AMUSING COURT CASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20028, 18 August 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

AMUSING COURT CASE.

"CHARACTER" FOR TWOPENCE

FORTUNE-TELLER'S BUSINESS.

•USE OF,INVISIBLE INK,.

A native, of Calcutta, James Walter tie Cruze, aged 33, who lives with his English wife, a Gateshead girl, and four children, in Newcastle, England, and whose dusky countenance has long been familiar to frequenters of the Bigg Market, appeared at Newcastle Police Court recently on a charge of having fraudulently protended to tell fortunes.

Sergeant Walker and Detective R. W. Patterson said the accused was in the habit of appearing in the Market dressed in a red cloak and offering to read the characters of his Bigg Market clients for " the small sum of twopence." Theso " characters," said tho police, were written in invisible ink on sheets of paper, which appeared blank to the public. The accused put a piece of paper into a glass cylinder, and under cover of his cloak, he introduced into tho tube hydrate sulphate of ammonia, which made tho invisible writing appear on the paper in brown lettering.

Tlie acid was contained in a, bottle to which were affixed rubber tubes, and the apparatus was worked by a large bulb, which accused kept under his right arm, beneath the cloak. Detective Patterson, who paid twopence to have his "character" delineated, received a paper which informed him that: " You are endowed with more than ordinary intelligence. You possess qualifications which will make you successful in some big business enterprise. Adversity has been your boon companion of the past, but distress and failure is over. A brilliant future lies before you. You excel in many branches, but you will do well to concentrate your thoughts upon one subject. Lucky day, Sunday. Best dates, 9th and 17th of each month. Carry this majestic hand (drawn at the foot of the paper) for luck." Defendant said he had been in " this business" for seven years, and had never before been interfered with. Ho displayed a card which, stated that what he did was done for amusement only. He added that he bought the " characters" in lots from Birmingham. " I have told everybody's character, and they have only laughed. The police and the detectives —I have told their characters, and they have all laughed—all except him (Sergeant Walker)." The magistrate suggested that the sergeant had failed to see the joke. " He has been watching me for a month and has only arrested me to see how it is done," asserted the accused, who added that ho already had his summer permit for tho sands.

The case was adjourned for three months, and accused was warned not to continue his " business" in Newcastle, as ifc was possiblo tliafc ho might mislead people into thinking that they were having their fortune told. When lie asked how he was going to get a living if ho was stopped from carrying on his present occupation, the magistrate suggested that ho should go to the seaside. " Perhaps they don't mind there," he added.