CRYSTAL GAZER

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 4539, 14 March 1922, Page 4

CRYSTAL GAZER

AND THE FUTURE’S VEIL

RUDE REALITY MEETS FORTUNETELLER.

Still another of the dread sisterhood which reads, or pretends to read, the future, submitted to appearing before Mr'F. K. Hunt, S.M. in Wellington. On this occasion, Williamana Barbara McDonald was the subject of a charge of fortune-telling. Sub-In-spector McNamara prosecuted. A police matron deposed that she had visited the defendant’s house at 66, Roxburgh gtreet, on February loth, at about 2 p.m. She had had tho mystic secrets of the future unlocked to her. She was told that she was a married woman with five children. living apart from her husband (as a matter of fact, she was a widow) She was leaving for England shortly; June, July, and August were her lucky months, and there would be a death in her family at the end of tho year.

Then she '.ad produced the teapot and teacups, which had pronounced her to be doing business with solicitors shortly. She had, however, nothing to- fear. (Laughter.) In the crystal, madame had perceived witness sandwiched between a black cat and a tree, which was a very good omen. Any business she undertook would he very successful. All this had been cheap at two shillings.

The assistant-matron had accompanied her . Her hand, examined, had revealed a severe illness in store. She would journey across water in April, and had her life for the next tweve months detailed to her. She was to leave on a land journey, money would reach her in a letter, and December would be a very bad month. Asked if she had-anything to say, the defendant described herself as a “psychic reader.” “Well, are you going to give it up, or am I going to send you to gaol ” asked His Worship. “I’ll give up fortune-telling, but I am a psyscic reader,” protested the woman. “You are a. lot of cheats, and rob the public.” was the opinion of the bench. “How long after the last case was this, Mr McNamara?” The sub-inspector replied that it had been about the same time. “She has a very big business, this woman,” he concluded. “Very well, then,” said the magistrate. “You had no warning. I’ll fine vou £5. I’d fine you £SO if I could; but owiipg to this absurd Act. I am .not empowered to. It’s ridiculous—they make £5 a day, some of these women. Go and earn your bread and butter honestly, You keep them on the run, McNamara,”