New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1908-01-18
THAT WICKED HYPNOSIS AGAIN.

Something less than score or years ago.
about the time that "Trilby' was in vogue, the
hypnotic theory of control over others aroused
much discussion and for brief space the
more timid thinkers on the subject feared that
they might wake up at any moment ana nnh
that a stronger mind than their own had III
duced them to do various things which were
not contemplated in their philosophy and which
would occasion feelings of regret. 1t was
amusing. enough, after paying quarter to the
man inside the cage at the door, TO watch the
professor put his subject to sleep and then
use him as a pincushion or sledgehammer Dy
way of diversion, or by making few motions
known in the inner circle as passes cause
some dignified citizen TO stand on his head or
walk on all fours with apparent gusto; but the
public didn't care for that sort of thing III
marketable quantities.
In Western state, about that time. the idea
of external control over one mind by another
became SO deeply rooted that in a trial for
murder the accused admitting that he COM
mitted the crime, convinced the jury that he
was under the hypnotic influence OF the real
criminal: wherefore the supposed hypnot1st
was convicted and hanged for the murder
confession made by the slayer on his deathbed
some wears later that the man who was ex-
ecuted had nothing to do with the crime, di-
rectIv or indirectly possibly served to shatter
the confidence of those jurors, at least, in the
hypnosis theory Since then. Notwithstanding
sporadic outbreaks, hypnotic suggestion has
rarely displayed itself in unusual form, lts ex-
;stence being forgotten by many except just
before election, when few passes, such as
crossing the palm with silver IN the saloon
around the corner from the election bootn
followed by a hypnotic suggestion as 10 the
sDecial fitness of of the candidates for or
fee. may have brought the phenomenon TO the
attention of the public.
Now comes-or rather, now remains in Lower
California-one William +. Walker, late of
Connecticut, who Is said to have acquired some
100000 by ways that are dark and tricks that
are vain with the assertion that he was hyp-
Noticed and recalls nothing Of his crime or of
the real criminals. He had slight recollection
he said of disposing of couple of bonds but
after that he remembered nothing until he
found himself on board train headed West
ward He had not of course the faintest idea
that he had been guilty Of any crime, but hay
ing for some time had desire to visit parts OF
the world outside the jurisdiction of the United
States courts he naturally continued on MS
way until he reached Mexico. He concealed
his Wherea bouts, not because he for moment
entertained any suspicious as 10 his own moral
rectitude, but because it occurred to him that
1t would be great joke to cause his family
mental anguish and. after the neighbors had
dragged the river and beat all the bushes within
a DAVIS tourney of his home, to read his own
obituary in the papers, dwelling lovingly on
the appended catalogue Of his virtues. Natur-
ally he was very much surprised when he
found that detectives were securing six con-
tinents and several adjacent islands with war
rants for his arrest for embeZzlement.
In the mean time. lest the minds of the
twelve good men and true should prove i'm
pervious TO the hypnotic arguments of the law
<lofo oirvht no oil for Nr
Walker to look up the latest and best authori-
ties on dementia Americana and stuporous
melancholia They might come in handy as
last resort