Litchfield Enquirer

Basilisk.—A respectable gentleman of this city, (says the N. Y. Journal of Commerce,) has for some months been threatened by a combination of females whose object was to sponge money from him by false pretences. As the gentleman held no parley with them and they found nothing was to be gained by mere threats, a suit was commenced. It was to have come to trial a few days ago, when the whole matter having been arranged, it was determined to permit the combination to commit their perjuries and then to arrest them all upon the spot. At the trial, however, no one of them dared to appear. The investigations necessary in order to procure testimony, have revealed part of the machinery which is constantly in operation among us, for the ruin of young females. Among the rest is an old woman who assumes to be a fortune teller. In order to introduce herself to houses, she carries a basket as a pedlar. Having gained the attention of such persons as she wishes to destroy, by exhibiting her trinkets for sale, she begins to tell fortunes. As a specimen:—On one of these occasions she said to a young woman, after looking in her hand: "You are going to have a beau. On a certain day (which was fixed) you will go to Hoboken with a gentleman and lady. There you will sit down under a certain tree, and while you sit there, a fine young gentleman with black whiskers and black eyes will pass along and notice you and speak to you, and he will be your beau." The poor girl was foolish enough to permit her curiosity to be excited by this pretended revelation, and sure enough, she did on the appointed day, go with a gentleman and lady to Hoboken, and sit under a tree, and was accosted, and every thing turned out according to the auguries of the hag. In the evening her companions invited her to the house of the old creature, and she went, wondering at the strange things which had happened. Where she is now we need not tell. She never returned to the place of her virtuous occupation.