CRYSTAL-GAZING

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1745, 16 August 1905, Page 70

CRYSTAL-GAZING

TALES PROM A RIG GLASS GLOBE.

A reporter of the “ New Zealand Mail” AA r as overcome the other day Avith a desire to do some “ crystalgazing,” and, following his desire, found his Avay to a “ parlour ” where his desire could be satisfied for a small sum. He had two* shillings’ worth of gaze.

It Avas a hare room, hung with cheap cretonne curtains. Over the windows bright, red cloth curt aims drawn, and the room AVas lighted with electricity. In the centre -of the floor’ there was a table upon AA r hich was a square black box, and inside the box Avas a big, round crystal. The man in charge explained to the visitor that crystalgazing was a very old habit of the human family—it AA r as older than the story of the Bible. “ Sit doAvn,” he said, “ and look into the globe. After you have been, gazing for some time your mind will become passive, clouds as of a gathering storm will pass in front of you, and then will appear thousands of stars. It will seem to you that you are looking at the Avhole solar system, and then you Avill see what you will see.” The visitor sat doAvn with a black cloth over his head, and gazed into the box much as a photographer does in focussing for a picture, and the man in charge sat down beside him and continued writing up various people’s horoscopes so that their destinies would be an open book and they could lay life’s odds to suit their hook. For a long time the newspaper man stared at the crystal steadily, hut he saw no clouds, and he saw no stars. At the end of nearly half an hour he had gained nothing but a lot of disrespect for the crystal. It had offered as much interest as a lump of coal. The gazer decided to give the glass some assistance, and commenced making pictures with his imagination and mentally projecting them to the glass. He conjured up a fine study of his largest creditor standing on a scaffold with a rope round his neck; lie mentally dressed Mr Massey in a pair of the Premier’s trousers, and stood him at the bar of the House for breeches of privilege; and he thought of other things, all to no purpose. ££ I give it up,” he said to the man in change. ££ Change sides, and have another try,” was the answer. The visitor changed sides, and stared, and stared until he reckoned he had Avom out £27 Avorth. Then he finally gave the crystal best. ££ Well,” said the man In charge, “I’ll give you a crystal reading.” He sat doAvn on one side of the table and the neAvspaper irlan sat on the other side. ££ Put your ’hands on the globe,” said the man in charge. This was done foi* a minute or two, and then the expert commenced to give what he called impressions. They sounded very much like the formula used by fortune-tellers. He described a stout, clean-shaven man, who had once been a doctor, but Avas now out of business and fallen upon disreputable days. Did the listener know that gentleman? No; the listener knew no doctor who had seen better days and nights. The next impression concerned another disreputable person in West Australia, and the visitor’s disrespect for the crystal greAV as large as the demand for roads and bridges This gentleman in West Australia had a thirst for beer, and the thirst had won easily so far. The _ crystal, however, showed that the thirst was going to get the Avorst of it henceforward, and the pressman felt pleased that one of his friends was threatened Avith sobriety. His pleasure was increased by the next impression as dictated to him from the crystal. ££ l have an impression of a beach, all sand, and two or three miles long,” said the expert. ££ At one end is a boathouse, and near it there is a mound. And, now, there comes a girl —a pretty girl with light broiyn hair. Let me see! I get an impression that her name is G G Grace, is it? Yes, Grace. Do you knoAV who she is?” “How old is she?” asked the pressman, eagerly. “About nineteen or twenty,” waa the ans Aver. “No,” regretfully said the listener. “Strange,” murmur

ed the man in charge of the crystal, “she is looking longingly in your direction.” “Oan you give me the address of the beach?” inquired the man that Grace was looking for. The crystal couldn’t, and so Grace will have to AA r ander along that cold, unfriendly beach, A\ r aiting vainly for the lover who is wasting his sweetness on neAvspaper deserts. Then folloAved the impression of a rich man in Melbourne. avlio was seeking the listener intently to do him a good turn. “You have travelled a lot, haven’t you ?” asked the crystal’s interpreter, and, continuing, he said that a letter from the Melbourne philanthropist had probably missed the newspaper man during his travels. “The letter has good news,” he explained, “because I see here many light birds. If they were dark birds it would he an intimation of bad luck.” The expert rested a minute, and requested the visitor to again place his hands upon the crystal. “I see a avomau,” he said. “She will come to you shortly, and you Avill be greatly interested in her. You will not marry her, though, and that will be best for you.” “I’ll make-a note of that,” said the visitor. The expert Avent on to say that the lady was going to raise Cain one way and another, and that, as a result, the pressman would quit the country. “I see a lot of islands,” said the interpreter; “you will go to Auckland or Sydney, and from there to the Fiji Group.” Finally, the visitor was told to again place his hands upon the top of the crystal globe, and ask mentally what fortune Avould be bis after the unknown vixen had driven him from his home. “Ah,” said the expert, “the globe is all sunlight noAV—your fortune will be good.” Before he departed, the pressman asked if many people came along to glare at the crystal or to sit and look wise while they were told things. He was told that a great many people, both men and women, consulted the globe. The expert said he had seen women and girls faint on the floor with nervousness or excitement on occasions, and he explained hoAA r he had to be careful while acting as interpreter of the globe’s messages to women. “Some of them have come in here,” he said, with a cheap intonation of sadness, -“and the crystal has shOAvn me the shadow of death over them, but how could I tell them?” “Impossible,” agreed the pressman, equally sad. He is a terribly poor judge of human nature in some respects that crystalglobe man, but he knows enough about some kinds of human nature to make payable dividends. The newspaper man. left him making out horoscopes at half-a-orown each.