SEER'S HUMBUG.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11947, 5 March 1917, Page 5

SEER'S HUMBUG.

~* STERN LONDON MAGISTRATE. "Professor" Morgan Melini. palmist, clairvoyant and astrologer. of Edgware Road, was convicted at Marylebone Police Court, London, recently, oi ; for tunc-telling and. fined £SO with £lO 10s costs by Mr Denman, the. Magistrate. '•You are a charlatan and a humbug, 1 ' said the Magistrate to the professor, who stood whit© and trembling; in the dock. "'Pretending to be something more than an ordinary human being, you take foolish people's guineas and hand out to them in return the sort of unintelligible nonsense which has been disclosed m this Court today. I. really cannot sit with patience under this sort of thing." " I honestly believe in what I do," said the proiossor. "That's what- they all say," replied the Magistrate. Asked why ho used the name Melini, the seer replied: " For the same reason that Saul, of Tarsus used, .the word Paul. 1 got it from the spirit world and I am not. ashamed of it."

Mr Muskett prosecuted on behalf of tho police, and the principal witness was the Special Correspondent of the " Daily Mail," who said that for some time past he had been visiting a number of "seers" in London and describing his experiences in the "Daily Mail." He. noticed "Professor" MeJini's name on a signboard in Edgware Road and paid him a call. "Did you tell the prisoner the chief reason of your visit?" tasked Mr Mus"kett.—"Yes." was the reply. "I said I was particularly anxious to discover the whereabouts and tho welfare of ' George.' " • A real person?— Well, an individuality. I would rather not go further than that just now, as I am still collecting from psychists all over London descriptions and dispositions of George. I have not found him yet. (Laughter.) The witness went on to describe how he and the professor sat hand in hand by the fire for over an hour; how the professor appeared to go into " a sort of semi-trance," under which 'the spirits hovering round him took charge of the situation and guided his hand to write a.s follows: trousers^— sij&e— GEORGE!! Flo is in the spirit world since June 14, and so on. The Magistrate, asked to sec this spirit writing, and on tho paper being handed up to bin* he said : " This is all gibberish—absohuo nonsense!" Prom the dock Melini declared passionately that it was not gibberish. " It is normal psychic, writing—automatic spirit writing," he cried as he banged the dock rail in front of him. "It is all bosh," replied Mr Denman.

In deciding the case the Magistrate said: "Here we hare three most ridioulous instances of the absurd nonsense given to people who are foolish enough to pay money for it. I eh&ll impofe© a fioe of £25 ia each case, n>e guineas costs in eio!h.6ase., or in default ia6tit>hs j The Magis* tr»te'*«lde4'th».t notady would get'of with a fine 8- second time.