The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-12-27
INVESTIGATING AN OLD
TRICK.
Lifting Pc opIe ON the Tips of Ones
Fingers.

"A few Of us have lately teen expert
menting with tbs old trick Of liitipg
people on ones finger tips" said q young
man who lives at q fashionable board
ing house, to n New Orleans Times Demo-
orat reporter. "Our purpose was to OBJ
tain some accurate. Intelligent data on
a very mysterious phenomena, and We
kept careful record of every thing We
did. Some Of tho results were very sur
prising. We began By lifting living
person. One Of our party lay down at
full length OH an extension table and
two Of rs stood at each eide, opposite his
shoulders and knees.
"At q given signsl all i've took ten
deer breaths In unison, then each Of the
four at the sides placed one finger OF the
right hand under the prostrats mans
body and lifted, meanwhile holding our
breath. In the majority of trials. say
three out of five, he came up without per-
ceptibls effort, Eand several times he was
lifted as high rs we could stretch our
arms. There Ia absolutely no ssnss OF
weight and the thing is SO absurdly easy
that each man at the table Ia bound to
feel vaguely suspicious that he has been
trioked and ttas the others really do the
lifting. felt so myself until common
sense oonvin eed me that 1t was utterly
impossible. The lightsst OF our subjects
weighed $40 pounds and no four people n
earth could ordinarily lift q man Of that
size on their finger tips without visible
strain.
1--WE tried great many variations,
but the plan have described was the
only ons tina. proved generally successful
1he esssntiai point seemed to be to Sc
cure a certain rhythm In breathing, and
whenever we hit IL the lift was made with
unfailing certainty; but II any ons Of US
broke STEP so to speak, the experiment
fall I'd. We were all deeply 10 earnest, SO
we had no trouble on account OF giggling
or Mysteries. l was lifted repeatedly my
self, ana the feeling is indesoribahle.
Floating In water Is as near rs can
come to II.
"After a great many expert ments with
living D. ople," continued this sue Rker,
Eve tried inanimate objects. We took y
square iron plate weighing lsi pounds,
Tor ID eFly used In q hearth, aud placed 10
on a stool. -Four of US stood at the
corners and went through ths
method Notwithstanding in uni
son and then suddenly hfnng
70 our great surprise this experiment
proved fully as successful AZ tho other,
and In 40 record trials the plate went
up SO timfs Such q test by the way
IL dangerous. because II there Is tins
slightest catching of the breath while the
heavy objsot lifted Is in the ar 1t IN
stantly comes crashing down with tts full
weight. Several Of US narrowly esuaped
being hurt by the iron slab, and that
suggested another and very interesting
device.
"Ne took large spring stselyard,
graduated up to &0J pounds, and made
IL selfregistsring by attaching biz oil
pencil to The pointer and putting slip
Of paper over ths scae. Then we hooked
1t into . ring In the floor and3 fastened
the 9th sr end 60 the under side OF q short
piece of plank. The plank was supported
across d couple OF chairs, and we tried
lifting IL exactly as We did the iron slab
That put a tension on the steelyard, and
the e1eot was exactly as IL We were INT
Ing something that grew heavier and
'ayir the highe- we went. Our breath
Ing had no effect whatever on th9 spring,
but the apparatus, while crude, was val
liable, in showing our normal lnung
poHer We found we were unable to geE
ahovo IL pounds without clearly peroap-
81 BILE effort, and to register - POUNDS
required pronounced exsFtiOu. o. course,
we could push the board up on cur four
finger tips until the pointer stood at lOO
but that was gymastlo teat tnat
strained every muscle. We found that
tho raising OF the 1oi-pound slab required
infinitely less apparent foros than the
registering of 10 or II pounds on the steel
yard. Ina: disposes OF th3 theory that
the weight Has SO divided we didn't tes
10 -
"Now, how is ono to account for al
thisY To me it u unaCCuuutable. Il