Cribbed from similar U.K. legislation, the laws governing the legality of fortune telling preceded Evangeline Adams’ arrival in New York by more than a century. Born in Jersey City, the astrologer spent her formative years in Boston, arriving in the Big Apple at age 30. A claimed descendent of two American presidents, Adams found herself turned away by the Fifth Avenue Hotel, upon admitting that she’d planned to utilize her room for readings.
New York State’s Section 899(3) was a major sticking point, defining all clairvoyants as “disorderly persons,” in an effort to “to prevent the ignorant and the gullible, as well as the curious, from being ensnared by the guiles and the fantasies of those who profess, be it for amusement or otherwise, to be able to ‘crystal gaze’ as to the course of future events and occurrences in the lives of those who come to them for mental assurances or in satisfaction and fulfillment of their perverted sense of curiosity.”
Frustrated and exhausted from travel, Adams was not defeated, eventually finding herself 24 blocks uptown at the Windsor, which touted itself as, "the most comfortable and homelike hotel in New York." Arriving at a destination more welcoming to her chosen trade, she set up shop immediately, giving a reading to Warren F. Leland, at the hotelier’s insistence.
Adams discovered something tragic in Leland’s palm – and again in the hands of several guests. On further research, she warned the hotel owner of impending tragedy. A week later, the 26-year-old hotel burned to the ground in roughly an hour-and-a-half. On-lookers, already gathered to watch the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, witnessed the flames engulfing the seven-story building.
The New York Times blamed an unidentified guest, who tossed a match out a second story window, only to be blown back into the building, setting lace curtains ablaze. The fire commissioner, on the other hand, placed it squarely on the hotel’s construction, which failed to meet the city’s fire code. The blaze killed nearly 90 people, including Leland’s daughter, one of many guests who’d jumped to their death. Adams, who’d opted to stay on the ground floor, emerged with her life and an armful of books.
“The destruction of the Windsor Hotel was foretold definitely by one of its guests several days in advance of the catastrophe,” The New York World noted, with the hotel owner confirming her fateful prediction.
The tragedy made a star out of Adams. She’d spend the rest of her days in New York City, setting up and office in a 10th floor studio at Carnegie Hall. The Hartford Courant described her space as “utterly lacking in the bizarre,” comparing its décor to that of a law office. Over the years, she was said to have given readings to nearly 100,000 people, including the Prince of Wales, Charlie Chaplin, Enrico Caruso and J.P. Morgan, the latter of whom became her most devoted disciple.
“I read his horoscope many times,” Adams wrote of the financier on her autobiography, “and furnished him during the last years of his life a regular service, explaining the changing position of the planets and their probable effects on politics, business and the stock market.”
Heads of the New York Stock Exchange sought out the readings of the astrologer who predicted the 1914 arrival of a World War two years prior (along with another that would arrive seven years after her death). Other forecasts, on the other hand, missed the mark, such as the time she informed thousands of subscribers that "stocks might climb to heaven" in an edition of her newsletter published late-summer 1929.
In spite of some clear misfires, Adams remained popular for the rest of her days – though her fame ultimately wasn’t enough to shield her from the law. She was arrested three times for fortune telling in New York City, between 1911 and 1923.
Most notable was her 1914 arrest, wherein her lawyer, Clark L. Jordan, argued, "astrology is the oldest science in existence. It is not only pre-historic but pre-traditional, and must not be classed with fortune telling, or any of the many forms of demonology as practiced in ancient and modern times."
After performing a reading that correctly noted the tragic death of his young son, Judge John J. Freschi agreed, telling the court that Adams, “raises astrology to the dignity of an exact science. Her reading is too amazingly accurate to be the result of chance or fraud.”
On winning the trial, Adams’ fee immediately jumped from $2 to $10 an hour. The astrologer would later note, “You can’t beat the stars.”
Sources:
Many at Funeral of Evangeline Adams https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1932/11/15/105886477.html?pageNumber=21
Perhaps Astrology is No Laughing Matter https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1926/11/21/100010432.html?pageNumber=38
Windsor Hotel Lies in Ashes https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1899/03/18/102531400.html?pageNumber=1
Charlestown https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36296647/1899may27-article-about-evangelines/