The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-08-13
A MARK TWAIN PRANK
The Great HumoriSt When a Boy
Posed as a MEDIUM"
JUST WANTED TO SHOW OFF.
His owr Story of His Temptation and
Fall, the Way He Improved His OPP
portunity and the Dramatic Climax to
His Performance.

An exciting event in our village
HIannibaD was the arrival of the mes
merizer. / 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
1t yet. Not many people attended the
first night, but next day they had SO
many wonders to tell that every body's
curiosity was fired. and after that for
fortnight the ma gician had prosper
Gus 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 there
by he may be conspicuous and show
off before the public-and so when
saw the subjects perform their fool
fish antics on the platform and make
the people laugh and shout and admire
j had a burning desire to be a subject
myself. Every night for three nights
j sat In the row of candidates on the
platform and held the magic disk In
the palm of my hand and gazed at 1t
", 4 u
failure. l remained awake and had to
retire defeated. like the majority. Also
had to sit there and be gnawed with
envy of Hicks. our journeyman. I had
to sit there and see him scamper and
jump when Simmons the enchanter
exclaimed, "See the snake-see the
snakev' and hear him say. my. how
beautiful I'm 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 I was not strong enough to resist.
When ! had gazed at the disk awhile
! 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 it
in his fingers and telling me l could
not take my eyes off 1t, try as l might.
So I rose slowly, bent and gazing, and
followed that disk all over the place.
just as I had seen others do. Then I
was put through the other PAGES. Upon
suggestion I fled from snakes, passed
buckets at fire, became excited over
hot steamboat races, made love to
imaginary girls and kissed them fished
from the platform and landed mudcats
that outwelghed me. and SO on, all the
customary marvels, but not In the GUS
tomary way. l was cautious at first
and watchful. being afraid the profess
or would discover that l was an inn
poster and drive me from the platform
in disgrace but as soon as I realized
that / was not in danger I set myself
the task OF terminate ting Hicks useful
ness as a subject and OF usurping his
place.
1t was a sufficiently easy task. Hicks
was born honest; i without that in
cumbrance. so some people said. Hicks
saw what he saw and reported ac- |
cordingly; l saw more than was Wis
ible and added to 1t such details as
could help. Hicks had no Imagination;
/ had a double supply. He was born
calm; I was born excited. No vision
could start a rapture in him, and he |
was constipated as to language any
way, but IL I saw vision / emptied |
the dictionary on to 1t and lost the /
remnant of my mind into the bargain.
AT the end of my first half hour |
Hicks was thing Of the past, fallen
hero, broken idol, and I knew it and |
was glad and said in my heart, "Suc-
cess to crimer' Hicks could never |
have been mesmerized to the point |
where he could kiss an imaginary girl I
in public or a real one either, but 1 |
was competent. Whatever Hicks had /
failed In / made it point to succeed
In, let the cost be what 1t might phys
ically or morally.
In 1S47 we were living In q 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 DIR. Peake calk-
ed 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-
versation fell upon Virginia and old
times l was present. but the group
was probably quite unconscious of me.
being only a lad and a 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 eyewitnesses. and with
their eyes l saw 1T all with an intoler-
able vividness. I saw the black smoke
rolling and tumbling toward the sky:
saw the flames burst through it and
turn red: l heard the shrieks of the
despairing; I glimpsed their faces at
the windows. caught fitfully through
the yelling smoke: saw them jump
10 their death or to mutilation worse
nan death. The picture Ia before me
set and can never fade.
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