carefully; the idiosyncrasies of the more gullible poi'*l tion of the community.