The Opelousas courier., 1892-04-23
A STRANGE EXPERIENCE
MARK TwAIN's STORY OF THE IN
FLUENCE OF MIND UPON MIND.
Two Letters Which Showed That
Writers Many Miles Apart Were
in Mental Communication.

Two Letters Which Showed That
Writer'S Many Miles Apart Were
in Mental Communication.
Now I come to the oldest thing that
ever happened to me. Two or three
years ago Twas lying in bed, idly musing,
one m~orning-it was on the I'd of March
when suddenly a re1lot new ldea
came whistling down into my camp, and
exploded with such comprehenss"a Ell
fectiveness as to sweep,the vicinity c-ean
of rubbishy reflections, and fiji re ait
with their dust and flying fragments.
This idea, stated in simple phrase, was
that the time was ripe and the market
ready for a certain book, q book which
ought to be written at once; a booS
which must command attention DC
of peculiar interest-to wit, a hook about
the Nevada silver mines. II "Greas
Bonanza" wa anew wonder fHen, aad
everybody was talking about it. 1t seemed
to me that the person best qualified to
write this book was Mr.. William Ii.
Wright, a journalist of Virginia, Nevada,
by whose side [ had scrubbed many
months when l was a reporter there ten
or twelve years before. He might be
alive still; he might be dead; l could
not tell; but 1 would write him,
anyway. [ began by merely and
modestly suggesting that he make
such a book; but my interest grew as |
went on, and | yentured to map out what
L thought ought to be the plan of the
work, he being an old friend, and not
given to taking good intentions for ILL., l
even dealt with details, aud 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 suggestion, and
then no publisher happened to want it, [
should feel uncomfortable; so concluded
to keep my letter back until I should
Lave secured a publisher. | pigeon
holed my document, and dropped a note
to my own publisher, asking him to name
a day for a business consultation. He
was out of town on a journey. My note
remained unanswered, and at the end OF
four days the whole matter had passed
out of my mind. On the 9th of March
the postmau brought three or four lei
lers, and among them a thick n whose
subscription was in a hand which seemed
dimly familiar TO me. | could not
''place" it at first, but presently | sue
ceeded. Their | said to a visiting rela-
tive who wss present:
"Now l will do a miricle. I will tell
you everything this letter contains
date, signature. and all-without break
ing the seal. It is from a Mr.. Wright,
of Virginia, Nevada, a1d is dated the
I'd of March-seven days ago. Nc.
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 SO, their order and sequence so
and SO, and he will close with a history
of the chief feature of the book, the
Great Bonanza"
| opened the letter, and shovel that
I had stated the date and the contents
correctly. Dir. Wright's letter simply
contained what my letter, written
On the same date, contained, and mine
still lay in its pigeon-hoIe, where it had
been lying during the seven days since it
was written.
There was n clairyoyance about this,
If I rightly comprehend what clairvoy-
ance is. | think the c!airyoyant pro-
fesses to actually see concealed writing, |
and reid it of word for word. This
not my case. only seenedto know,
and to know absolutely, tae contents of
the letter in detail aad due order, but I
had TO word them myself. / translated
them, SO to speak, cut of Wright's Ian
guage into my OWE.
Wright's letter and the n which I
had written to MIN bat never sent we're
in substance the sans.
Necessarily this coall not come by
accident; such elaborate accidents can
not happen. Chance might have dup
Heated one or two Of the details, but she
would have broken down on The rest.
Icould not doubt-taeTe was no tenable
reason for do~ubting--that Mr.. Wright's
mind and mine had beea in close and
crystal-clear communication With each
other across three THOUSAND miles OF
mountain and desert on the morning of
the ID Of March. | did not consider
that both minds originated that sue
cession of ideas, but that one mind
originated them, and simply telegraphed
them to the other. | was curious to
know which brain was the telegrapher
and which the receiver, so I wrote and
asked for particulars. Mr.. WIight's
reply showed that his mind had done
the originating and telegraphing and
mine the receiving. Mark that signii-
cant thing, now; consider for a moment
how many a splendid ssoriginal" idea
has been unconsciously stolen from a
man three thousand miles awayl IL
one should question that this is SO, le5
him look into the cyelopedia aud con
once more that curious tang in the
history of inventions which has puzzled
every n SO much-that Is, the frequency
with which the same machine or other
continuance has been invented at the
same time by several persons in different
quarters Of the globe. The world wa
without an electric telegraph for several
thousand years, then Professor Henry,
the American, Wheatstone in England,
Morse on the sea, and a German in
Munich, all invented it at the same time.
The discovery Of certain ways Of apply
ing steam was made in two or thr ee
EZ.v