Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1893-12-30

skip out, I'll have to realize ON some of
my personal property, and as | don't
know the best places in town, | want
you to steer me around. Won't object,
will you?"
"Not in the least My services are al
ways at your disposal, and I'll be at the
club at half-after seven or eight. And
now must tear myself away; so, until
then" and the end of the sentence
was lost in the slight slam of the door as
he went out. The artist listened until
the echo of his friends retreating foot
steps had died into the murmurous
silence of the great tenement in which
he lived, and then going softly to the
door himself, he turned the key in IT,.
Coming back to the table, he drew his
chair close up to it. and cast furtive
glance about the unhcme-like room and
into the deep shadows that lurked in the
cobwebbv corners Then, with com
pressed lips and trembling hands, he
drew the palette to him and gently
pressed finger into the little daub of
mummy-brown still upon it.
A cold thrill shot up his arm, shaking
the very nerve centres of his body as it
did so, and making him shudder again
and again, even as he sank back into the
chair half unconscious. In another mo
ment sudden dusk filled the room, through
which the familiar pieces of furniture
and draperies seemed to lose their famil-
iarity and to take new shapes and colors
unto themselves. With staring eyes ne
strove to pierce the mist that half OBJ
scured his vision, and to shake off the
weird feeling that had seized upon him ;
but gradually the lids dropped and
closed and to his distended nostris there
came, as he lost consciousness, faint,
sweet odor which even then he recog-
nized-the smell of cedar-p pitch and
myrrh. How long the terrible dream
which followed lasted he could not
know; but at last he woke to life again,
and, struggling to his feet, he staggered
to the window, threw it open, and let
the faint breath of air stirring
in the court yard far below
sweep up past him and into the
dark room behind. The dusk was just
falling over the city, and far, far below
him he could hear the tenement's inhab-
itants of the first and second floors pre-
pairing their evening meal, singing and
cursing by turns as the preparation
pleased or displeased them. The night
air cooled his fevered face and refreshed
him, however, and the great beads of
perspiration that had gathered OH his
forehead were gone, as he turned back to
the room again.
ha IofY M
patiently, land hungry, l dare say. No
wonder imagine things p' and catching
up the worn soft hat that lay beside his
tumbled bed he hurried out into the
hall and down the weary length of stairs
to the street.
But as he closed the door, small,
heavy bladed dirk, upon shelf directly
over the spot where he had hastily showed
the unfinished picture and its easel,
Jared by his haste, whirled slowly
around until it rested upon the very edge
of the shelf, where it balanced to and
fro and trembled in the little breeze that
still pulled in at the open window.
Morgan, the favorte story-te.ler of the
Bohemian Idler's Club, was talking as
Richardson and the painter came in from
their journey to the pawnshop, and the
usual audience of interested listeners
was collected about him.
at may or may not have been a hum
bug" he was saying, with shrug of his
shabby-genteel shoulders, "but it was
devilish queer any way you take it.
saw the man do it five times, too, and he
failed but once"
"What do you call it-hypnotism?"
asked newcomer.
81 don't know; he simply says he
sensitizes the water and lets you call il
what you like. First he puts the tum-
bier of plain hydrant water into one
room, ana he and the subject go into
another. He makes a few passes-that
is where the hypnotism comes in, | sup
pose-and once the man is under his
control, the professor walks into the
other room and stands with his hands
over that tumbler of water for perhaps {
minute, not uttering a sound. Then he
sends some of us into the room with the
sleeping subject, and he stays with the
rest of the witnesses. When everything
is ready, he tells one of them to take bis
penknfe and thrust the blade carefully
into the water. He does 80, and we hear
a muffled scream from the other room, as
If the hypnotized man had felt tho stab.
This was repeated three times, and every
time the subject screamed and twisted
about in his chair, as If in agony, while
the knife remained in the water. As
soon as it was removed the pain APP
parently ceased, and he rested quietly
again. i was skeptical, of course" con.
Guided the laxative Morgan, land said
it was all chicanery; but after seeing
the thing half dozen times, | felt diff
ferently, and | must say that it ia ex.
tremely peculiar, if not mysterious.
"What had the subject to say fol
himself when he came tor asked Rich
ardson, who had joined the group.
VERY little, except that some one ha(
tried to stab him, and had succeeded three
times in sticking a knife into his back
he thought"
"And did he know Of the tumble
Of water and its bearing on his halluci
nation?n
mo, he had been kept in still
another room when first brought to th
/ house, aud had not seen or heard Of thl
! water
"rhlt Is rather penliu', said Rich