WEST END PALMISTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12698, 29 October 1904, Page 2 (Supplement)

WEST END PALMISTS.

LADIES AND HYPNOTISM. Charles Pricker, otherwise "Yoga," described as a character-reader, of Regentstreet, again appeared .at Marl!>oroughstreet Police Court on September 1 to answer charges of attempting to obtain money by false pretences from Dorothy 'Tempest, Annie Betts, and Charles Richards, end with undertaking to tell fortunes. Mrs Muir, who prosecuted, said the case hardly differed from that of "Keiro" and his wife, except that " Yoga" put himself, or pretended to put himself, into a hypnotic sleep and charged 10s 6d for something ho " saw." .It was a mere " maundering," and ho saw a "man in a boat," or a " man. on ahorse," etc. He also used compasses and other mathematical instruments for the hands. The same witnesses as in the other case went to him and received different predictions as to the future. Miss Tempest described a visit she paid to "Yoga." He took measurements of her hands with a pair of compasses and a card, and subsequently said he could put himself into a hypnotic state. He sat down, she stated, on a chair, with a cushion behind his head, and shut his ©yes. Putting his hand on a table, he asked her to place one of her hands on his. He then said he saw a " womate with blue spectacles who will try to injure you." He also saw her with another lady and gentlemen in a boat. . She said she* never went on the water, but he continued by describing the gentlemen, one of whom had a dark moustache, and stating that they were rowing her about a lake. In reply to other questions she put, "Yoga/"' she added t said she would be successful by being spoken of in the papers, and thai he saw the name Arnold very indistinctly as the gentleman site might marry. Requested to write a name, lie put down J olit-,, but got no further. Mr. Muir: Not even Smith?— No. The witness said she then exclaimed, "Wake up, wake up!" and he-did so, Mr. Muir: Was he wide awake enough to take- the fee? Yes, quite; I gave him ball' a guinea and left. What ".Yoga," said: about her health in the past was true. "Mrs. Betts, the next witness, gave similar evidence. " Yoga," she said, tolas her money would be left her, and that she would Be separated from her husband, who "was very unkind, at times, audi spoke crossly" to her. After "Yoga" had "gone to sleep," she continued, he said: "I see a man on horseback bending down talking to a lady who is very handsome and dark. They are saying ' Good-bye.'" He then described the gentleman as her husband, but as a fact her husband had given up riding. He tiwjn said: "I see a letter coming towards you in a blue envelope. It has a big seal, and the initials 'D.D.' I see you coming out of a house with a young lady who is goodlooking. She carries a basket. You aie both going in a hansom cab, acd going through the streets to the railway station. I see the tickets. They are marked 'Maidenhead.'" He did not explain what that meant. She asked, " Where is my husband now?" He replied : " Sitting down thinking." In reply to questions by the magistrate, Mrs. Betts said that "Yoga" took live minutes to " go off" when putting himself into a hypnotic trance. He perforated that operation by moving his shoulder about and taking long, deep breaths. His voice then became very weak and low, almost a whisper. Mr. Plowden : How did you wake him? —I said', "Wake up." Mr. Plowden : You did not have to tickle him with a straw —No.

Detective-Inspector DreWj recalled, spoke as to the documents and papers seized ' in. "Yoga's*" room. '.-Thejw were lists of the fees for palmistry, clairvoyance, and horoscopes. Crystals for gazing into ranged from 5s to £2 2s. There were a number of Betters, many from ladies, asking about their future. One lady, writing from what Mr. Muir called an unpronounceable place in Wales, said that she was greatly disappointed after' purchasing a crystal and.following the instructions to find that she could sec nothing in it but her own reflection;(laughter)—and the...', reflection of things near 'it. She was; pronounced by clairvoyants to be very pychie. Could the reason of her failure be that there being no fire to warm the crystal where she was, she coult' riot warm it in her hands"' Thought transference with letters and photos., deep breathing, and placing the crystal on, black velvet, with two caudles, had failed, and she didn't think it of any use to exchange the crystal for a more expensive cue. Mr. Plowden, in giving his decision onthe following day, said he was asked to commit the prisoners for trial on two separate charges— attempting to obtain by fraud and for undertaking to tell fortunes within the meaning of the Witchcraft Act. There was little or no doubt about the facts and circumstances which had brought the defendants into the dock. Every profession and calling had its degrees, and he supposed the prisoners claimed to belong to the innermost hierarchy of the class to which they belonged. They occupied premises in the heart of the West End, and made no secret of their calling. It was to be said in their favour that they last no opportunity of advertising themselves to the world at large. ,' The alleged false pretence was that the defendants by their conduct, falsely represented themselves as having the "power to predict future events. There was ample evidence of this against the three ■prisoners. With regard to Keiro there,was the peculiar feature that before he consented to open his lips he recpiired the person that came to consult him to sign a printed form, which stated that in anything Keiro did or said he had no intention to deceive. Mr. Newton had quoted a case in the Canadian. Courts where it was held that a similar document furnished an answer to the charge, but that decision was not binding here. If people were allowed to give themselves good characters the world would be very different, and there would be no bad ones in it.

With. regard to the second charge, under the Witchcraft Act, passed nearly 200 years ago, he confessed to having some misgivings whether that Act realy applied under the altered circumstances in which they now lived,- especially when the serious import attached to fortune-telling in past ages was contrasted with the frivolous spirit with which it was regarded in modern times. If, however, it applied, and the words in it, " undertaking to tell fortunes," were taker literally, then there was evidence against the*defendauts. He thought the Act aimed at persons professing witchcraft and supernatural powers, and that there was doubt whether. the somewhat rubbishy predictions of the defendants really came within the dignity of supernatural predictions. The more doubt he had as to whether the Act meant and could mean to make fortunetelling an offence was the more reason for him leaving the matter for a jury to decide. He would, therefore, commit the three defendants for trial on both charges. Mr. Newton said the. defendants would plead "Not guilty," and would reserve their defence.

Mr. Plowden then formally committed them for trial, allowing them to go at large on their entering into their own recognisances in the sum of £50 to appear.