B.B. Fowler — Palm-reading on second floor

Fitch Dust Down dusting cloths, oil lamps and Colonial glass wear were on sale in the bargain basement at the B.B. Fowler dry goods store at the corner of Glen and Exchange streets in downtown Glens Falls.

And on the second floor, “Madame Baker” was reading palms.

“This is not a county fair fortune-telling-cast-your-horoscope-in-minute trick,” B.B. Fowler advertised in The Morning Star on April 26, 1907, announcing a “limited engagement” with Madame Baker starting April 29.

The promotion worked like this: Make a purchase and receive a coupon for a palm reading for just 35 cents — the equivalent of $9.86 in 2021 dollars.

Baker would provide “a complete reading and supplementary education of the lines on their hands, from the manifestations hidden on the Mount of Venus to the name of the caller on 5 May,” the advertisement promised. “The esoteric effulgence of the effect east resembles a dollar tip with Madame Baker’s accurate exposition of the secret future.”

But could she foretell what purchase a customer should delay making because the item would be goin on sale soon?

After that first visit, Madame Baker returned to the B.B. Fowler store many times, and by 1916 she had moved up in the world — to the store’s third floor.

“Madame Baker, Scientific Palmist, will again be at the store, third floor, for the month of August, and will be pleased to renew her many old acquaintances and to meet new friends,” B.B. Fowler advertised in The Post-Star on Aug. 3, 1916.

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