Editorial comment for this plate:

THE ORACLE OF THE TEA-CUP.

‘THERE is inherent in every human being a desire to know what lies behind the veil which hangs between the present and the future. We are all aware of the extent to which this art of divining was carried in early times. We have read of the famous oracles of Greece, with their ambiguous answers, and of the College of Augurs, which flourished later in Rome,

In this practical age we try sometimes-“just in fun,” as we say-our fortunes at Hallowe’n, and hope there may be some truth in the rosy prospect foretold us. What is more natural than that the two young girls in our frontispiece should seek to draw from the oracle of the tea-cup an answer favorable to some momentous question.

The picture is from a negative by Mr. Eickemeyer, Jr., of Yonkers, N. Y., who has contributed so many beautiful frontispieces to this magazine.