City of St. Louis v. Hellscher

formation filed in a police court of the city of St. Louis by the chief of police, charging the defendant with having violated an ordinance of that city (Sec. 625, Revised Code St. Louis 1914, p. 975). The gist of this ordinance is to penalize fortune-telling, or, in the somewhat verbose language of the information, “the pursuit or practice of the pretended art of telling and revealing information of a secret or hidden nature pertaining to the past or future of another’s life.” Upon a trial in the police court, the defendant was convicted and fined.' He appealed from this judgment to the…