Morning journal and courier., 1882-04-18
Marnetfc Mile. MariaDi.
\ Languid Blonde "NIedium'' Whose Per-

Languid Blonde GMedium'' Whose Per-
 formances Have Electrtfi d Paris.
 Paris has been enjoying an unwonted sen sation of late with reference to magnetism and the trance state, or, to speak more &C., curatelv two sensations. The experiments of Dr. Charcot found an echo in the seances given by Donate and Mile Lucille, which at
 tracted more attention than any similar per-
 formances since the time of Mesmer, and provoked both criticism and imitation. M.
 Carmelli, whose ''subject'' is 8 tall and pen sive blonde Mile Mariani, has certainly sue
 ceeded in dividing public attention with Donate, who, by the way, is shortly to arrive here. His n,0duS operGadt is that usually employed by mesmerists, and the subject haV- ing been cast into magnetic sleep the cus- tomary manifestations follow. She stands erect, rigid, corpse-like, with eyes open and staring. Matches are burned under her nose and lights held close to the eyeball without moving her. Brought out of the trance she returns to life again with a melancholy sigh and an expression of weariness touching 1n | the extreme. Once more she is brought eD 90pp09t with Carmelli, four men are placed ln 1 row on the stage and bade lean against each l other with all their force to make barrier | against her, and at Carmelli's gesture of com l mand she breaks through the living wall to join him as if it were slender thread. Twelve peo- pie write each 8 question on slip of paper, l and spectator in a remote corner Of the room draws one of the slips, the writing on | which is at once revealed by the medium. A l complicated calculation in arithmetic IS in | simultaneously performed. dice box with l eight dice is produced, and on throw being l made Mile Mariani states the total correctly ]; another throw is made and again she states | the number cast. A long pin is thrust com ! pletely through her without awaklng her, and finally the cataleptic is laid upon three chairs, and not only is the central one removed, bu the magnetizer stands up on her body, which is supported rigid as beam by the unyielding muscles. Having conclu- ded these experiments, Carmelli bows to his applauding audience and says: 'Ladies and gentlemen. Mile. Mariani and myself have had the honor of humbugging you all the time. She is not asleep and never was. You may rise, Mademoiselle, and the ''liv- ing corpse, without wal ing for the formali- ty of awakening passes, jumps up laughing, bows to the audience and runs off. When the electrified audience has recovered it's equanimity, Carmeli obligingly ex- plains that his subject is ex- pert and clever performer; that when the matches are burned under her nose she takes full breath, and instead of inhaling gently and steadily breathes out so long as the fumes are rising that she fixes her eye on point before the light is waved before it and keeps her gaze steadily fixed on it {; that four men ranged in a row not only offer no more resistance than one man, but that the barrier is broken the more easily in pro- portion to the strength with which they lean against leach other; that the mysterious ques- tion was known to her in advance and
 forced" upon the selected spectator, and the arithmetical problem was given by confed- crate that the dice were loaded and to bring up different number in the second throw one die was removed that there is in every
 body's arm place where the member can be perforated without sensation or bleeding, and that the ''cataleptic' feats were merely tricks known to any circus performer. Ad- mitting the truth and genuineness of all oi
 Dr. Charcot's experiments, he adds that the phenomena in question are only produced II cases where disease exists and cannot be re-
 produced in persons of sound health. The l whole performance, it may readily be sup
 posed, does not provoke the enthusiastic ap proval of the "serious" magnetizers