The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1900-08-11
SCIENCE NOT BENEFITED.
A hypnotic Test That Was Brought to Naush,
By Field Mouse.

A hypnotic Test That Was Brought to Nausl
By Field Mouse.
Zone Of the queerest experiences q
my whole career, and I've had lots Q
EN-" said wellknown theatrical ad
vance agent, happened in the fall o
1896, when I was acting as bushes
manager, press boomer, ticket take
and liar-in-ordinary for a hypnotis
who was making a tour of the small
towns in southern Illinois, Indiana ant
Ohio.
The professor was a pretty smooth
old fakir, but his show was lacking In
novelty, and We were trying desperate
ly to think up some sensational feature
when We encountered chap named
O'Brien, who was a professional horse
for mesmerists. A horse is stage slang
for a ready-made subject, who sub
mits to all sorts of tests, and this fell
low suggested that we stir I'D a little
excitement by burying him alive. OF
course, the dodge is old now, but 1t was
fresh then, and we started at once to
put 1t into execution. We were at a
bustling town on the Ohio River at the
time, and we announced that on such
and such a day Prof. - would throw
a man into trance, nail him ND in a
coffin and bury him eight feet deep.
where he would remain for forty-eight
hours. The disinterment and opening
of the casket at the opera house were
events on which we depended to draw
huge crowd. The whole affair was
dubbed the great East Indian hypno-
tic 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 of according to program.
Long practice at what is called the
sleep test made 1t comparatively easy
for O'Brien to lie quiet for couple of |
lays and danger from suffocation was
avoided by three-inch wooden tube.
which connected the coffin with the
utter air. The experiment created i'm.
nense excitement in the vicinity, and
We easily persuaded dozen VIGOROUSLY
hungry citizens to act as committee
watch the grave by shifts, and see
hat no food or stimulants were passed
own the tube, and, needless to say.
ne whole town came out to keep them
Folks talked in awed whisp-
IS OF the unconscious man lying down
lere in the cold, dark ground; a num-
er OF prominent physicians certified
the genuineness of the trance. Every
ing was pointing to tremendous
lccess, when just at dusk on the first I
" frightful mishap occurred.
A small field mouse darted sudden.
out of the grass made two or three
wildered dashes, and fell headlona z
to the wooden air tube. At the next
slant the most awful blood-freezing.
human howl ever heard by mortal
rs issued out Of the bowels of the
rth. Even to me, who knew O'Brien
IS wideawake and In no peril what
n, the yell was deeply horrifying, In
lie the effect upon others may pos 10
~ be imagined, but never adequately BI
cribed. Women tainted and men ne
came hysterical, and all the whole 81
Sc hideous shrieks kept pouring 90
ftly ont of the tube. ~
Well, to make long story short a VI
vel brigade was organized, and in D
than ten minutes O'Brien was IN
ched and handed out. He was of
In q state Of limp collapse, but he
strength enough to denounce the
as fake and declared that we had
'igled him into it by taking advan-
or his pover4. When he got that
along the professor and 1 quietly
ped away and left town unostenta-
sly on a freight. The crowd was
ainly In lynchlng temper. What
)ened to O'Brien was merely a -
k-down Of nerve. He was wrought n
TO high pitch anyhow, and the
Sc landing suddenly on his neck u
e him insance with panic for the
being. That episode resulted In mv
passage Of ordinances prohibiting III
burial test in scores Of Northern
Orleans Times Democrat. -