DIES AT CHICAGO.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 6, 9 January 1899, Page 3

DIES AT CHICAGO.

A. SUDDEN END

Letters hy the American mail announce the death of 'Professor' Kennedy, the mesmerist, whose sudden departure from Sydney after a brief season at the Criterion Theatre at the end of September last- caused some sensation.

A correspondent, writing from Chicago, says:—'Kennedy did not Inst very long when he got back to America. So lie has paid one bigdebt, anyhow. The following appeared in a Chicago daily paper of November 17th: 'Head of mesmeric art. The body of Prof. Thomas A. Kennedy, w-ho first originated mesmerism as an entertainment, will be taken tn Jackson Mich_rran_ this after-

noon for interment. He died yesterday at the house of his brothers, H. H. and William Kennedy, 229, La Salle Avenue. Bright's disease was the ailment which brought about the end. Prof. Kennedy won fame as the star in the combination known as the Bayliss and Kennedy and Brig-ht Light Company, which travelled the country as one of the first vaudeville shows. So great was its success that the managers built the People's Theatre (now Hopkins') in Chicago. Kennedy was the first to submit his subjects to the tests of having- needles passed through their flesh and to similar ordeals. The remarkable degree of proficiency which he attained in the art of mesmerism made him a wonder to members of the medical profession. The

professor had just returned from Australia, and had intended to play a short engagement in Chicago when on Monday he was suddenly stricken. He was born in Dundas, Ontario, 45 years ago." '