Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1891-12-24
MENTAL TELEGRAPH
The Influence of One Mind on Another
Strongly illustrated by Mark
Twain.
Two Men Thousands of Miles Apart
Conceive the Same Idea Sim
ultaneously.
Theories of Thought Transmission are
Hard to Believe but Perfectly
Plausible.
MENTAL TELEGRAPH

Plausible.
Now come to the oldest thing that
ever happened to me. Two or three
years ago was lying in bed idly musing
one morning-it was the I'd of March
when suddenly red hot new idea came
whistling down into my camp and ex-
ploded with such comprehensive effec-
tiveness as to sweep the vicinity clean of
rubbishy reflections and fill the air with
their dust and flying fragments. This
idea, stated in simple phrase, was that
the time was ripe and the market ready
for certain book: book which ought
to be written at once: 1. book which must
command attention ana be of peculiar
interest-to wit, a book about the Ne
yada silver mines.
The Great Bonanza was a new Won
der then, and everybody was talking
about it. 1t seemed to me that the per-
sou best qualified to write this book was
Mr.. William II. Wright, journalist of
Virginia, New, by whose side l had
scribbled many months when l was a
reporter there ten or twelve before. He
might be alive still; he might be dead; l
could not tell; but would write him
anyway.
began by merely and modestly sug-
gesting that he make such book, but
my interest grew as went on. and ven
sured to map out what thought ought
to be the plan of the work, he being an old
friend, and not given to taking good in
tentions for i'll. even dealt with details
and suggested the order and sequence
which they should follow. was about
to put the manuscript in an envelope,
when the thought occurred to me that if
this book should be written at my sug-
gestion, and then no publisher happen to
want it, should feel uncomfortable; 90
concluded to keep my letter back until
should have secured a publisher.
READING AN UNOPENED LETTER.
pigeonholed my document and drop
ped note to my own publisher, asking
him to name a day for business consulta-
ton. He was out of town on far jour
ney. My note remained unanswered and
at the end of three or four days the whole
matter had passed out of my mind. On
the 9th of March the postman brought
three or four letters, and among them a
thick one whose superscriptlon was in u
hand which seemed dimly familiar to
me. | could not place" it at first, but
presently succeeded. Then said to a
visiting relative who was present:
"Now | will do u miracle. will tell
date, signature and all-without break
ing the SEAL 1t is from Mr. Wright, of
Virginia, New, and is dated the I'd of
March-seven days ago. Mr.. Wright
proposes to make a book about the silver
mines and the Great Bonanza, and asks
what |, as a friend, think of the idea.
He says his subjects are to be so and
80, their order and sequence so and so,
and he will close with a history of the
chief feature of the book, the Great
Bonanza"
| READ Alright.
opened the letter and showed that
had stated the date and the contents cor
rectly. Mr.. Wright's letter simply con-
tained what my own letter, written on
the same date contained, and mine still
lay in its pigeonhole, where it had been
lying during the seven days since it was
| written.
There was no clairvoyance about this,
if rightly comprehend what clairvoy-
ance is. think the clairvoyant pro-
fesses to actually see concealed writing
and read it OFF word for word. This was
not my case. only seemed to know,
and to know absolutely, the contents of
the letter in detail and due order, but
had to word them myself translated
them, 30 to speak, out of Wright's Ian
guage into my own.
| Wright's letter and the one which l
had written to him, but never sent, were
in substance the same.
Necessarily this could not come by &C
cideut; such elaborate accidents cannot
happen. Chance might have duplicated
one or two of the details, but she would
have broken down on the rest. could
not doubt-there was no tenable reason
for deubting-that Mr.. Wright's mind
and mine had been in close and crystal
clear communication with each other
across 5000 miles of mountain and
desert on the morning Of March 2. did
not consider that both minds originated
that succession of ideas, but that one
mind originated them, and simply tele-
! graphed them to the other.
MENTAL TELEGRAPHY.
was curious to know which brain
was the telegrapher and which was the
receiver, 80 wrote and asked for par
ticulars. Mr.. Wright's reply showed
that his mind had done the originating
and telegraphing and mine the receiving.
Mark that significant thing now;
Consider for a moment how many a
splendid Original" idea has been un-
consciously stolen from man 5000 miles
] away.
If one should question that this is SO,
'->-a- &C.,: .~-s p>.a- :