Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1895-08-19
A MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR.
A Richfe.d Springs, N. ", special

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in Fridays New York Herald says:
At the first grand ball of the season
in the darlington Hotel here tonight
Miss Abigail spates, the daughter of a
wealthy farmer of East Springfield
township, had an experience which
tragically illustrates the folly of the
hynotic craze.
Since Miss Jennie Louise Howard,
daughter of Vice-President Howard, of
the Fourteenth street Bank, of New
York city, was accidentally hypnotized
in an amateur performance of "Trilby," !"
the young people of the entire country
side and the hotel guests have talked of
little else.
The Three Hundred of Richfeld as
sembled tonight at ball in the Earl
ington Hotel, the first general enter
tainment of the season. Only guests Of
the hotels and well-known cottagers
were invited. Nobody recognized the
beautiful girl who walked into the ball
room soon after the music began, Oh
the arm of MIR. Starr Keller, young
Rich6elder.
The wealth and fashion of half doz-
en- great American cities were repre-
sented. Matrons and debutantes were
eclipsed by the magnificent appear
ance of the unknown. She was
tall and slender, her Jet black
hair contrasting with her deep
blue eyes, which wore a strange
look of abstraction as she walked with
out speaking or turning either to the
right or left through the groups of Gu
rious guests.
Mr.. Keller, who was smiling when he
brought his beautiful companion into
the hall, looked worried as they pass
ed the orchestra, which had been aug
mented by a number of pieces and was
banked in ferns at the far end of the
great hall. Just as they turnid the
band struck up "Ben Bolt" set to
waltz time, and in the dance, in which
two hundred pairs joined, the fair un-
known was conspicuous for her grace
and abandon.
The merriment was at its height,
when as the music fell into aminor key
and the strains of eau Claire de la
Lunen echoed plaintively down the
hall, the unknown uttered piercing
shrek and fell at full length on the
ballroom floor.
In an instant all WAS confusion at
that end of the room and her apparent
ly lifeles5 body YVES born speedily out
of the crowd. Dr. Borand, the post.
master, who is also physician, was
hurriedly called in and diagnosed the
case as oatalepsy. The girls form was
rigid, her pupils set, and her arm, when
extended, kept the position in which it
was put.
Inquiry, however, developed the fact
that the young girl was the victim of
hypnotic suggestion, that she had new
er read "Trilby," had never been to o
ball before, and actually had never
waltzed before in her life; that her
father, Joshua Spates, is one of the
richest farmers of East Springfield, and
that she bad been persuaded to come
to the darlington ball, although she
had never been out in evening dress in
her life, by gentleman who weEt on
fishing excursion in that vicinity re-
Gently, and whose name is not now
given because criminal proceedings are
to be begun against him at once.
1t was he who introduced the farm
er's daughter, who turned out to be the
belle of the darlington ball, to Mr..
Stuart Keller, her escort, and who,
having hypnotized the girl early in the
evening, drove her to the hotel in
closed carriage and borrowed the fnery
in which she was dressed
When the facts became known in
the ball room great indignation was
expressed. Otherwise the entertain
ment was unusually brilliant and sue
cessful.