PEELERS AND THE PALMIST

NZ Truth, Issue 131, 21 December 1907, Page 4

PEELERS AND THE PALMIST

MADAME HESPERSON READS THEIR FUTURE. She Could Not Tell They Were Policemen. A Futurist Fraud Fined. Fortune-telling as a pastime and casting the horoscope as a business are two different things, and the person who tells you your future .'by the arrangement of tea-leaves m your cup isn't liable to prosecution unless she (it is sure to be a she) charges for it. But Lily Krause, of 54 Ghuznee-street, advertised that she could he seen at her address by idiots desirous of being had for 2s 6d, and she unwittingly put the police on to her little game. "Lily Krause" wasn't a sufficiently impressive title to impose upon the multitude, so that all and sundry were informed that Madame Hesperson would do the trick if desired. Accordingly, two of the most un-sophisticated-looking of the crowd of recently roped-in police probationers j were sent to call on Madame Krause, or Lily Hesperson, or whatever her name is, and the lady was complete- J ly taken m by the guilessness of the aspiring peelers. One of these, Dunnett, knocked and asked for the person who advertised, and was duly met by Lily, who made an appointment to meet the good-looking young man that night. He didn't turn up, hut went, round on the following day (Dec, 4) accompanied by a fellow probationer and protector named Pender, who isn't a son of the exInspector and speaks with a mellow brogue. When Dunnett first called, he remarked, "I believe you tell fortunes here ;" but she replied, "Oh, no, I don't tell fortunes here. I read the hand— palmistry." Accordingly, when the pair of brand new peelers knocked at the door they (after a wait of half-an-hour while two giddy servant girls heard about the dukes they were going to marry) were shown into a room containing a small table, a lamp, a hand mirror, and a pack of cards. Dunnett placed his hands on the table, palms upwards, and was told that he would take three sea journeys, one of which would be a lone one. She didn't mention if Day's Bay would be the destination, but the long one would take the semi- John to a country where they speak good .English. This Hbel on the native tongue of New Zealand wasn't resented by Dunnett, WHO IS PROBABLY A FOREIGNER. It was consoling to learn that he would live till he was 80 or 82, though it is probable that his relatives will not be gratified, especially if he has any property to leave. The mysterious lady foretold that the police spy would probably become a commission agent or something to do with the land. He is to be married twice, and during the course of his lifetime will be struck on the head by something heavy— probably a flat-iron hurled by his miserable first wife. This remarkable delineation was obtained for the small sum of half-a-dollar, which was paid by a fatherly crime-detect-ing Government' Department. This is what the visitor told the Court. It is only natural that a young man on the threshold of a police career should suppress anything to his disadvantage, nut it looked had when Lawyer Neilson got up for the defence and asked if the mysterious female had informed Dunnett that he was conceited, and the police agent admitted that she had done so. Did she tell you. you were fond of the opposite sex ?— She may have done. The witness had never been to a drawing-room party where the cards were "cut" for the purpose of telling fortunes, and Neilson's idea of showing that Madame's performance was a most innocent one was thereby thwarted. Moreover, drawingroom entertainers don't charge for the fooling. Pender asked the dame, "Are you going to operate on me now?" and she proceeded to do it. Pender is also going on three trips, one of which is a long one. "Truth" has heard of others who, on Madame's authority, are likewise going three "journeys, and the circumstance suggests a lack of originality on Madame's part. Pender's long journey, however, will be to a land where they talk English m an execrable manner (probably Scotland), and the fortune-teller was no doubt inspired by Pender's Milesian brogue. Dunnett will make a good doctor or a passable engineer "if he used his brains a little more, and he might even rise to the giddy fyeight of an M.H.R. The white gypsy doesn:t know that the Dominion politicians a*e now M.P.'s. Pender won't make either a good doctor or engineer, BUT HE'LL BE MARRIED TWICE if he survives the tongue of his first missus. The principal thing of interest about Pender was the 2s 6d he paid for the information that he would only live to 70 ; that he would have a leg broken above the knee (which one wasn't specified) and that he would be left a fortune by an old gentleman who would he no relative, hut who would take a violent fancy to the young man. Solicitor Neilson raised a couple of points of law for Riddell, S.M., to cogitate over m his spare time, and his accommodating Worship (who also listened to a learned disquisition by Sub-Inspector O 'Donovan on palmistry and fortune-telling) reserved his decision. Subsequently Lily was fined 40s, or seven days, on the charge of fortunetelling. Maoriland at present depends upon a moss-covered enactment passed by the fourth George for the prosecution of palmists, but solicitor Neilson doubted if the law had application to New Zealand. Riddell, S.M., remarked that this dignified Dominion had adopted a lot of ready-made English Laws by the English Laws Act, 1858, but when our imitative country collared the vagrancy statutes of old Hin?land m 1866, the clause relating to palmistry, enchantments, spells, and the like was rejected as old iron, and his Worship surmised .hat i.s repudiation was tantamount to its repeal by this great and --lorions country. aiul he dismissed the charge of palmistry.