The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1907-05-31
A MARK TWAIN PRANK
The Great Humorist When a Boy
Posed as a MEDIUM"
JUST WANTED TO SHOW OFF.
His Own Story of His Temptation and
Fall, the Way He Improved His OPP
portunity and the Dramatic Climax to
His Performance.

Fall, the Way He Improved his Up
portunity and the Dramatic Climax to
His Performance.
An exciting event in our village
(HanLibaD was the arrival of the mes
meriZer. l think the year was 1850.
He advertised his show and promised
marvels; admission, as usual, % cents;
children and negroes half price. The
village had heard of meSmeriSm 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's
curiosity was fired, and after that for
fortnight the magician had prosper
Gus times. l was fourteen or fifteen
years old-the age at which boy is
willing to endure all things, suffer all
things, short of death by fire, if there
by he may be conspicuous and show
off before the public-and so when l
saw the subjects" perform their fool
ish antics OH the platform and make
the people laugh and shout and admire
| had burning desire to be subject
myself. Every night for three nights
l 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. | remained awake and had to
retire defeated, like the majority. Also
had to sit there and be gnawed with
envy of Hicks, our journeyman. l had
TO sit there and see him scamper and
jump when Simmons the enchanter
exclaimed See the snake-see the
snake!' and hear him say, "My, how
beautiful" in response to the sugges-
ton that he was observing a splendid
sunset, and so on-the whole insane
business.
On the fourth night temptation came,
and was not strong enough to resist.
When had gazed at the disk awhile
Z pretended to be sleepy and began to
nod. Straightway came the professor
and began to make passes over my
head and down my body and legs and
arms, finishing each pass with a snap
of his fingers in the air, to discharge
the surplus electricity. Then he began
to draw" me with the disk, holding 1t
In his fingers and telling me l could
not take my eyes off it, try as might.
SO rose slowly, bent and gazing, and
followed that disk all over the place,
just as l had seen others do. Then I
was put through the other PAGES. Upon
suggestion l fled from snakes, passed
buckets at q fire, became excited over
hot steamboat races, made love to
imaginary girls and kissed Them fished
from the platform and landed mudcats
that outweighed me, and SC on, all the
customary marvels, but not in the Gus
tomary way. | was cautious at first
and watchful, being afraid the profess
or would discover that l was an i'm
poster and drive me from the platform
in disgrace, but as soon as l realized
that l was not in danger l set myself
the task of terminating Hicks useful
ness as a subjo It and Of usurping his
place.
1t was sufficiently easy task. Hicks
was born honest; | without that in
cumbrance, so some people said. Hicks
saw what he saw and reported ac-
cordingly; | saw more than was Wis
ible and added to 1t such details as
could help. Hicks had no imagination;
l had q double supply. He was born
calm; | was born excited. No vision
could start Il rapture in him, and he
was constipated as to language any
way, but if saw vision emptied
the dictionary on to it and lost the
remnant Of my mind into the bargain.
At the end of my first half hour
Hicks was thing of the past, 4 fallen
hero, q broken idol, and l knew 1t and
was glad and said in my heart, Sue
cess to crImcw Hicks could never
have been mesmerized to the point
where he could kiss an imaginary girl
In public or a real one either, but l
was competent. Whatever Hicks had
failed In l made it point to succeed
in. let the cost be what it might phys
ically or morally.
In 1917 we were living in a large
white house on the corner of Hill and
Main streets. My father died in it in
March Of the year mentioned, but our
family did not move out Of 1t until
some months afterward. Ours was not
the only family in the house; there
was another-Dr. Grants. One day
DIR. Grant and DR.. Reyburn argued
matter on the street with sword canes,
and Grant was brought home multifari-
ously punctured. Old DR.. Peake calk-
cd the leaks and came every day for
awhile to look after him. The Grants
were Virginians, like Peake, and one
day when Grant was getting we'll
enough to be on his feet and sit
around in the parlor and talk the con-
fersation fell upon Virginia and old
times. ! was present, but the group
was probably quite unconscious of me,
l being only Il lad and negligible
quantity Two of the group, DR.. Peake
and Mrs. Crawford, Mrs. Grants moth
err, had been of the audience when the
Richmond theater burned down years
before, and they talked over the fright
full details of that memorable tragedy.
These were eyewitnesscs, and with
their eyes | saw it all with an intoler-
able vividness. | saw the black smoke
rolling and tumbling toward the sky;
i saw the flames burst through 1t and
turn red; | heard the shrieks of thu
Idespairing; | glimpsed their faces at
the windows, caught fltfully through
the yelling smoke; l saw them jump
to their death or to mutila ton worse
than death. The picture is before me
yet and can never fade.
Very we'll, three or four years later
/ was king bee and sole subject in
the mesmeric show. 1t was the begin
ming of the second week. The per-
Torrance was half over. Just then
the majestic DR.. Pcake, with his ruff
fed bosom and wristbands and his
gold headed cane, entered, and def
erential citizen vacated his seat beside
the Grants and made the great chief
take 1t. This happened while l was
trying to invent something fresh In the