Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-18
BEAUTY HYPNOTIZED.
Mabel Jordan the Victim of Two
Mysterious Hags in Paris.
COMPELLED TO SIGN A CONTRACT
To Pay Forty-Five Thousand Francs for a
Lot of Shoddy Gems.
VICE CONSUL RoOPER CALLED IN
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE prsrAroH.,

woman OF this city with two diamond ven
ders in Paris. has just come to the knowl-
edge of few of her friends here Even the
most experienced travellers confess them
selves amazed at the latest developments of
la vie Parisienne.
1t was in the Hotel Continental, one
pleasant morning not so very long ago, and
the young woman in question was enjoying
to the full her "coffee-and-roll Sleep" as
the French say, when something seemed to
compel her to emerge from dreamland long
enough to open her eyes on her dainty bed
chamber. What she saw was enough to
make her shrek ten times over; but she
didn't. Surprise got the better of horror as
she saw leaning over the sides OF her bed
two old women, hideous, yellow skinned and
hooknosed, very eager women withal, each
holding handful of diamonds in her with
cred palm and each pouring from her skinny
lips an incohcrent torrent of applications
which seemed half threats-that la belle
Americaine would buy her wares.
Mystery OF Their Presence.
How did they get there? Who were
they? What did they want? And, oh,
where in the name of wonderful Paris even
did thev get so many brilliants? If there
were other questions than these which
rushed through her still semi-somnolent
brain the young woman didn't allow them
to alarm her. 1t was still the nineteenth
century even if these harpies did look like
ghouls out of the Arabian Nights. At last
she managed to understand, each Of her
hideous hags still clutching at one Of her
wrists as they proffered the gems, that she
had the honor OF receiving visit from two
of the agents of a certain well-known
diamond house, and that the bargains they
were then and there offering her were so very
seductive that she couldn't resist buying,
even had she not already as many diamonds
as she could use.
What is more, she began to lose the feel
ing of intense horror at her surroundings
and aversion to the physical presence of the
harpy-like diamond brokers. She was GER
tainly growing wider and wider awake, she
thought-and yet at the same moment she
seemed to be doing back into
A Blissful, Languorous Haze,
through which the fairies appeared, offering
her the treasures of Golcondo at her own
terms. How could she accept such gener-
Gus kindness, she thought; and presto, while
one of the hags offered her page of legal
looking paper, the other put a pen into her
right hand; she signed, and they bowed
themselves swiftly and silently out, leaving
handful of gems on the bed.
When the young American maid came in
| five minutes later, she found her mistress in
tears, indeed almost in commissions. When
she came to herself and described what the
hideous old diamond merchants had done,
| her maid assured her she had been hyp-
Noticed, and advised that the police be
! called in. But, after all, there didn't seem
to have been any great amount OF harm
| done; none of the young woman's money
was missing from her portemonaie on the
| dressing table, and her jewel case in the
| tray of her trunk had not been tampered
with. Besides all that, there was the hand
full of diamonds the hypnotic hags had left
| on the bed.
They Were Very Poor Gems.
Examination showed quickly enough
| that the stones were yellow, uneven and
| faulty. The stamped paper in which they
we're wrapped bore the name of diamond
house of which everybody has heard. 1t
was easy enough to go and explain that the
young American lady didn't really want
the diamonds after all; that in the dim light
of her bedroom when they were so mysteri-
ously exhinted to her without even Shy
| your-leave," they had seemed much hand
somer than when viewed later on in the
calm, clear sunlight, and that besides and
| above all it was an outrage demanding legal
redress that two of their disreputable look
ing old diamond yenders should iorce their
way into her bedroom.
This was all done, without delay and
without other results than the calm an-
nouncement by the Frenchman that his
agents had received from Mademoiselle a
| written receipt Tor the stones with an ex-
picit promise TO pay $4,000 francs month
for them until their total price, 45, 600 francs
had been paid, that bargain was a bargain
and Mademoiselle, having bought the stones
and received them, must pay for them!
Mystery of the Witclfs Presence.
The hotel people expressed polite surprise
| tina. anyone should have been able to enter
Mademoiselle's apartment while she slept
and while her maid was in earsh9t. Ii
| Mademoiselle said SO, they believed her, OF
course, but as the lock showed no signs OF
having been forced and as no robbery or
personal outrage had been committed, while
they regretted the whole affair, what could
they do?
Mabel Jordan, for the fair American was
no other than this well-known lady and ex-
actress, next consulted Vice Consul General
Hooper. Miss Jordan is a sister OF Ed and
Charles Thorne and daughter of Mrs. John
Chamberin. Mr.. Hooper was enraged al
such extraordinarily debased and dangerou!
methods of plundering his fellow country
men. That some hypnotic influence haC
been exerted by the two old women on hi
fair young countrywoman there could b.
little doubt, since the reaction had left he
in dangerous condition Of nervous collapse
Yet as no personal violence had been Offered
her, no money or property taken from he
and no direct threats made to her, 1t was ex
ceedingly difficult to see how to take helpful
action in the case.
Cost Her Five Hundred Dollars.
An eminent lawyer was retained at cos
of 9, 800 francs, and after racking his brain
for way out of fhe bargain, after acknowl
edgIng the hopelessness of securing redres
for the hypnotic assault and insulting in
trusion, he discovered that the two particu
lar old women in question had no license Il
peddle diamonds, and that therefore thu
sale made through them was null aud void
and the promise to pay 45, 900 francs mus
be instantly returned to his client on he
surrender Of the diamonds. All Of whicl
was done.
When asked about this extraordinary at
fair friend of the Vice Consul and OF Mis-
Jordan, who is also connected by delicat
ties with diploma attic life in Washington AMI
Paris, said: "The sto " is strictly true, as
founding as 1t may sound, aud 1 have tn
honor OF personal acquaintance with tn
American lady who WAS the victim o; thi
hitherto uHheard OF swinde. 1 cannot o
course say more than that the complaint wa
made to the Consul Generals Office. as yoi
have described, and that after paying a law
yer $500 the young lady was able 10 escap
the clutches of her strange prosecutors. TIL
deense of hypnotic influence made in tn
Eyraud- Bompard case is surpassed in ro
mantic interest bv the circumstances of thi