ZENO AND THE ZANIES.

NZ Truth, Issue 88, 23 February 1907, Page 8

ZENO AND THE ZANIES.

A COLORED, CURLY-HEADED CHARLATAN. Cheats, Chouses, and Cozens Crowds of CrackBrained, Shallow-Pated Citizens by Fingering and Fumbling a Piece of Paper. The Paltriest Put-up Job .By which Stupid Men , and Silly Women were Ever Hocussed and , Humbugged of their Money. Zeno Libelled and Challenged by John Norton. To Come Before a Judge and Jury, or to Submit Himself to a Test . v -Befere Citizens.

During* a recent trip from Sydney ; to Brisbane aboard the Bombala," I was accosted .by a -black-hided, " black=eyedr _ blacJtHaaired -fellow,- witl*M •"' a^SH^§^t'4c^^alf-^imian cast of. features. The ismStffi^-fll ..^^Ji^: had to say tb me somewhat surprised .me. His-; manifest manoeuvrings to , come into contact and conversation with me had previously aroused mv-, suspicion and curiosity. When, at^last, he did begin speaking to me, ho- lost no time unburdening his mind concerning a matter which, as ' he said, sorely perplexed him. '".'■'* *"■'.■*. He wai-ted to know if I had ever heard of- Zeno. "Yes," I said, "I have heard of' Zeno, the stoic philosopher -of ; the Porch . " My answer seemed to be-all Greek" to him. .Ffe replied, "Oh, no, I • don't mean thai: fellow- 1 mean that- chap at 283 ' li'm'bcfs-S'treet, ■ Darlinghurst, who is mt I . liing such" ,a wonderful sensation." 1- Said, ■•■■.V/hat do you mean '. Who is 'lie? . What is he ? And what is the ■ sensation ?" He then proceeded to describe, to me how. he, with all the world. in Sydney, had been set wondc'.::iiig by the extraordinary telepathic tricks and osychic pranks which a certain thought ' reader, or writing diviner, uf the. name and address, already Kivcn, • _wp.s performing 'or perpetrating with. regard to all yrtio saw him. I tc.J(! liTm that I ./.ought Hd heard*cfa cha.il a' an who had performed • simitar 'tricks', on. the miblic m Tosmania,-; a,nd that I .believed I had several times seen the person to' whom .he referred as \>a. .spectator at the pugilistic encounters at. the Gaiety Theatre find? National Sporting Club m Castlereo.e*h-stro.et. I went on to ask mv ccn^ding, chance acquaintance to describe the man's personal appearance to me. ' <„ ... • . # All he 'could give me m the way of identification ; of his Zeno was that he-was a. dark-skinned man, very much like a /Japanese. "He is either; a great ■ thought reader or ' a great . cheat," lie said ;. but he was inclined to think that the feats performed by Zeno wete r genuine exhibitions of mesmeric mind reading, as ho termed it. Although I did not say so,^ I knew the charlatan cove whom he#as pretendihg, or attempting, to describe to me. He is identical with a colored chap of West Indian type, with a smack of the Yankee twang m his speech, and a thick thatch of glossy, ciirly hair, which is disposed or m 4-inch gimlet ringlets around his hea-d, and which sterve to set off a by no means unhandsome set; of features, the alert express sion of which is enhanced by a pair bf hip, black, blazing eyes. He would pass well fox the colored counterpart of that celebrated charlatan! Count Caligostro, who played such a prominent part m conjunction with the Countess de la Motte m humbugging and hoaxing Cardinal De Rohan m his intrigue with - Marie Antoinette over the diamond necklace. From all that has been seen and heard of him, : and from what can be reasonably suspected aiid surmised about torn, he ,1s- nuite as clever a charlatan, quite as. callous , and quite as contemptible a oheat as the great Caligostro himself. Thc man is a palmist of the most pestiferpus and pernicious sort. - He is a' mind.* reader of the worst kind ; and, as a mesmeriser, he would mesmerise a corpse, if he thought a copper waa to be got oiit of its cold ■carcase. ■...': ■_•■ .• ■ ■ . • _•'-.. I do :not know why the man with the Semitic-simian face on theY Bombala should shadow me as he did— why he should so suddenly confide in.me concerning the wonder-working Zeno.' That he knew who I was is certain, because, he at once accosted me by name, and assured me that he would like to have my opinion. It- struck me very forcibly, after he had "opened his neck" so extensively, that . he must have been an advance agent, en route to Brisbane, to prepare the way and. .make the path straight for Zeno, when the press, or the police, of Sydney should have made it prudent and peremptory for him to up- sticks and seek a rresh' patch in 'another place. I admit that I have no proof of this ; but that is mv_ opinion. I am convinced that this anxious inquirer was nothing more than an audacious tout, who was trying to get a cheap "ad." m advance m Brisbane "Truth;" and m that way to forestall a possible— nay, probable—exposure- and denunciation "of his black boss m that paper. Among other things he liold me was that, m the course- of a "sitting" with Zeno, the latter had told him of. the loss of a watch, the manner m which he would recover this, and that, sure mough,' he did get possession again of the missing article m precisely the way Zend had foretold him. In short he was m ccstacies about what he considered to be the fellow's marvellous powers. » • • ■ I affected lo be intensely interested m his long - rigmarole, and assured him that I' would look into the mailer wheyi I returned to Sydney, and 'see if Zeno was anything like thc masterful and magical mind reader which he had represented him to be. 1 was careful, however, not to let "linn r-e? that I thought I knew who -.om was. or that I knew Anything of the meljiods. employed by him m his fcaif'iii s>nd wonderful work. Im-

mediately 'on my return to Sydney 1 j set to work, and got into communication wiith Mr S_e.no, of the colored -bskin^and- -the curly thatch. Not per- | s anally, but by deputy, because, alas.! my past work ij^isca^rTng"' "ana dtrid^ I p. in g.;pfevrrict£ans of his sort has-- made -my^l-bare, brazen features too notorious to escaue recognition.

The . result pf the visits of half-a--dozen of my deputies to this chousing charlatan's lair at 283 Forbesstreet is collated and set forth m the annended narrative. ••*■-- * » . "Zeno's quarters m Forbes-street are one of a terrace of houses, cleanlOoking. and modestly furnished. His presence within is indicated by a card m '■ the window, giving his name and his .business. A ring at the door brings a female . attendant;, between 25 and 30 years of a"-c, not unplea-sant-looking. One does not need to have much to ,do with her, however, before discovering that she is of a smart, 'bossy' disposition, • and m -every ' way admirably fitted for the position, she holds with regard to' Zeno., Whether she about with the fellow, of whether she is merely the tenant of the premises— m which he has been located for nine months— the* visitor does not learn. The street door is closed* liehind you ias you % enter. There are two waiting rooms, one for women, and the other for men, divided by a green Venetian curtain. At least two columns could be written respecting the exneriences of the present individual while he "waited m- one of these rooms preparatory to the more important business to come. A lot might be said" about the woman attendant, for example, m the sense of the sex .study she afforded— by her conversation and her conduct. A great ' deal of even niore interest might be' said as to the character of the visitors rone meets while one is waiting there; _. Suffice .it so S3 Thowever, that; Zeno. is,- simply rushed with business; -that the visitor, even if he is /kept waiting an hour or so, , can idle.. -away his time pleasantly, and that-, Zeno must be ,' making anything, from .£75 to £100 a week upwards. His- clients range from doc* tors, barristers, and other professional men to the veries.t or cranks, and from prominent actresses and society belles to tottering, toothless old women. * ■ . " *• • • "Zeno's". rooms are upstairs. The visitor does - not see the 'Professor,' for that is.' what he calls himself , till he is ' shown up by the attendant. The first question the attendant puts to the visitoTi as. he takes his seat m the waiting room-, is— ?A short, medium, 'or long sitting— £l, 10s, or ss?' For 5s you can get the services of the Professor for about five minutes ; and for £1, something like half an" hour. You make your engagement with the attendant, who collects from you after you are done with the 'Professor.' Then, having intimated .that you -want a short, medium, or long sitting, she tears a sheet from an ordinary pad of writing paper— one of those pads which you tret for 6d or ls the 100 sheets. This she again tears into four, handin" you one of the four pieces, and telling- you to write on that three or four questions which you wish Zeno -to answer. You do not let her see you write these questions. After you have written your questions voir fold up 'the paper containing them, and take it with you, still folded up, when you arc ushered i:_to Zeno. But on? thing the attendant always impresses on you is— that you must write your'questions,'clcarlv, very clearly. Then, when your turn comes, 1 you find yourself with the mysterious marvel. ■'* * * "Zeno's is a small room, with nothing remarkable m the way of ornamentation or equipment.. Only the two cf you are together. There is a table, with two chairs, some paper, and a pencil. Zeno takes a chair at the end of the. tabie, and you a chair at the side of it ; and over the corner of thc table, so to sneak, your business is thus done. You produce your • roljed-un niece of paper, placing ifc on the table m front of you. Zeno himself produces an nnr-n sheet of

paper— about the size of an ordinary i sheet of nbteiiaper— nn.l on this he ! gets you to place one of your hands, palm downwards, and, while your I hand is m this position, he pretends j to take a sketch of it, running his pencil around it. Afterwards, when the hand is removed, Zeno makes' a j lot of . haphazard marks on this, paper of. his resembling nothing so much as a -lot of child-like, unintelligible scratches. Your own rollcd-up paper remains, meanwhile, on the table. Perhaps /lie has touched it, or perhaps he hasn't. MOst likely he has taken it up, and, before your' eyes, made it still smaller by putting another fold m it. But the most important part of the procedure has yet to be told. Zeno has also a cardboard sheet, or block, about 12in by sin, which he uses as a portable desk. Spread out oh this he places the sheet of paper on which he has taken the outline of your hand, and, with the back part of the cardboard turned towards you, not letting you see what he is doing— or, /rather, only at times letting you see what he is., doing— he pretends to be doing some further writing, or scratching, on the sheet of paper containing the sketch of your hand. / • # ■ ' '■■*.. "This cardboard is, indeed, the bottom of Zeno's whole bag of tricks. Take the. cardboard away, and the bottom' falls oiit qf everything. It is by means; of this, and' Try"' means' of" this alone, that' he j§ able to do all -hi?_ wonder-working. """Fei^aps'-'tiie' reader wfll find this a little hard to follgw ; but, with" .wftaTrtTa^slrvH- to be'said, the' process ought to become less- difficult to follow. Let it, then, here be "said., that on this cardboard, ih front of him, Zeno opens aud reads the piece of rolled-up. paper on which you have written . your • questions. He does this, "too,' m spite of the fact that you are under 'the impression your rolled-up piece of paper is all the while -before you . on tbe -table. How does, he -succeed .in -this apparent impossibility ? How ' does he manage, ' unperceived,' to get hold of your /piece of paper, so as to read it? He 4 does it by reason of the fact that he, is an expert palmist— that is to say. not a reader of palms, but a man who palms things. Let there be no mistake about 'Zeno's cleverness mi n this direction. He would nial'e a splendid thimble , and pea . spieler, nurse' palmer, or three-card trickster. Readers of this will naturally want to -know— narticularlv those readers who. have visited the fellow— how he contrives to place on the table before you a piece of' paper, 1 rolled up, arid exactly resembling the piece you have rolled up, while. . he gets yours away, and manters the contents of yours, which he opens out on the cardboard m front of him, ' arid reads without vour 'detecting' it. .' But he does- it all rip-ht. Tn the y.first-: place, • there are times— the critical times— when the visitor is deliberately prevented from seeing what he .is doing on. the cardboard, .by tbe .way m v/liich he holds' it towards him— the side' ?in which helms t-hr> sheet contninin? your hand-sketch— nnd on which he is pretending to write. . * * v . - ' * "Just then, as this much is clear, so is the way m which he docs the palming equally clear— once the trick is 'dropped to.' It has already been explained that the attendant gives you a piece of paper .of a : certain kind, and of a certain size. Zeno, therefore, has no difficulty m always having on hand a stock of paper of a similar kind and size to; your own. When you put your paper* on the table, Zeno takes it up, gives it another roll or two," if it needs it— whioh it generally does— and in 'this way makes it resemble, to.' all intents and purposes, the piece he is going to "smoke' ; on to the table while he gets your piece up on to the cardboard. But how does he perform the actual act of transference itself ? Or, .when does he do this ?... For this, he takes care to see, without exciting your suspicion, that he has abundant opportunities— that is to. say. abundant opportunities for a man of his. admittedly trained, expert skill. For example, he puts his extended iivdex anti middle finger .on the r'ojledun niece of paper on the table, pretending, m this way, that, by some mesmeric current, the contents of the paper pass through his fingers up into" his mind, and that the- reading is done m this way. He rolls and rolls your paper with his fingers,, sometimes carrying it tb his forehead, and ipratirig to you meanwhile that.it is necessary to get 'the- telepathic transmission from the Paper to. the brain.' But the fact is that, m the very act of pretending , to put 'flown his hand and fingers m this way, and, by dint

(Referred lo by Z&no as "Mrs. Zeno.") of a lot of- 'deftlv . dubious fingering and fumbling work,- hhr.managese r . manages- to pass into his palm his' dupe's piece of paper, and substitutes on his table his own make-believe piece of paper. " 'Then, if that were so,' it may be said, 'there ought to te no difficulty m bowling the fellow out. One would only have to open thc piece ol paper left on the table, and, finding it to be blank, the whole game would he over.' But the chances, however, are not one m a thousand that it would be the blank paper you would pick up. Zeno knows his business altogether too well for that. He hasn't lived, on the same for year:nnd years, and fooled and fleeced the thousands of people he. lias fooled and fleeced, not to have provided for all th'.'se contingencies. For ex? nunc, it would lc very difficult to. tell iust when it is he lias your pa'-or i-efore-. him and the blank is on the table.

His work is full of feints. When he is actually reading yours before him, and when he isn't, is a matter which, even for the person watching him, would be very difficult to tell. He invariably produces his handkerchief from his pocket, wipes his forehead with it, pretends again and again to put his two fingers on your paper on the table for inspiration, and, altogether his work . is most cleverly done— in the sense of palming or leg-, erdemain. * * * "That this is the trick- there can' be no possible shadow of doubt. You do not take your own paper, whicii might be of some color that he himself could not easily produce. You do not write on a' piece of paper of any size, which, because of its very size, might prevent him from being able to conceal it. You are not allowed to leave your paper wrapped or knotted up m the particular shape or form you selected, because he might not be able to wrap .up or knot his m the same identical form. And, lastly, and In ost important of all, he does not allow you to keep your two fingers pressed firmly on your paper all the. time he. is dealing with you, because if you did -it would be impossible for him to get possession of it, and substitute • another piece without your knowing or even "suspecting it. Indeed, if he were prepared to do all of these things, .qr.- ft itsz:.-___onß,j_)L..them,' he .would have to submit to disgraceful discovery, of to sitraightway- confess bis utter inability "'tb tell you the contents of your question paper -without reading it. ""' ■ "Of course, it is impossible to give m perfect and precise detail thc whole doings that take place between Zeno and his mugs. All that the above is intended to represent is a definite, distinct. statement that .'Zeno is an unmitigated fraud. It is also an attempt to explain— so far as the complex business can be explained m a fairly, comprehensible .way— the circumstances and contrivances by which, and through which ,v he succeeds v m his trickery. Nothing, for instance, has been, said/ of an inchwide foot-rule which he has on the table, and which, while you are led to believe that its presence is due to the fact that he wants to take measurements of your hand, he actually uses it. for the purpose of spreading out your folded-uu sheet of yjuestions on' the cardboard while the' cardboard is turned- towards him. But Zeno, once hay ing, excited the wonder of his visitor, by telling him thc nuestiorts m the paper .without seeing the Paper, so far as the visitor knows, .everything else with him, m the way of the greatest success iii fortune tel!-' in,"**, is easy, indeed, after this the visitor is prepared to believe almost anvtliing. Another element m Zeno's success with his- vacuous, victims is ihis— that having learned, through reading their nues tions, the ' real' root or general drift of their anxiety or curiosity, tbe course is left clear before him.. By simply working round these questions, giving- replies which may mean anything or nothing, and whiqji .are afterwards interpreted to his credit no matter which way things turn out, he gulls and gamons the 'gobe-mouches' whose gold he grabs. The ordinary fortune teller, working from blank- premises from the jump, is. not m it with this' hocus seer. This hidebound, whitey-black bounder gets at the questions his dupes want answered through a piece of clever palming.- By this crafty contrivancehe, tenowf. "ail jtliat they want to k n ow,\ and therefore he' knows that he wants to know no more to read the minds of his 'mugfc',' even before he begins to lie to them. • . . i */_ * * "So much, then., for the manner m which Zeno gets at his victims' ques- ! tions, and the answers he afterwards gives, and the bogus 'wonder' he has been exciting among his delirious dupes. Unfortunately, the mischief this wily waster is doing doe's not end with the money he diddles out of his dupes. A. single man put this question to the fellow, 'Am T justified m suspecting my wife ?' Briefly, Zeno's reply was' tb the effect, 'that he.wj,s and was not— but rather more justified than not!' What rot! What humbug hocus pocus !, •So. from this it will be seen that weak-mind-ed men and women, going to him under stress of real or imaginary sexual suspicion, domestic trouble, or marital infelidity, might, through his utterly haphazard advice, .be led into absolutely wrecking the homes, the married life of honest folk, and of inflicting lifelong misery dn all sorts and conditions of men and women. A number of other utterly founda-tionless-questions were answered by the fellow m the same way. For instance, another visitor from 'Truth' office asked Zeno if his racehorse was likely to '-win at Ascot next Wednesday, and whether he could trust his jockey. This visitor never owned <a racehorse in 'his "life. Zeno's reply was that the horse had a good chance —that it might ' win, and it might not— and that, , while the jockey might be trusted, the visitor had, nevertheless, to remember that if someone else offered him more— well, you know. Besides thc viciousness of. the fellow's 'business, which these questions serve. to show un, they are also convincingly illustrative of. "the utter fallacy or absurdity of ■ attaching the . least importance to his advice. • ■■'■■• ♦» • "Look at it this way ':— lf, for ex-, ample, he didn't even know enough to tell the writer tha.t he hadn't a wife, .how could he, even if the writer had & wife, tell him anything m regard to her conduct ? If there was anything m the way of truth m his business at all— if there was the least justification for attaching any importance to it or reliance on it-.Zeno, when" he heard the question, would have said that the reply which came to him was a blank. -. 'if there was anything at all m him— if hu were | able to speak or prophesy the truth | —he would havc 'said, . 'l can't tell I you anything, because there is nothing to tell.' Or, lie. would have I known at once and answered straight- ' way that the writer hadn't a wife. But the simple fact is that, just as ! Ills answers proved all jargon m tclii ing, the writer about his wife, for the j reason that he hasn't got a. wife, ; and, therefore, there couldn't possibly ;be anything to tell bim, so are his answers ' all .jargon when legitimate ' questions are put to him, -for the rea- : son that- if he didn't know enough 1 to realise that the. writer w?s <Hibcralelv fooling him about a m/Mm* of the Present, he ccrN'rily d'-esn'fc know enough to be able to lift tha

veil of time, and explore the mysteries of the future: Put it another way— it is the sheerest impudence for a fellow like Zeno, after being so conclusively convicted as to the limitation of his knowledge of things m this world, to set himself to tell of things ahead of us m the next." * • • Such is the collective report furnished me by my deputies. The man Zeno,- I repeat, is a gross fraud, a most impudent and audacious cheat, whose practices call for the immediate intervention of the police, and the man's prompt, prosecutib-n and condign punishment. He has been garnering m the gold of Sydney gulls at this game during the last nine months. His bamboozling business has been growing daily. His anterooms are crowded • from morning to night by wcakminded men and women, willing dupes, able and anxious to pay any sum, from 5s up to £5, or any other sum that he has the cheek to charge, and that credulous cranks are able to cash up. He is waited upon by high and low, rich and poor, whom he fleeces on the falsest of false pretences. He is unsettling the minds of men and, women* and even of mere boys and girls. He is sowing the seeds of domestic discord, and sinister suspicions m the minds' of honest, happy married folk, and of silly persons who are shocked at the sight of their own shadow m the sunlight, of persons who are sent sick; at the sight of a squint-eyed creature, and of persons who are given the horrors by the vision cf an unhappy huncbbacik. Such people would not pass under a ladder to save; their immortal souls ; hut they will pay any amount, within the limits of their purse to be choused, cozened, and cheated by this conscienceless, colored charlatan. i i « ■ _ ■ a I say that the authorities ought to interfere, and I am prepared to produce the evidence of those fropi whom he has obtained money, and who will on oath testify to the Traud and trickery of this mulatto map's mendacious and mercenary manoeuvres. I call upon Zeno, who has plenty of cash, if he. has not got rid of it as easily as he made it, to come att me, by civil or criminal process, for defamation of his precious character. Pending his acceptance of this challenge to confront me m the Courts, I give him this additional challenge . —Let him give nn exhibition 1 of his Powers befcire a jury df twelve sane, reputable citizens of Sydney. If he succeeds m telling ( them, without himself reading or< being told oi* shown, the wcjrds tbait I write on a piece of paper : and if he succeeds m convincing them that he is a genuine clairvoyant. working his wonders without resorting to ■' trickery, mendacious misrepresentation. or misleading manipulation, sleight of hand, or any other sort of .deception-, or deceptive surest-ion m any\ shanc ■or • form : I will forfeit to. him personally £100, a,pd divide. another £100 between the Sydney Hospital and St., .Vincents Hospital. And, as I - always say, when I challenge such charlatans as Zeno— ....... • "Lav on , Ma cdufi— And damn'd be he who first cries, 'Hold, enough !' " JOHN NORTON. . "Truth" Office, King-street, Sydney, February 2, 1.907. »