Books like The three witches; or, The combination dream dictionary by Isaac Wright

EACH DREAM IS NUMBERED. *The Book That Is Supposed to Bring Luck to Policy Players.* Almost everybody knows that there is a game called "policy;" and in these times of police raids and seizures, any one who reads all the newspapers can pick up a goodly number of points about the game, even while sitting virtuously by his own hearthstone. If he follows the accounts of the police raids carefully, he will notice that nearly every time a policy lay-out is taken, there will be included in the seizure at least one or two "dream books." If the reader is one of the truly good, he probably imagines that the dream books mentioned are like some fortune-telling books he has seen; but if he is just the least bit wicked, he knows that the policy dream book is in a class by itself. The only trustworthy policy dream book is not very formidable or mysterious in appearance. It is small, so it may be carried in the pocket, and on the cover are the words, "The Three Witches; or, Combination Dream Dictionary." There is also a picture of three witches such as one may see in any up-to-date production of "Macbeth." The inside of the book is not like that of the ordinary fortune-telling books. It consists of long columns of words carefully arranged in alphabetical order, and equally long columns of figures. One might think at first glance that these words amd figures were statistics of some kind. Perhaps they are, in a certain sense; but if so they are valuable only to policy players. The columns of words are the names of objects and persons and conditions such as any one may dream of, and the figures represent the combinations in the game of policy that are supposed to be attended with good luck to the person who dreams of the particular object or thing to which the figures correspond. No doubt the policy players who guide their plays by one of these books get rich in short order; at least, they soon get far enough along to retire. Faith in the teachings of the book is probably a matter of education as well as instinct. For a novice it certainly must be hard to see why, when he dreams of signing the pledge, he should rush to a policy shop and play a combination known as 52.64.70, while when he dreams of taking a drink of whiskey he should play a set of numbers like this: 13.18.42.44. That, however, is what the book advises. Other features of the little paper volume are just as strange and just as striking. Even a good dreamer would hardly have thoughts of all the things mentioned if he should dream something new every night for a month. The first one hundred and sixty pages of the book are taken up by the main list of words, as mentioned above. Then come several special lists showing what should be played on the different days of the week; on lucky and unlucky days—which, by the way, are specified; on dreaming of certain cards, dice or dominoes, or of particular fish, flowers, metals, and the like. Lastly come two lists of names, one composed of the names of women, and the other of names of men. Hardly a subject that could form the groundwork of a dream is left out, and all the widely varying subjects that are mentioned have appended to them special combinations by using which the credulous gambler may perchance strike luck. For the benefit of these credulous persons the preface of the book says— The moon exerts considerable influence on the speedy or tardy fulfilment of dreams. Thus, when the moon is on the decrease, some days may elapse before the the fulfilment of your dream, but from the first quarter to the full of the moon you may look for your dream to be fulfilled very speedily. Very many of the interpretations are given by Mme. La Vanie, whose name is well known throughout the Southern States, where she carefully preserved all the rites and incantations of that mysterious people as it was originally brought from Africa, where it was received direct from the Egyptians as practised by them on the banks of the Nile thou

First publish date: 1887