Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1899-03-08
PROFESSIONAL STRATEGY.

'Prof." Leonards stepped briskly OF
to the stage, and gaZed around at The
crowded audience. Then he thrust
waistcoat, and waving his right arm
in the air commenced to lecture.
He was not addicted ITO much pre-
amble, and he was quickly in the
thick of his subject ma tier, which
was hypnotism. 1t was not given to
every man to perform such feats as
he could show, he intimated, and TIC
prove that he was NO mere tboaSter he
casually offered a hundred pounds
to any man who could perform his
mesmeric experiment.
"I'll take 1T up" shouted slim
looking young man from the rear OF
the hall.
The slim young man mounted the
platform ait the close of the entertain
ment, and essayed the task of win
ming that hundred pounds. He was a
dismal failure. One or two of the
subjects we're placed in a condition of
dreary inertness, but the rest after
pretending to submit to the magic
force of the mysterious passes made
over their faces, simply stood up and
laughed at the amateur for his pains.
Come off the stage, Johnson"
yelled a voice from the audience,
you're no good agin the professor.
Don't make fool of yourself before
all Wollabourne"
And amidst consid chaff from
the professor" who hoped his young
friend would go home and cut his
wisdom teeth, and then try again, the
mesmeric johnson descended.
He bore his unSucceSS with becom-
ink meekness, but he had discovered
a factor in "Prof" Leonard's meth
DDS. For the next few days he studied
not so much hypnotism as human ma
ture, and at the end of the week again
formed one of the audience at the en-
tertalnment. He was not so greatly
surprised to find that precisely the
same gentlemen were chosen as sub
jects from among "a large number of
volunteers as were selected on the
previous occasions; but he was unde-
TERED, and responded to the invita-
ton for the G100 competition with
alacrity.
Hard cash, if you please" replied
the young gentleman, and set to work
on the row of grinning yokels who
were waiting to be hypnotized.
To the great surprise of everybody,
including the professor" one by one
they succumbed to the mesmeric In
fluence, and when every individual
had been put through his facings ac-
cording to the exhibited PRO
gramme," the youth quietly held out
his hand and said:
Perhaps you viii be good enough
to count over that hundred pounds
you referred TO just now.
The professor" knew better than
to refuse. The house was in a state
of the widest excitement. and the
popular current was distinctly in
Johnson's favor. Refusal to pay
would have meant riot, at least,
and a long farewell to his growing
reputation. He paid the money with
a bad grace, and with many NUT,
tered execration against the group of
subjects" who had sold him. This
was what came of putting faith in
rustic innocence. and of omi tting the
trifiing formality of paying wages
when they were due. However, a
chance might arise. by which he
would get even.
That chance arose
The next night there were two mes
merists showing in that little town.
"A new professor had sprung into ex-
iStence.
1t was the slim youth who had won
the hundred puonds. The ma iority of
Prof. Leonard's subjects" had 'verted
to the opposition. The rest had been
discharged. Curiously enough they
were the only mediums" who were
in the slightest sense subject to the
professors hypnotic influence, but
neither of the Scientists" cared to
to bother with them. The sham was
an infinitely superior article, so much
more interesting from a show point
OF view. and 30 little trouble com
ParaGvely.
The new show caught on" amaz.
tlsgiy. and the attendance increased in
proportion to the decrease at the on.