, 1884-03-08
UNCANNY WONDERS.
Bill Arp Writes Concerning Mes
merism, Somnambulism and
Clairvoyance-


1t is just 100 years since Mesmer astonlshed
France with his discoveries, and France np-
pointed a commission of five illustrious men
to examine into it and report to the govern
ment, and our own Benjamin Franklin was
one Of them, and they reported in favor of
all the facts, but against all Of the theories.
After that the science found new friends and
made converts OF such famous mon as Cuvier
and La Place aud Agassiz and Sir William
Hamilton and Professor Hitchcock. They
d~ecinred that there was a newly discovered
force or principle connected with our being,
and they named 1t Cd. and included animal
magnetism, and souambulism and clairyoy-
ance and exaltation OF the senses. They de-
clared that some people were constitutionally
susceptible to this influence and others were
not, and that 1t has positive and negative
qualities like the poles Of an electric battery,
and may be accumulated in the system to a
wonderful degree.
The experiments made by men Of science
were so astonishing that a new commission of
Eve learned men were appointed in 1925, and
they declared unanimously in favor OF this
mysterious power OF man over man. Since
that time there has hardly been an interval
of twenty years that the world has not been
exercised by more discoveries on this line.
About forty years ago there were expert
ments In most every town, and we used to
put persons to sleep and mesmerize them to
our absolute control / remember a little
darkey named Tobe that was a daily victim
10 DIR. Alexander and DIR, Gordon. OF Law
rencoville, and most any of us could make a
machine of hin in two minutes and stiffen
his limbs into iron and make him insensible
to his own pain and sensible to ours. He had
no taste or smell or feeling or sight but that
OF the person who magnetized him.
II - ~ 4
doubt but they are still as mysterious as ever.
| have seen persons who could not write at
all, write a good letter while bin dfolded and
follow the lines and cross is with educated
accuracy. DIR. Braid picked up an ignorant
girl In New York, a girl who knew nothing
OF the Swedish language and nothing OF
music, and she WINS made to sing a Swedish
song in public with Jenny Lind, and she sang
1t well and gave the correct tune and accent
to the words These things are hard to be.
lieve, but they are not more wonderful than
the sad experience Of Governor Hampton, OF
South Carolina, who told his own story in
Tho Charleston Pres, and said that while he
was In Tallahassee. Fla, he saw in a vision of
the night his dwelling was on fire and saw
the effort made to save his children from the
upper windows and was conscious OF every
particular, and hurried home TO lind 1t al
true, even TO the e1nct time and minutesi
Incidents.
Not long ago there wa a man In Liver
pool who, The London Times says, sat blind
folded In a darkened room surrounded by
men of science and in his mind followed one
Of them around several blocks and saw him
hide a pin under a window-blind, and he told
whore it was hidden while sitting in his chair
You see he went double with that mai. He
got his identity. He swallowed him. az 1t
were, and absorbed his will and his mental
being.
With all that has gone before we have nc
right to sport with these things as we spot
with frauds aud tricks OF legerdemain. Ii
we cannot explain we can wonder and wait