FORTUNE-TELLING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 22, 9 January 1912, Page 8

FORTUNE-TELLING.

A PRACTITIONER SENT TO PRISON. “It is high time this fraudulent practice, right and left, should bo put a stop to. It is a cruel fraud upon credulous and silly, and, 1 may say, romantic people, who fall an easy prey to people like yourself. The poor people must bo protected; the rich can look after themselves,” said Mr. Plowden, the Magistrate at Marylebone Police Court, on November I, in passing sentence on a man of colour named Robert Scott Blair, 88, who, as Professor Zodiac, has for over a year carried on a palmistry business at Edge ware Road, W. The charge against the accused was of protending to tell fortunes by palmistry with intent to deceive. His wife and several West End palmists were in Court. Detective-Inspector Tappendeu said that a small cash book which he seized at the premises showed that defendant made £6OO in fifteen months. The rent of his premises was £6O a year. [ ‘‘How many people carry on this kind of business in this thoroughfare?” asked counsel, and witness replied “Several.” And in Bond Street, how many arc there now?—That is out of my district. Defendant’s solicitor mentioned by name many other palmists carrying on business in London, one of whom employed as many as 40 sandwichmen to walk the streets with advertisements. A plea of guilty was entered, hut counsel urged that the accused was a young man who', from his school days in the West Indies, had been told that the. English always treated blacks and whites fairly. He was the only West Indian in the street, where many others carried on similar businesses. Mr. Plowden : Do you suggest that he has. been selected because of his colour ? The Solicitor: No, sir; but why has ho boon selected ? ' Mr. Plowden: If there are others, they will probably stand here on a future occasion. It was urged that accused did not know that what ho was doing was illegal. Mr. Plowden then said to accused: “You have pleaded guilty to being a vulgar impostor. It stamps you as a rogue and a vagabond. Y’on have a bad character. You have been convicted as a thief, and you have been charged with—and, I think, convicted of—trying to obtain money by fraud. Tins makes it extremely improbable that you did not know you were cheating these poor people to the tune of £690 in fifteen months. Very likely other people will he standing where you are standing, and if they are doing what you have been doing, they will deserve, too.” Mr. Plowden then sentenced the accused, who appeared in the dock wearing a fashionable overcoat, and in his gloved hands held a silk hat, to six weeks’ imprisonment. Mr. Nicholls (defendant’s solicitor): In the second division. T Mr. Plowden : I did ..not, say sol