The Washington times., 1907-03-03
MARK AND THE MESMERIST
CFrom His Autobiography in the North
American Review.

An exciting event in our village CHan-
nibaD was the arrival of the mesmer-
izer. think the year was 1850 He ad-
vertised his show and promised marvels.
Admission as usual: . cents. children
and negroes han price. The village had
heard Of mesynerism, in a general way,
but had not encountered It yet. Not
many people attended. the first night.
but next day they had so many wonders
to tell that everybody 5 curiosity was
fired, and after that for q fortnight
the magician had prosperous times.
was fourteen or fifteen years old-the
age at which a boy is willing TO endure
all things, suffer all things. short of
death by fire. If thereby he may be con-
splcuous and show off before the public,
and so when 1 saw the subjects per
form their foolish antics on the plat
form and make the people laugh and
shout and admire, I had a burning de-
sire to be a subject myself Every
night, for three nights, / sat in the row
of candidates on the platform and held
the magic disk in the palm Of my hand.
and gazed at It and tried to get sleepy,
but it was a failure; I remained wide
awake. and had 10 retire defeated. like
the majority. Also. l had 20 sit there
and be gnawed with envy of Hicks, our
journeyman; l had to sit these and see
him scamper and jump when Simmons,
the enChanter, exclaimed. See the
snakei see the snake"' and hear him
say My, how beautiful in response
TO the suggestion that he was observing
a splendid sunset; and so Cn-the whole
insane business.
On the fourth night temptation came
I no afr enough fn
When I had gazed at the disk a while
1 pretended 70 be sleepy, and began 10
nod. SJraight-yay came the professor
and made passes over my head and
down my body and legs and arms. fin
ishing each pass with a snap Of his
| fingers in the air to discharge the sur
plus electricity; then he began TO
draw" me with the disk, holding Il in
his fingers and telling me ] could not
take my eyes off 1t, try as I might;
so I rose slowly, bent and gazing, and
followed that disk all over the place.
just as l had seen the others do. Then
] was put through the other PAGES.
Upon suggestion / fed from snakes;
passed buckets at a fire; became eX-
cited over hot steamboat races; made
love TO imaginary girls, and kissed
them; fShed from the platform and
landed mud-cats that outweighed me
and so on. all the customary marvels.
| But not in the customary way ] was
cautious at first. and watchful, being
T
/ was an imposter and drive me from
| the platform in disgrace: but as soon
as i realized that ! was not in danger
l set myself the task of Terminating
Hicks s usefulness as q subject and of
usurping his place.
It was a sufficiently easy task. Hicks
was born honest; ], without that in
cumbrance-so some people said. Hicks
saw what he saw, and reported accord
ingiY; I saw more than was visible
and added to II such detail as cOuld
| help. Hicks had no Imagination: 7 had
double supply. He was born calm
l was born excited No vision couId
start a rapture in him, and he was con-
supated as to language, anyway. but
If l saw vision I emptied the diction-
airy on il and lost the remnant of nv
mind in the bargain
AT the end of my first half-hour
Hicks was a thing of the past. a fall
len hero, 2 broken idol. and I knew
II, and was glad, and said in my heart.
success to crime. Hicks could never
have been mesmerizeo to the point
where he could kiss an imaginary girl
In public, or 4 real one, either but 7
was competent Whatever Hicks had
failed in, / made II q point to succeed
in, LET the cost be what 1t might, phys
icaily or Ihorally.