THE SUBTLE CRAFT OF PALMISTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 130, 1 June 1908, Page 3

THE SUBTLE CRAFT OF PALMISTRY.

i -I A CAUTION ADMINISTERED. A well favoured lady of comfortable physique, named Madame Levine, was today required to explain away a charge of using a subtle craft, to wit, palmistry, to derive certain of Ms Majesty's suV jects, the said deceived ones' being Constables Caldwell and Copp. Madame pleaded guilty, and Mr. Hendry proceeded to explain that the lady arraigned kept a shop in Lower Queen-street much affected of people, especially women, who desired fatuously, to learn sigra and wonders per medium the science of palmistry. Apparently she did a thriving business, said the sergeant, but there then arrived two police constables, and Madame appears in Court sequently. She had not the least notion in the world that she had been breaking the law, said Madame in explanation. She had practised for years, in Melbourne, in Sydney, in Wellington, and now in Auckland, and had hitherto never been interfered with in the least. Palmistry was a science, she informed his Worship; it -was not fortune-telling at all. Mr. Kettle: Can you tell people what their fortunes are to be? Madame: " No, I can tell them for what they are adapted in life. There is no empty-headed nonsense put into their heads by palmistry." " But you are trading on the weakness and curiosity of silly people," suggested Mr. Kettle. " Now, don't you admit yourself that it is all nonsense?" he invited. " No," indignantly protested' the lady, "I do not. Silly people will not come to mc because I tell them the truth. They want to go to people who do crystal reading and things of that sort." "But there are cracks in the soles of one' 3 feet, you know," persisted his Worship. " Why not read out fate through. ! those as well as by the hand ? " " Well," replied Madame, amid the hu2? tnjoyniKiir, of the Coort-rconi, "iliat would be a very unpleasant job. Thfl hands of some people are quite uad enough," she reflected!, in charming enough to study," she reflected in charmcandour. " Well, in any case, the law does not allow this set of thing," said the magistrate, who went on to say that she was liable to a penalty of a £5 fine and one month's imprisonment. And he warned her against persisting in the science, else matters might become unpleasant. Madame left under coriviction of having practised the subtle craft with an order to appear again when called upon.