The herald., 1893-07-16
HE'S A HYPNOTIC HOAX.
TYNDALL NEVER BURIED HIMSELF
AND WAS NEVER IN BOMBAY.
Thirty Days in . Casket-Ths Scheme
That should Cause Grass to Grow
Over the Grave Of
Professor.

Prof. Alexander J. McIvor Tyndall--he
OF the long. unkempt hair OF black, and
cataleptic fits, the came Tyndall who
hypnotizes people and does all sorts Of
queer things, wants to 60 and bury him
self. So the dispatches from Chicago
state, and it is to be hoped that there
has been no mistake in the dispatches.
He has, go the dispatches state, made
the sensational proposition to the di-
rectors of the worlds fair at Chicago,
that as an attraction that will outdo all
the other freaks of all nations along
Midway plaisance, he be incased in
an air-tight casket for the period 80
days; or, in fact, until the green grass
and daisies shah bloom above his grave.
Then, when the grave has been kept
green and the flowers have budded and
| given their fragrance to the sir, Tyndall
says he will riec from the dead, as it
were, stalk forth in all his hypnotic
glory-alive, weird, as queer as ever.
The same Tyndall is not unknown in
San Francisco. In fact he is we'll known,
and it 10 among those who know him
best that the wish is expressed that the
worlds fair people at Chicago will allow
j. McIvor Tyndall to bury himself fer
30 days in an air-tight casket, or even
longer if be wants to.
1t was only about q year and half
ago that Tyndall came here from Aus
tralia, and soon his tall figure, long black
hair and deathly pale face we're familiar
on Market and Kearny streets. Nervous
to high degree, peculiar in speech and
action, he always made an unpleasant
impression on all who came in contact
with him.
In his letter submitting his weird
proposition to the officials of the big fair,
Tyndall boldly asserts that he previously
met with success in similar experiments
in this city and at Bombay.
NO, YOU DIDN'T. PROFESSOR.
Professor Tyndall never performed
any such experiment in this city, and
there are people who say that he was
never in Bombay.
But the professor did succeed in max
ing a show of himself here. He gave
several unsuccessful exhibitions of mind,
or rather muscle, reading, and tried
hypnotism, but without much success.
One night after one of his exhibitions
OF hypnotism he drifted off into what
he, some hours later, called cataleptic
condition,
But it was hard work filling houses
with his hypnotic show, even with
cataleptic fit thrown in, go one rainy
night few hurrying, scurrying pedes-
triarH on Kearny street were startled by
seeing tall white-robed figure, pale of
out behind, running wildly, almost
blindly, over the wet. Undiscovered
eobbles.
A few stray FOUNDERS aud couple of |
policemen followed the heeting figure.
Along Kearny street this phantom OF
the night sped. 1t turned the corner of
the old City hall, at Washington street,
made up the steps leading to the city |
receiving hospital, into the operating |
room, and there collapsed, falling across
the old blood-stained operating table.
the man up on the table. They Saw 1t
was Tyndall. His eyes were closed. J
His limbs Strengthened out and became
rigid. The surgeon raised one of Tyn-
dall's arms in the air 1t remained
there perfectly moticnless.
"Catalepey," murmured the doctor.
The next day the papers had long
stories,s with pictures, about Professor
Tyndall, He remained in that state all
OF that night and the following day.
Pins were stuck into his fesh. He
never WINGED.
He was wonder, scientific marvel.
Here was a case OF rigid catalepsy, some-
thing of which up to that time, there
had been no authentic record.
REVIVED BY REPORTER.
That night an unscienti6c but thor
oughly skeptical police reporter sug-
gested the stomach pump as means OF
bringing Tyndall out of his trance.
At this there waa. movement of the
body, the muscles relaxed, the eyes
opened, long white hand was pushed
through mass of jet black hair. Slowly
the figure on the couch assumed half
recum bent position. The piercing black
eyes took in all the objects in the room.
There WAS long-drawn breath.
Prof. Alex. j. McIver Tyndall was
call right"
After that Tyndall gave one or two
more of his exhibitions here, but he
never met with much success. He was
a sensational mind reader. Once he
read the minds of two men held in the
city prison on a charge OF burglary. One
he said was innocent. The other guilty.
Afterwards both men were sent to the
house OF correction. They pleaded
guilty.
Tyndall is in Leadville, Colo, now, or
was when he sent out his air-tight
casket burial scheme.
Last night DR.. J. Franklin Brown,
the hypnotist, said that Tyndall's prop
IL nj,