The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1900-08-01
SCIENCE NOT BENEFITED.
Hypnotic Test That Was Brought,
to Naught by n Small Field
Mouse.

"One of the queerest experiences OF
my whole career, and I've had lots Of
EN-" said a well-known theatrical adj
vance agent who was in town few
days ago, relates the New Orleans
Times-Democrat, happened in the
fall of 1895, when L was acting as
business manager, press boomer,
ticket taker and liar-in-ordinary for
a hypnotist who was making tour
of the small towns in southern I'LL.
nois, Indiana and Ohio.
"The professor was pretty smooth
old falSir, but his show was lacking
in novelty, and we were trying des-
perately to think up some sensation.
al feature when we encountered
chap named O'Brien, who was pro-
fessional horse for mesmerists. A
horse is stage slang for ready-made
subject, who submits to all sorts OF
tests, and this fellow suggested that
we stir up q little excitement by
burylng him alive. OF course, the
dodge Is old now, but 1t was fresh
then, and we started at once to put
lit into execution. We were at
\
the time, and we announced that on
such and such day Prof. - would
throw a man into a trance, nail him
up in a coffin and bury him eight
feet deep, where he would remain for
48 hours The disinterment and open
ing of the casket at the opera house
were events on which we depended
to draw a huge crowd. The whole
affair was dubbed the great East In
dian hypnotic trance test and O'Brien
figured as wealthy traveller who had
consented to submit to the ordeal
purely in the interest of science.
"Of course, there were any number
of details that had to be arranged"
continued the agent, "but the burial
finally came off according to pro
gramme. Long practice at what Is
called the sleep test made 1t COM
paratively easy for O'Brien to lie
quiet for couple of days and danger
from suffocation was avoided by
three-inch wooden tube, which con-
nected the coffin with the outer air.
The affair created immense excite
ment in the vicinity, and we easily
persuaded dozen VIGOROUSLY hungry
tcitizens to act as a committee 70
watch the grave by shifts, and see
that no food or stimulants were passed
down the tube, and, needless to say,
the whole town came out to keep them
company. Folks talked in awed whis-
Ipers Of the unconscious man lying
down there In the cold, dark ground;
a number of prominent physicians
certified to the genuineness of the
trance. Everything was pointing to
tremendous success, when just at
dusk the first day frightful mishap
occurred.
"A small Acid mouse darted sud
denly out of the grass, made two or
three bewildering dashes, and fell
headlong into the wooden air tube.
Al the next instant the most awful,
blood-freehng, inhuman howl ever
heard by mortal ears issued out Of
the bowels of the earth Even to me,
who knew O'Brien was wide awake
and in no peril whatever, the yell
was deeply horrifying, while the Of
feet upon others may possibly be
Imagined, but never adequately de-
,scribed. Women tainted and men be-
came hysterical, and all the while
those hideous shrieks kept pouring
swiftly out of the tube.
well, to make long story short,
Q shovel brigade was organized, and
In less than ten minutes O'Brien was
reached and hauled out. He was then
IN state of limp collapse, but he had
strength enough to denounce the test
as fake and declared that we had
inveigled him into 1t by taking advan-
tage of his poverty. When he got
that far along the professor and I
quietly slipped away and left town
unostentatiously on freight. The
crowd was certainly In lynching tenn
per. What happened to O'Brien was
merely u breakdown of nerve. He
was wrought up to high pitch any
how, and the mouse landing suddenly
on his neck drove him insane with
panic for the time being. That cpl
sode resulted In the passage of or
dinances prohibiting the burial test
L.. aooraa ~ nOrt ottiap