Diploma In Parlor

Lady Gonzales was a late Victorian clairvoyant working in Brooklyn, a rival of Countess Habeba's. She sometimes worked with an assistant, "Mme Sabina, the great palmist," with whom she advertised in 1899 (the ad on the right is from 1901).

Lady Gonzalez had a diploma from the mysterious College of Science*, in the parlor for all to admire (perhaps the face-in-hand was the school crest). She charged four cents a question (three questions maximum) and gave, in return, detailed answers with "full names," a lucky birthstone and a horoscope.

But like Countess Habeba, Lady Gonzalez had a true name that was far more mundane. She was a lady named Amelia Phelps whose other job was running an employment and training center out of her home, the Young Girls' Home, where "ladies can obtain first class servants." Mrs. Phelps ran the Home in the late 1890s, at the same time as she worked as Lady Gonzalez. Both gave the same address - 236 Bergen Street, near Nevins.

In 1897, in the "Clairvoyants" column of the Eagle, there was an ad for Mme Gonzalez, for a Mme Zingarra of 236 Bergen, and for the Young Girls' Home employment agency, also at 236 Bergen. Mme Zingarra, a "world renowned palmist," may have been another name for Mme Sabina - whoever she really was. It must have been an interesting place to live.

Notes On Follow-Ups and Other Future Posts:

I was amused and intrigued to see, in the 1897 column, a large ad for a Mrs. Hicks, "scientific palmist," at 97 Duffield Street - Hicks, as many readers will already know, was my grandmother's surname. She was born in Brooklyn in 1889, and had many unusual relatives. So I am definitely going to check up on this Mrs. Hicks!

*The College of Science was a tremendous scam run by "Dr" Theodore White of Baltimore, who was sentenced to 3 years in prison in 1906 for his fraudulent activities. He and the College deserve their own post; I've begun the research for it, and will write it up over the next week.

**And I haven't forgotten about Fred Bell and the wrongful death case, either. It is also in the works. Stay tuned.

Sources

Amelia Phelps in the 1897 Lain's Brooklyn City Directory, transcribed here at the Brooklyn Genealogy Information Page.

Ads from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

December 5, 1897, p. 10. (Gonzalez ad followed directly by Young Girls' Home ad, and by Mrs. Hicks)
August 8, 1899, p. 11.
October 5, 1899, p. 10.
November 24, 1901, p. 28.