The Witches of New York

AS ENCOUNTERED BY
Q. K. Philander Doesticks, P. B.
NEW YORK: RUDD & CARLETON, 310 Broadway. MDCCCLIX.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by RUDD & CARLETON, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.
R. CRAIGHEAD, Printer, Stereotyper, and Electrotyper, Carton Building, 81, 83, and 85 Centre Street .
What the Witches of New York City personally told me, Doesticks, you will find written in this volume, without the slightest exaggeration or perversion. I set out now with no intention of misrepresenting anything that came under my observation in collecting the material for this book, but with an honest desire to tell the simple truth about the people I encountered, and the prophecies I paid for.
So far from desiring to do any injustice to the Fortune Tellers of the Metropolis, I sincerely hope that my labors may avail something towards making their true deservings more widely appreciated, and their fitting reward more full and speedy. I am satisfied that so soon as their character is better understood, and certain peculiar features of their business more thoroughly comprehended by the public, they will meet with more attention from the dignitaries of the land than has ever before been vouchsafed them.
I thank the public for the flattering consideration paid to what I have heretofore written, and respectfully submit that if they would increase the obligation, perhaps the readiest way is to buy and read the present volume.
The Author.
Sept. 20th, 1858.
The first undertaking of the author of these pages will be to convince his readers that he has not set about making a merely funny book, and that the subject of which he writes is one that challenges their serious and earnest attention. Whatever of humorous description may be found in the succeeding chapters, is that which grows legitimately out of certain features of the theme; for there has been no overstrained effort to make fun where none naturally existed.