CHILD-LIKE UNITED STATES

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11829, 10 January 1933, Page 3

CHILD-LIKE UNITED STATES

DEATH OF AN ASTROLOGER:,

NEW FORK. Nov. 15.

Ancient Egypt- had its. Joseph; Bablyo.uia and Assyria, too, knew prophets Greece had its Calchas, its. Delphian Oracle; and. the United States, “the land where almost anything may hapveu” lias had it's Evangeline Adams. On November 10 this modern score,is, tin’s woman who was sought out and heeded by kings and mUlionaij.’cs, artists and artisans, died in the studio in which since 1902 'sho had revealed, with the aid of stars, tlio destinies of the lowly and the. groat. 'While rival astrologers, crystal gazers, palniisfcs, phrenologists, and soothsayers found themselves in cqnllict with the pol'ice. Mis Adams, alone emerged ns a “scientist.” A policewoman went to her for a reading, and had her arrested. At the trial the presiding judge declared that Miss Adams; ‘-‘raises astrology to the of an exact science...ln a horoscope, the defendivut went through an absolutely ,lU 'C i‘h«iscal, mathematical process.to •£ f -'xr Tier conclusion;. She claims no faculty of foretelling bv supernatural or magic means what is in the future, but she does claim that nature is to bo interpreted by the influences that surround it. Every fourtmie-U-ller is a violator of the law. Bub

every astrologer is Hob a fortune- teller,”

To the atelier of Evangeline Adams ‘-•nine the casually curious, the sceptic's, the distraught, and the hopeful. Enrico Caruso, Mary Kckford, John Burroughs—all were her clients. Business men also came to consult her, even the remarkable astute elder John Picrpoinf Morgan. K'Uig Edvard \II., Miss Adam's said, died at a tamo when she saw “that his stars Should be grievously afllieted,” and Uuruso died just two weeks after she bad warned him that “lie may die any time,” and only months after she had presaged a fatal illness for him. Of Mr Morgan’s visits to her Miss Adams wrote:— “I read Mr Morgan's horoscope many dimes. Jlc was sceptical at first, but 1 convinced him, and during the last years of his life I furulislicd him with a regular service. It explained the general olfeets of the planets on politics, business, and the stock market.” Of the stock market she -said: — “Of course, j cannot see the future; tendencies of individual stocks—only flic movement of business liu its broader aspects.” A few weeks ago she predicted clangor in an aeroplane trip for Mary Piekford, and Mi ss Piekford promptly abandoned her plans. Only two days after she .bad studied the chart of Charles Francis Murphy, the powerful leader of Tammany Hall of a decade ago. and had .warned him that, ho “ought to look out right- now for acute indigestion : 1 see conditions very unfriendly to his. stomach.” Mr Murphy died of the disease dedicated. But-. like many another prophet. Miss Adams erred at times. She could not foresee the ultimate tragic end of Colonel Lindbergh’s young son. hut instead predicted that he would live to be “a flyer like his father.”

During fier lifetime she gave a million readings to her clients, wrote text books, and built up a tremendous mail order business*. Her book, “The Bowl of Heaven,” was a ‘best seller. 1 She received 1.000 dollars (normally £200) a week for her wireless broadcasts. and her annual income amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars. At one time she employed 25 private secretaries and a corps of clerks.

Thiis most remarkable anil energetic woman was reared in a small Massachusetts community. Though her parents were Episcopalians, sho herself iwas not a member of any church. When only a little g'-rl she was taught astrology by a physician, and it is recorded that she dabbled in palmistry. She came to New York in 1899 to open :i. studio iu a small hotel there. Her first client was the proprietor of the hotel, who at first reading, was warned that he was “under one of the worst combinations of planets.’> At tlie second reading he was warned again. Alter the close of liis second interview as lie opened the door he founiT the hotel in llamas, and within an. hour ■»n complete ruins. ‘ , Tn private life M&ss Adams was Mrs George E- Jordan, jun. She had cast 'the horoscope ol Mr Jordan and found that lie .wag. ideally starred as her mate. Two years dater, when the stars were auspicious for the event, they were married. At the thine of her death, at the age oT G2 years, her husband said that she had read her own demise. In her autobiography Miss Adams wrote that her clients included men and women in all walks ol 1 to,, but their chief interests were the same—money and love. Until the depression iit was love they thought ot most. After that it was money. TV bothur the impulse that scat the nvuij. c; her was love or money, her detractors declared her followers to he guild) ts. Tl.ev called witness to the sham and Ihe pretence that surrounded A®ss Adam’s establishment, from tho high priestess’s own manners and mannerisms to the methods employed an selp,m” reading by mail. Lowly retainers in astrologer’s entourage d)id tbe routine and low-priced horoscopes. In „ remarkable sense Miss Adams was America itself-thab America n’h.cb lake’s literally the adage, ad astra pox tirdua! She was m truth of the Am ■ion that has always been almost x-liild-ljke faith, subduing flic wilderness with the axe, as reahst, vet never relinquishing the will to heiieva that destiny can be made sue. dumb to magic—tlio "hue utmost anything may Jiappen.