Morris tribune., 1900-01-20
A HYPNOTIC DUEL.

4 who looked a. little like a crank or
Y faddist as cot.1u well be imagined. III,
was one OF a group talking on occult
ism III general anu -L5 as collateral
I and when he made the announcement
! there was an inl:.-, Late demand fol
the reasons for the faith that was il
/ him"
/ '"Twenty years ago." he went on ir
/ response TO the demand, Il was stu
dent in France, and at that time
4 hypnOlSm, or meSmerism, as it was
then known, did not hold the place il
now holds. On the contrary, the be.
lever in meSmerism was considered
! by majority of the most respectable
people to be mentally lax, so to speak
My roommate and best friend was an
American attending a medical school,
and both of us were more or less in
terested in things occult, as active
minded young men are likely to be,
when they are not rich enough to in
dulge in all those frivolities of youth
which are quite the contrary of occult
ism. We attended hypnotic seances
and that sort Of thing att every oppor-
tunity, and it was not long until my
friend, Walter, began to show signs Of
being mesmerist himself When we
discovered he had the gift, we were
greatly elated, and ON every occasion,
among our friends, he was practicinS
and perfecting his skill. So adept did
he finally become, that had it not been
for the prejudice against it, we would
have turned it to account to assist our
revenues, which about this time felt
the need of assistance, as we had
made the acquaintance of fast crowd
and our exchequer was assuming
| degree of emaciation which was posi-
lively painful
zone night, on our way home from
| a small festiVity, not @t all in the line
of oocultism, we stopped at a we'll
known cafe, where number Of giddy
youths like ourselves were making q
night Of it, and when we left the
place Walter had duel ON his hands,
with fiery young official, who had
been slapped i'm the face for certain
remarks, which if Walter had been
duly sober, he would never have no
ticed. However; this was of no avail
now, and nothing was left except to
fight, and to fight with the French
mans choice of weapons, as Walter
was the challenger. What fool he
was; what a fool was; what a fool
the Frenchman was; what fools all
of us were; what fool man always
is when he is drunk! Yet it did not
strike us so that night as we rolled
along to our rooms. But the next
morning, when the wine was out and
the wit was in Walter and l would
gladly have given all we possessed to
be out Of the ugly business. What the
Frenchmam thought about it, / have
no notion. Very likely he didn't think
about it at all, but took it as matter
of course, for that was the way he |
had been raised. 1t was different with |
US, though, for we had fathers, moth
ers, sisters and Sweethearts back in |
America, to whom duel was quite as |
dreadful as it was to us-when we [
were sober. There was no honorable
way for us to get out of it, however,
if we wanted to stay in France, and to
have gone away under such circum-
stances was even worse than the risk
of murder or being murdered, 81 there
we were. Of course all the arrange
mentS deVOlved upon me as Walters
friend, and every move l made in the
affair seemed to me as if | were get
ting Walter ready for his funeral
under his own direction. 1t was sim
ply horrible, and there were times
when l wished had been reared in
an atmosphere Of duels, and had
swords for playthings and pistols for
pop-guns. Forty eight hours was the
limit of my time for such, reflections,
however, and before the expiration Of
that, duel with swords bad beer
to take place at daylight in
the suburbs, and poor Walter didn't
know half as much about sword as
he did about plOwShare, and he
didn't know enough about that to have
run a. straight furrow if. it had been
staked out for him across a field,
while the Frenchman was noted
swordsman. Still, much to my sur.
prise, Walter appeared quite calm
after the first twenty four hours of
sober thought, and l could not account
for 1t, unless it was that calmness of
despair we read of and occasionally
happen On i'm our experiences. In this
instance, thought l had happened
ON it; and I am free to say it did not
add to my cheerfulness,
'Well, the time came, and we we're
there promptly, with a faint hope in
my palpitating bosom that something
would interfere with the other side to
prevent an appearance But it went
to pieces early; the Frenohman was
there before we were, and what was
worse he showed signs of being GLAD
ne was there. How 1 did want to
take him out to some quiet spot and
wiring his Internal neck! And how
handsome Walter looked, pale, OF
course, but the very picture Of manl
And how felt when l thought 4.
what word l might have to send home
to his dear old mother and father, and
to that sister of his, who was more to
me than al the others
'1f both principals had been French.
men | might have been less wrought
up; but there was an American in it,
and somebody was bound to get hurt.
Before we got down to business
Walter began to act queerly, and |
thought the strain was proving too
great for him; but he whispered some
thing to me and watched the French.
man. Presently he observed Walters
peculiar motions and actions, Which
were just enough not to excite
comment and they were continued
until the two men took their places,
It was evident the Frenchman Thought
Walter was about to work some west
ern trick ON him to offset his s1narior