Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the WorldWooldridge, Clifton R. (Clifton Rodman)
History
Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World
Wooldridge, Clifton R. (Clifton Rodman)
Crime -- Illinois -- Chicago; Police -- Illinois -- Chicago
The book printed in Yiddish shows the most wear. It is divided under
these heads: "Travel and Letters," "Love and Marriage," "Home and
Children," "Business," "Work," "Luck and Losses."
Some of the questions make interesting reading and supplementary to
the reports and papers of the various Hebrew charity organizations.
One of the more recent of these reports gave statistics of desertions
of wives, and "other women" was put down as the cause in a large
number of cases.
MARRIED TWO WIVES; WHAT WILL HAPPEN?
The first question in the fortune tellers book under "Travel and
Letters" is, "Where did my husband elope to?" The identity of the
other woman in the case seems to be secondary in importance to the
whereabouts of the deserter.
Under "Love and Marriage" are these questions, among many others:
"Is my bride's dowry as big as she says it is?"
"I have married two wives; what will happen?"
"Shall I be married in court?"
Those who are in doubt about work have many questions to select from,
the list starting off like this:
"Shall I be a letter carrier?"
"Shall I be a conductor?"
"Shall I be a street cleaner?"
"Shall I be an actor?"
"Shall I be a lady-figure?"
A lady-figure is undoubtedly a cloak model.
Under "Business" some of the questions are:
"Shall I remain a peddler or keep a store?"
"Shall I sue my partner?"
"Will my partner sue me?"
"Shall I take my wife into the store as a partner?"
"Shall I take my husband into the store as a partner?"
"Shall I buy the goods?"
"Will the bank fail?"
Under "Luck and Losses" are:
"Was I robbed by friends or strangers?"
"Does anybody look in my pockets nights?"
"Will the landlord put me out?"
ROOMFUL OF PATRONS.
The deviser of these books keeps his office in a rear tenement open
from early morning till late at night, and there is generally a
roomful of anxious patrons awaiting their turns.
At a single sitting, price $1, the man or woman who wants to know
may select three questions. She puts the number corresponding to the
questions on a slip of paper. The numbers do not run in regular order
through the book or through any section of it.
The slip of paper is kept concealed by the questioner, and later on,
when she is in the actual presence of the oracle, she writes those
numbers again on another slip of paper, hidden from the fortune teller
by a book cover. She also writes her name on two pieces of paper,
which she places in two Bibles, opened at random by the fortune teller
after she has named any three words she happens to see on the page.
GETS POINTERS FROM CUSTOMER.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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