"For God's sake, doctor, let me out." Listening a few seconds, she screamed, "O, I believe he's gone, and left me here to parboil! Open, open!" And she knocked louder and louder at the door, while the now almost scalding waters literally poured from her body. "O, I shall suffocate here." And giving a desperate kick, she set her foot through the panelled door, and, getting down on all fours, she crawled through the opening. Just then the doctor's wife, hearing the thumping, hastened to the room, and with many apologies and excuses, rubbed down and dried the old lady, and begged her not to mention the affair. But never, to the day of her death, did the old lady again enter a "steam bath," or cease to tell how "_the doctor went off to attend a 'birth' leaving her in the bath to parboil_!" * * * * * _A Dry Shower Bath._--When shower baths were all the rage, a few years ago, all sorts of plans were suggested to avoid getting wet. The following is to the point:-- _Doctor._ Well, deacon, how did your wife manage her new shower bath? [Illustration: A DRY SHOWER BATH.] _Deacon._ O, she had real good luck. Madam Mooney told how she managed with hern. She had made a large oiled silk hood, with a large cape to it, like a fisherman's in a storm, that came all down over her shoulders. _Doctor_ (impatiently). She's a fool for her pains. That's not the way. _Deacon._ So my wife thought. _Doctor._ And your wife did nothing of the kind, I hope. _Deacon._ O, no, no. My wife, she used an umbrilly. [Illustration] IX. FORTUNE-TELLERS. _1st Witch._ By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. _Macbeth._ How now, you secret, black and midnight hags, What is't ye do? _All._ A deed without a name.--MACBETH, Act IV. Sc. 1. PAST AND PRESENT.--BIBLE ASTROLOGERS AND FORTUNE-TELLERS.--ARABIAN.--EASTERN.--ENGLISH.--QUEEN'S FAVORITE.--LILLY.--A LUCKY GUESS.--THE GREAT LONDON FIRE FORETOLD.--HOW.--OUR "TIDAL WAVE" AND AGASSIZ.--A HAUL OF FORTUNE-TELLERS.--PRESENT.--VISIT EN MASSE.--"FILLIKY MILLIKY."--"CHARGE BAYONETS!"--A FOWL PROCEEDING.--FINDING LOST PROPERTY.--THE MAGIC MIRROR EXPOSÉ.--"ONE MORE UNFORTUNATE."--PROCURESSES.--BOSTON MUSEUM.--"A NICE OLD GENTLEMAN."--MONEY DOES IT.--GREAT SUMS OF MONEY.--"LOVE POWDER" EXPOSE.--HASHEESH.--"DOES HE LOVE ME?" Under the guise of fortune-telling and clairvoyance the most nefarious atrocities are daily enacted, not only in the larger cities, but in the villages and towns even, throughout the country. In this chapter I propose to ventilate them in a manner never before attempted, and the _exposé_ may be relied upon as correct in every particular. "Why," exclaimed a friend, "I thought fortune-telling one of the follies of the past, and that there was little or none of it practised at the present."