SPOOK-RAISERS AND SOOTHSAYERS.

NZ Truth, Issue 214, 31 July 1909, Page 7

SPOOK- RAISERS AND SOOTHSAYERS.

Clairvoyant Cornered by a Couple of Cops.

Auckland is the home of the witch, the wizard, soothsayer* charmer, necromancer, the magician, seer, and professors ol the Black Art generally. These mountebanks abound like land agents or blowflies "m the good old summer-time/ and their advertisements are greedily grahDed and feverishly canvassed for by the local "respectablc"\ and paralysingly prim, proper and pious penny Pecksniffian press. This is no exaggeration. The catph-penny announcements of these cheeky charlatans brazenly flaunt all over the front pages of the local sausage-wrappers, especiaiiy on Saturdays. And the hireling leader-

writers, with touching and beautiful consistency, pen HORRIFIED ARTICLES OF DISGUST concerning "disreputable journalism"— whilst a' sickening. Saturday supplement of "continental crimes" and "sensational divorce cases" is published with the same issue. Bvit we are m danger of getting- sider tracked. To return to our soothsayers and so on. The police, mi one of their unexpected spasms of energy, have been reaching out for the scalps of these sec-ond-sight seers, and have roped m quite a battalion. The cases were down tor hearing on- Monday, and the Court was crammed with those so-called' wizards and wise-folk. There was nothing aWe-inspir-ing about these oracles. Seen at three cross-roads at midnight, bending over black, hissing cauldrons, while weird incantations and uncanny bfue lights floated around, they might possibly be impressive. But seen m the prosaic Police Court- under the dear, pitiless glare of daylight, they were neither impressive nor - picturesque. Only crude and commonplace. With one or two exceptions . they were - big, gross women, who perspired m squat heaps. One of the exceptions was W. Stephenson. He is a leading spook-raiser or spiritualist m this beauteous Queen City. Also, he fs a ponderous, imposing person, whd seems, LIKE THE COWBOY OF SUNSET TRAIL, to have just "dined exhaustively." The charge against him was that he did "undertake to tell' fortunes," and there were two informations. He pleaded not guilty and was defended by Mx JNapier. Sub-Inspector Hendry prosecuted. He stated that this was an indictable offence under the Crimes Act, but the Justices of the Peace Act gave power for it to be dealt with summarily. The facts, as he had them, were that defendant advertised himself as a clairvoyant, the advt: appearing m the "Herald/ On the day named,- two policemen went to defendants place.- He took them into a room that was' m semi-darkness, and there pretended to go into a trance, and told them their fortunes. He told one "John" that he would live to be 80, and would soon come into a fortune through a death m his family. He told them other balderdash of the kind that professional fortune-tellers used to- get money from stupid people, added 1 the Sub. Beak Kettle : Arc we to assume that the constables are stupid people- V-^Subi : No; they were only posing as stupid people. Mr Kettle : : They went there to procure the commission of • this offence ?--Sub. : Yes, they went there for the purpose of getting this man into Court. I put it quite bluntly. „ The Sub., m reply to a question, stated that this case Had nothing m common with another referred to. "In that case there is some question of palmistry involved," he explained-, "but the only question m this case one of sheer humbug." The Magistrate was unable to sit In the afternoon, and accordingly adjourned the hearing of the case for a week. All the other cases were similarly adjourned, by consent. . ,