Hundreds of dollars are paid each week to professional fortunetellers by people in all walks of life, in order that they may gain a peep into the future. These people belong to every class of society; they are of all ages and they consult the mediums on almost every matter connected with human existence. There is the industrial magnate, the society girl, and the hard-working shop assistant, all anxious to peer into the coming months.

Accordingly, the teller of fortunes and the writer of horoscopes is doing an excellent business. The dollars and the cents are pouring in at a remarkable rate, and those who read the future, as a profession, are having the time of their lives.

This state of things is one calculated to make you stop and think for a moment. Why should not you learn the rudiments of fortunetelling yourself? Why should not you find out how to read the signs of your own future and the future of your friends? The subject is interesting; it is not a difficult one and all you need to know is set out in this book.

Your course of study may well begin with the chapter on Palmistry. Having mastered that, turn to the one on Handwriting, and follow with "What do your Bumps Mean?" These three sections will give you a very useful start and then you might continue with "How Astrology Decides Your Destiny" and "Your Face is Your Fortune."

The five chapters named will enable you to read people with a great deal of success, and it should not be long before your friends compliment you on your accuracy. Probably this will spur you to further efforts, and you will study the passages on lucky numbers, dreams, tea-cup readings, lucky colors, etc. These will add a polish to your preliminary knowledge.

Very soon you will gain a reputation as a seer and it will add not a little to your vanity when people come to you and ask you to read their futures. In doing so, you will be advised to follow a few rules. Never jump to hasty conclusions. Weigh all the facts and strike a balance. If the hand says "yes" and the face says "no," the conclusion is that "it may be." When disappointing things are noted, be charitable and let the applicant off lightly. In cases where dire illnesses are portended, suppress the facts or state them in such a way that the applicant has a chance of avoiding the trouble, if he or she takes suitable measures. But, whatever happens, never make a statement for which you have not "chapter and verse."

And this brings me to my last point. Hands, faces, heads and other characteristics give their readings, but none of these readings should be taken as absolutely final. The power is within us to fight against our failings and to better our good qualities. We may even allow our best ones to deteriorate. That is why two people born at the same time and in the same town need not grow up exactly alike. And it is also why a small percentage of horoscopes and fortunes are bound to miss the mark.