Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1897-10-16

| BOY HYPNOTIST AT WORK.
tice the mystic art OF hypno.ism they at
least have the latent power, and that it
| will be developed sooner or later by perse
| verance and opportunity. Every morning
and evening before and after school bands
| Of boys, big and little assemble In tho
vacant lots around the city schoolhouscs
and try to put each other to sleep with
passes of the hands. with chances from tho
eyes or with the aid of paraphcrnalia with
bright surfaces like the magic rods Of the
| professional fakirs Of tho stage. Every
night party Of youngsters, the most of
whom have not graduated from shirt
waists and Enickerbockcrs, give public ex-
hibitions of their powers FOR tho entertain
| ment of whatsoever cares TO lock on
| Astounding stories are current about
| the success OF some of the youthful hyp-
notists and are accepted in good faith, be-
cause the school authorities, through Su-
perintendcnt Gross. took official cogni-
zancC Of the practices the other day by issu-
ing pcremptory order to the effect that
hereafter any boy who Is caught trying to
hypnotic another boy will be suspended,
with an excellent chance Of being per.
| manently expelled. Tho order has only
served 30 make the boys more cautious.
It has not diminished their enthusiasm
for the art which Svengali employed to
make Trilby the slave of his will and ca
price.
Local newspapers have published sensa-
| tional stories about the spread of the hyp-
| motto habit, and an alleged professional
| hypDctiss Keppler, who used to live in
Eau Claire, has taken advantage of the OK
| isting craze to announce that he is going to
put man named Hugeru In O trance and
Lock him In glass case for SO hours and
the whole town Is awaiting the result of
the experiment with brcathiess interest.
Two boys in particular havo distin-
| guished themselves by their success in
hypnotisrn. They are Lum Skntvoldt and
| Byron Culver. An amusing incident Is
told of Skatvolds.
Tho other day the teacher had boy
| bring cup of water from the basement to
DO used in diluting some ink that had
thickencd They boy came into the room
| carrying the cup in his hand and was ap-
preaching the teachers desk as If to de-
posit it there, when he suddenly halted
and looked steadily at young Skatvoldt
Then, in sight Of the whole class he DELHI
| erately raised the cup to his lips and drank
the contents. In the eyes of the teacher it
was a bit of INSTRUMENTATION TINT warrant
ed immediate punishment, and going over
to the boy she seized him by the collar
and shook him vigorously. He appeared
| to be half asleep for u moment and then
awakened TO full sense of his position
why did you drink that water?" said
the teacher angrily.
II did not drink any water" was the
unexpected reply.
A giggling from the lower part Of the
| room caused tine teacher TO turn her eyes In
that direction, and she thought she saw
Lum Skatvcldt and two other boys trying
to hide their laughter behind Biographies
! She Is a resolute little woman Her nasuc
Is Miss Dunphy. She had heard about tho
| hypnotism business, and instantly suspect
ing that young Skatvoldt had had somo-
| thing to do with the other boys conduct
went over IN the direction of Skatvoldt's
desk TO see about the matter. She detected
Skotvoldt rolling his queer eyes at her from
| behind his book.
"See here" exclaimed Miss Dunphy to
the hypnotist, "if you try any Of that
hypnotism on me, I'll hypnotic yen In q
way you will not forget, and you will not
be in trance while / do 1t either"
But the boy, as II confident Of his own
power, did not remove his eyes from the
teachers. Miss Dunphy became exaspcr-
ated and swooped down on Skatvoldt. She
took him by the coat collar and uncere-
moniously 5erked him out Of his seat into
| the aisle.
What happened after that is tersely told
BY q boy who was an eyewitness Of the
hypnotist's discontinue.
Miss Dunphy didn't DO q thing Do
Lum. She wasn't no Trilby."
Hypnotism was 10 match for the anger
and resentment Of o teacher. Lum has
since decided that Miss Dunphy Is not q
good subject.
Both lads got their first hypnotic in
spiration when Santinelu was in Eau
| Claire few weeks ago. Santinelli Is a
man with the face " tragedian, and he
took the town by storm. The city. it
ought to be remembered, Is partial to that
! sort OF performance, and ms q record In
hypnotism that is not SO brief that 1t is
apt to be forgotten. It was the home Of
the magician Bancroft, who died few
months ago, and whose feats have excited
the admiration and envy of every boy In
| town
Three years ago q sensational action
which had hypnotism as its basis attracted
the attention Of the country to Eau Claire.
DIR. George Pickin and his son Asigal were
arrested upon complaint of a young wom-
| an named Mabel Briggs, who accused them
OF having exercised a hypnotic influence
over her. She explained that one night
while she was riding past the Pickin resi-
dence on bicycle she saw Asigal Pickin
sitting on the front steps He looked at
her, and, though she rode past, she was
impelled by some mysterious power to re-
turn The Pickins were arraigned before
Judge Bailey. A hypuotist named Flint
was brought to Eau Claire to testify a. an