Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1905-05-10
An Army Of Itinerant svensaIis Now
Spreading Dangerous Teachings
Throughout the Country.
HYPNoTIsM IS THEIR GRAFT
Brutal Exhibitions Sometimes Given in
Public-Hypnotic Schools Also
Run by the Grafters.

specialists of the country. The hyp
motto craze has been steadily grow
ing in recent years until it has now
become a public danger. Itinerant
Svengalis are sweeping the country,
subjecting victims to all sorts of cruel
ties to the amusement OF the morbid
ly curious or for advertising purposes.
They are leaving behind them trail
of MANNED bodies and weakened in
tellects. These exhibitions are being
protected by municipal license, while
many fraudulent or otherwise bane-
full correspondence schools of hypnot-
ism are fiourishing under federal copy
right protection and by aid of the
United States mail privileges.
In France there is a law forbid
ding the practice or teaching of hyp-
notsm by any other than trained ply
sicans, licensed by the government.
That is what our medico-legal auth
critics are fighting for. One of the
most active advocates of this reform
is DR.. William Lee Howard, vice
president of the Medlco-Legal Soci
ETY..
Since 95 per cent of mankind can
be hypnotized, according to the not
ed hypnologist, Liebault, of Nancy,
France, the subject might be said to
be vital.
Brutal Exhibitions in Public.
The other day, in the course of a
public entertainment at Nicola, Ia,
a travelling Svengali sewed together
with big needles and stout cords the
wrists of a hypnotized subject, who
emerged from the trance prematurely.
tearing his flesh. Through the legs
of another hypnotized subject long
needles were thrust until the blood
flowed freely A panic ensued, wom-
en- tainted, and mob was about to
tar and feather the professor" when
he was rescued by the authorities and
carried off to Jail.
Some time before this an itinerant
hypnotist, giving a public exhibition
in Washington, set brawny man and
frail youth. both hypnOtiZed, to
wrestling. The audience capped with
delight until the helpless lad was car
ried off the stage with several bones
broken. During a course of similar
exhibitions in Cleveland boy was
kept asleep for week, during which
he was given no food, and lost near
ly fifteen pounds. The father of the
lad made frantic efforts to rescue him
from the hypnotist. but without sue
cess, and medical students subjected
the youth to all sorts Of experiments.
In the show window of a Washington
drug store the writer witnessed phases
of similar experiment. A youth.
upon couch, was kept there in pub
lie view, night and day, during a pro-
longed trance. 1t was revolving
spectacle. But the experiment drew
trade for the druggist, who presum-
ably employed for that purpose the
coarse ,dissipated looking woman who
had the victim "under control"
A hypnotized man, sealed up in a
casket and buried alive, in a grave
nine feet deep was offered as the
piece de resistance during hypnotic
exhibition near Chicago. A ventilat
ing tube led up from the casket, which
on the seventh day of the trance was
dug up in the presence OF large
crowd.
"uCuTCoS SOtuCo " CIV" VS"S' %
A series of hypnotic exhibitions ev
en- more revolving and demoralizins
was planned for this country sOm'
months ago. In 1890, Gabrielle Bonn
pard, mere girl, put silken corr
around the neck of her lover who sa
beside her on sofa, while mai
hidden in draperies behind the sof
attached the cord to pulley an
hon wiz Tho Uirl'c dpfnD G
was that she did her share of tn
crime while hypnotized; but she wa
sentenced to a long term in prison
Having been lately released, she cam
to America with a young dentist, bu
was detained at the immigration sta
ton at Ellis Island, N. Y, on tn
charge that she was an ex-convic1
She confessed her identity as we'll a
her intent to travel through this cour
try with the dentist and hypnOtis
While the latter had her under hyI
motto control she and the dentist wer
to rehearse the murder for whic
she was convicted. This histrioni
treat for the American people wa
suggested to her by experiments pc
formed with her by Prof Leigois, {
Paris, who. after the murder, put he
under the hypnotic influence. Durin
the trance she repeated her part i
the murder.
The hypnotic school offers danger
far graver than those of the hypnot
exhibition, for it sows the seed frol
which spring up the large crop of
inerant Svengalis. There is no doul
that the ability to put victims "unde
control is easily learned. The VII
er some years ago interviewed scie
tific hypnotist, who outlined the met
DDS by which he put subjects in tn
hypnotic state. He was soon foo
ed with letters, some of them Stain
that great success had been obtaine
by following the tactics mentioned
the article The writer round himse
a teacher of hypnotism without eve
having been a matriculate.
Grafters Run Hypnotic Schools.
A considerable proportion of tn
schools of hypnotism" is conducte
by that class of men known in tn
dialect of the streets as "grafters.
have the statement of woman VIII
took such a course. and, after par
ing with her money. had nothing i
return save a store of ludicrous al
ecdote; but this, perhaps. was an a.
set worth more than that for whic
she paid her money. Her teache
told her at length how he had treate
woman for cancer. Il hypnotic
her." said he, land in doing so al
sorbed into my own system the drug
L. h L.,