Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-03-07
TeIfair Says He Was Hypno-
tized and Robbed.
DIFFICULT TO AWAKE HIM
Physicians at Hospital Give Injec.
tions of Strychnine.
STORY HAS SOME SUPPORT
Had Been Negotiating for Land,
But Appearances Did Not In
dicate Prosperity.

Hypnotized and robbed Of $4,000 in the
Monument grounds is the story told by s.
J. Telfair, the seventy-year-old man who
had been asleep since last Friday, and
who woke up In the Emergency Hospital
at = o'clock this morning. Telfair sleepily
tells a tale of receiving money from the
Electra Dairy Company Of Philadelphia,
in which are interested, he says. Anthony
Drexel, Charles Biddle and j. H. Con-
verse. and having been forced asleep by
a man named Mark Tracy, hypnotist.
When he awoke he said something about
money, and mentioned casually that he
should have s35,OOO somewhere about his
clothes. When the doctors told him he
was penniess he said it was too bad, but
he guessed he could not help 1t.
1t is certainly not an ordinary yarn that
Telfair told. lying in a rather dazed con-
dition on the hospital cot. He says that
Mark Tracy is a man who has hypnotiZed
him time and time again until Telfair is
so completely under the control Of the
master mind that all Tracy has to do Is
to suggest and the weaker will bows
without q protest.
Hypnotized, Declared Doctors.
The physicians at the hospital believed
that the man was in a hypnotic trance as
soon as he was brought in Sunday. He
had been picked up on the Falls Church
electric line tracks Friday and taken to
Alexandria, where he became too much
Of a puzzle for Sheriff Palmer. who
Sunday asked permission to send the
sleeper to the Emergency Hospital.
The doctors gave the man injections Of
strychnine warranted to awaken any one,
even in the most complete hypnotic state.
They said this morning that otherwise
perhaps the man would have stayed
asleep until the influence Of the hypnotist
had passed out of the victims sphere.
When Telfair awoke at o'clock a
tired physician who had worked all yes
terday and all that night was sitting by
him.
The old man was In a dazed state of
mind. but careful questioning brought
out his story.
Telfair says he stayed for three days
last week In Rescue Mission at 323 Mis-
souri, avenue. They found a card with
that address on it in his clothes, and
the police have verified that statement
HQI Sudy "a. D. Sc, SEM 1IOm MIA
delphia by the Electra Dairy Company
he declares. brought $4,000 wrapped in
brown paper to Telfair.
Did Not Count Money.
Telfair said he did not count it be-
cause it was after banking hours. but
he made up his mind to go down to the
Monument grounds, read some personal
letters and hide the package OF money.
The doctor could not get Telfair to re-
call whether he met Tracy before or
after the money came The old man Is
not clear on that point. He says he
thinks Tracy made him go down there
by suggesting ii to him.
But how about this money? You didn't
have it when you came here. said the
doctor. DO you think any one took
it?''
We'll 7 don't know said Telfair,
without the slightest trace of worry: IF
it's gone it's gone. / can't worry about
it,
Telfair was prospecting to buy some
land for the dairy company. he says. and
a color of probability is given the state
nent by the fact that the Soule Realty
Company called UP the hospital at 9
o clock this morning and said that Telfair
had called at the Office several times and
had looked over TOO acres Of land near
Alexandria, The prize suggested was $780,
UO. of which 900 was to be In cash
and the balance in notes. A satchel be-
longing to the man was in the rear estate
office at the time tho telephone converse
ton took place and has been sent to police
headquarters
About the man he called Mark Tracy.
/ Telfair had not much to say. other than
that he Is New Yorker. and the remark
about being under his control. Later In
| his story he said that perhaps Tracy had
| followed him to the Monument and put
him to sleep there.
Claims to Be Wealthy.
When he had told this much. the doctor
| questioned him further abouthis past life.
that he is about seventy years old and
that he owns mines In South America and
Virginia and is worth about 100000.
| His clothes, however, are very cheap.
| his shoes are of the stvle known as
| him To suggest the ownership OF South
American mines or anything else in the
| way of paying property He could not
| say Why he had gone TO a lodging house
| on Missouri avenue.
The last place that Telfair lived, he
! said, was In the little town Of RicevilIe,
| Va, He said he had boarded with a
man named Presley McGregor in that
! place. When the doctors asked Tefair
| about the Electra Dairy Company all he
would say was that the three men named
were very much interested in il. but that
| tho company was not Incorporated, AS
J far as he knew, and that he did not
nave the address with him. He had
| dealt with the company through Morse,
the man who. according TO his story,
| brought the uncounted pile of money 10
Washington wrapped in butchers paper.