The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1874-11-26
The Secret of "Mind Reading"

The st. Paul Press says: In Sunday
mornings Press appeared a long article
giving an account of the experiments OF }.
K. Brown the sO-called "mind reader"
before several of the learned faculty OF
Yale College. To say the least, tits some
what remarkable to see professors of Yale
College unduly surprised by the perform
ances of Brown, when the performance
of the very same somewhat miraculous
feats lies within the power Of almost any
person. Mind reading, as performed by
Mr.. Brown, is but a simple parlor amuse-
ment, which can be shown any evening,
when the proper conditions, which are
simple, are complied with. Illustrative OF
this fact, little personal experience may
be detailed:
More than three months ago Press re-
porter, spending the evening with party
of young ladies and gentlemen, first saw
the same principle exhibited, and the very
same feat which Mr.. Brown performed up
on his first experiment shown. A young
lady of the party was blindfolded. One OF
the party then took small table mat and
carried it into another room, placing it up
on stand. Returning, the lady blind
folded took with her left hand the right
hand of the person who had placed the
mat in the other room, and she placed her
right hand for few moments upon her
companions forehead. After standing in
this position for very short time the right
hand was removed from the forehead, and
raising the left hand of her companion,
still holding in her own, to her forehead,
she went directly through intricate pas
sage-way to the very article.
After this experiment, the same was re-
peated with other members of the party.
the articles each time being different and
put in place unknown to the blindtolded
person. The reporter was one of the num-
Der who took the character of the "blind
goddess" for the performance of two eX-
perimentS. After being blindfolded and
the article hidden. he began the search for
it, going directly to it at first, and uncOn-
sciOus of his relative position in the house,
and believing he was still going forward
in straight line, he suddenly came to a
pause and experienced the str INCEST feel
ing he had ever known in his life. 1t is
hard to explain it, but it was more like en-
deavoring to fly without knowing how to
begin-a seeming effort to go up after
something. This sensation is explained
by the fact that the article secreted had
been placed some distance above his reach.
Instead of going directly forward, as he
supposed, he was told he had continued to
walk by the article without stopping, 60
ing from it for short time but immedi-
ately returning. The experience during
the second experiment was much the same.
He is told that he passed the article more
than dozen times, then pausing before it.
The article was placed below his head, and
he only remembers feeling a sensation
similar to some one pressing gently on the
back of the head. and realized that his head
was pressed upon a book-th article of
which he was in search-safely deposited
in the lap of a young lady, SOB
The only conditions necessary are that
the person whom the then blindfolded
person leads should keep the mind intent
ly on the object and where it is hidden.
The '' mind reader' must as well keep his
mind intent on the fact that he searches
for something. The experiment is de-
cidedly amusing one, which does admira-
bly, to while away an evening. While the
reporter has never seen the other expert
ments detailed in the article in Sundays
issue tried, he has no doubt that they can
be performed by almost any one as well as
Mr.. Brown.