A SPITEFUL CAT.

NZ Truth, Issue 160, 11 July 1908, Page 5

A SPITEFUL CAT.

TtfE VICIOUSNESS OF A FORTUNE-TELLER.

The Anonymous Letter-writer.

Another Sample of the Joys of Journalism.

When .^Truth" published, as a curiosity, •a saunle of the letters received from Hinie to time illustrating woman's inhumanity to woman, the paper had no intention of giving credence to th^ spiteful tfnd ill-conditioned remarks spat out by a • vendmous' cat about .the Ohristchurch ladies; one single and 'the other a married woman. Although the unpleasant epistle '. was unsigned, its authorship o has been guessed bf at least one- of the victims, and, as '"Truth" suspected, the^ writer is absolutely no class. No ' person wno would pen such a letter could by any stretch of the imagination be deemed to •be a respectable person." It appears that .her ttusband is ' a -tradesman who failed m business a number of years ago, and the woman has brought up. a family of boys principally by fortune-telling, assisted by catering for the -wants of the elusive boarder. It is true that fortune-telling is an illegal occupation, but m late years the woman has selected her victims with discretion, and dodged the police so successfully that she kept out of the S.JVL ■Court. Theimai-ried woman maligned by; the published epistle was m tbs habit of vis Hang the" Siripostortp have her fortune read, -and the cunning fortune-teller invariably remarked that the 1 dupe had >'. A LOT OF GENTLEMAN FRIENDS. ; The fact that the visitor^ husband was at present not m the colony probably Inspired this statement, . and out of this . grew ;the scandal which spread rapidly round ! the neighborhood and inspired tlie intolerant pious to scrutinise with the ; . fierce eye of suspicion every male person who crossed the threshold. The unprotected woman and her daughters were even terrified at night by the appearance of eaves-dropping members of the gimbiet brigade, who" listened under the windows •for indications of sin. One night the fa--mily had a gentleman visitor, and a pru-irient-minded person crept stealthily on to 'the premises to hear what he could hear. His presence was unexpectedly discovered, arid he got such an ungodly bfitiing from the man inside that" he couldn't ap--pear m public without exciting comment for a considerable time after. This sort of things was caused by the vixenish fortuneVtefler,- whose popularity depended largely upon her capacity for scandal ; stif was bribed to silence hy her clients, : over whom she exercised a reign of terror/ Her 'denunciation of the married wo- , - man? referred to in r the letter 'published by "Truth", was a peculiar form of ingratitude,, as the married woman m question, when m betfteir circumstances, had assisted her back-biter's family and had 'placed ,at least two of the fortune-teller's 'sons m lucrative' positions/ Also, the fprscandal concerning the unmarried music-teacher/ and her liking- for drugs and alcohol, was simply the emanation of ah envious cat, green with .envy at the superiority of the young woman, for although patronised by educated' women (such is the perversity of the sex) the fprtune-tteller WAS A GROSSLY, IGNORANT » ■.•■. PERSON who mis-spelt ' many words, as revealed*' by her anonymous letiser published m a late issue of "Truth." Moreover, the . music-teacher was stopping with the for-, tune-teller, with whom she was a close friend, and it was a' dirty trick for the' 'card-reader to vtur a on her erstwhile companion. The fortune-teller has a face - that one;: could shop hard matai on with out injuring, it, ilnd it is probably lack of .opportunity which is responsible for *"■ tne '" : fa"et I 'lihaT' < '^er'canMi. "'iHh .with casual ''men. She has bragged to nee intimate .'-. , friends, however, that she had gone to Ljftteltpn With the musicrteacher, and the pair liad interviewed officers on a boat, n" who attempted to caress them m a closed cabin. One particular hossifer was .described as "a perfect devil of a man," but the fact that the card manipulator went to Lyttelton afterwards showed . : , that she didn't, offer- strenuotus objection to the liberty, taken by the shipping persoj6, who must have placed a sack over her face. The' howling cheek of the , 'woman m sending a scandalous letter to "Truth" other women is emphasised by her treatment of an unfortunate little girl, the illegitimate child of her sister/ whom she had ; adopted and nearly . driven mad with, ill-treatment. AYnen a- , bout fifteen ., the girl, used t6 be stripped naked m a bath and flogged by the inhuman monster of- a female, whose sons treated the: child like a dog. The girl ■ was t^te household slave, and her brutal . guardian finally got her committed to , a home, , ■-■-.''- '.. .; ON THE SCORE OF IMMORALITY. None but the fortune-teller's own sons and boarders could have been responsible ■ for tlie girl's lapses, for- she was .worked too assiduously to permit of her contracting many outside acquaintances. The girl died the home, and perhaps the conscience of the fortune-teller pricks her -when she reflects . that with different .treatment the. unhappy girl might have been still living, and virtuously too, at •that. '"Truth" knows considerably more ■ about this ingrate of a woman, but publishes the above merely as an indication of the class" of correspondent x who , has ; the fruital nerve to write to the paper 'about "the failings of other women., Let •us paUse here to reflect on the horror ot : some forms of human nature. '; The fortune-teller has apparently re- ' fleeted that her anonymous epistle might rebound on to herjowh head, like the boomerang of the Australian aboriginal, ifor she has sent us the following, , writ- ; ten m a disguised hand and with capital "Is" rubbed out and replaced with small •"i's" :^ : ' ' Dear. Sir,— i wrote to you about a Miss - — - and a Mrs — , I did not think you would print without prooi i haSsL.nojproof it was gossop. heard on top of ' a team and i am sorry and i beg the ladies parson for beeing so unkind I'jtyp not' no eather of them , thanlr ybiit* for not putting m there . ■"■■ names , ,;r \^ '".-" ■■■••'..' ■" • •■;•• ■ ;; A STUPID GIRL. * "Truth" philosophises that this is a strange world, and- that there are some . .'.astounding persons m it.