PALMIST COMES TO GRIEF.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 147, 22 June 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

PALMIST COMES TO GRIEF.

DECEIVED A POLICEMAN "ALL THE WAY THIIOUUH."

Another palmist tried in vain in the Appeal Court, London, on May Ist, to upset a conviction against her at Torquay. Mrs Arundel was convicted under the Vagrancy Act of having attempted to deceive one of His Majesty s subjects by pretending to tell his fortune. The ground of the appeal was that there was no intention to deceive proved; and, in fact, that there had been no deception. In the autumn of last year Mrs Arundel occupied lodgings at Torquay, and advertised that she would tell fortunes by means of palmistry. A police constable named Muggrage visited Mrs Arundel to get his fortune told.

She asked him first to read and sig-n a paper which stated the conditions under which she carried on her business. These were that she told fortunes according to the rules of wellknown text-books on palmistry, combined with her own skill, and that she disavowed all intention to deceive. The constable paid her 1/, and she tLim proceeded to tell him his tot tune. She fokl lJm that the three lines on his hands showed that he was destined to enjoy "health, wealth, find happiness," and further, that he would live to be eighty years of age, and that he was not fit for hard work. The constable in his evidence before the justices said he was "deceived all the way through." The Lord Chief Justice said it was a question of fact simply whether the business carried on by Mrs Arundol was or was not that of a professional fortune-teller. The justices had decided that question against the appellant, and had convicted her, and he saw no ground for interfering with the decision. The conviction would therefore stand, and the appeal would be dismissed.