MESMERIC "SUBJECTS."

Press, Volume L, Issue 8482, 13 May 1893, Page 9

MESMERIC "SUBJECTS."

MOTHER OVERCROWDED PROFESSION. (From the Pail Mall Budget,) 53n man may not have looked very robust, but there was nothing about him to indicate that a daily luncheon of paraffin m and candles disagreed with him. He to smile with some difficulty, but he gfterwards explained that this was not on jccount of the nature of his business; it simply a family trait. He had been a .'professional," he said, for "nearly twenty Jars," -° d ne had no reaßon to 055 * 5 that he would be ever found in any other jjue of business. When he said that he was he entered into no particulars. He used the word as if it applied to him and to the fellow-sufferers who occupied the same camp, and as if it applied to none except tbe "subjects- used by mesmerists and hypnotists who appear before that portion of the public who pays so much per head to see something which they cannot understand. Nearly everybody has seen the professional mesmerist at work. If *» 7«*, no f t go the professional mesmerist would find it necessary to become a bookmaker or a merchant prince, or something else in the ordinary way. I have seen a large number of him at work, and I remember a period when I looked upon him with the awe to which be was entitled, because at that period he seemed able to perform m an offhand manner a number of feats which, I fcuow now, he had prepared for in a careful and businesslike way. The man who is ,Ue to appear at ease upon a stage, of which In is the only occupant, and talk iv . casual way to a thousand people ahoot matters of which they undergttad nothiug, and about which he teems to knows everything while really fcooiruig very little, is entitled to at least a Kspectful hearing. When the professional ajenerist stood as close to the footlights "n lis could stand without scorching ki! trousers, and said he would feel obliged if any member of the audience irould take a chair on the stage, for the bejjefit of a science that was yet in its infancy, I was accustomed to think that he T as a stranger in the town and had never j_d eyes before upon the persons who rose from amidst the audience and took chairs own the stage. The subsequent proceedings used to fill mc with an amount of wonder that was never worth leas than the price of admission. THE INNOCENCE OP YOUTH. There always seemed to mc to be something more than frank, something bordering Boon business incapacity in the statement wsd* by the mesmerist that the power that Ms in him was not universal; that there did'exist, here and there, a person who was jot subject to his will; still, it seemed to ie, even when I accepted every statement iru-oct question, that the mesmerist was _u_mdiv fortunate, to put it on no higher peaids," in pointing his finger at persons „30 seemed to be subservient to his will in anther wholesale way. It never occurred ten* then that the mesmerist and any of ia "subjects" had ever met before. It was sa_*_mig of a shock to discover that I had been in error, and that even in mesmerism or hypnotism there is, among those who adopt it as a means of livelihood, a streak of business as cold and calculating as can he found upon the Stock Exchange.

Liko ordinary people, mesmeric subjects tie born. They are, however, of little use _rtiUhey are made. They are not always imaginative. There seemed to be an almost striking lack of the imaginative quality about William Smith, who said that he had been accustomed to eat candles for so much ptr day for many years. He was eight years old, he said, when he first became a iabject. He did not know that he was a subject until he had been told that he was. {Subjects of that age are, he said, of little use. for public purposes ; in fact, are hardly eVfcr used. They are considered good enough for amateurs, whose powers as mesmerists are of a rather weak order. To be thoroughly available for public purposes, a man, _lr Smith said, should be at least -twenty years of age. Women were useless as professional subjects. The public would not stand them, and the public, in Mr Smith's opinion, was quite right upon this point, though some of bis reasons seemed to rest upon insecure foundations. It made km laugh, he said, though he did not laugh, to think of the acute stage of trepidation which crossed him the first time he walked upon a public stage at the beck of a professional mesmerist. He feared that he might not answer the purpose, and that by & failure at the very outset might he ruin Ij career which his family and friends said jcoakl not be other than a glittering success. William's father expressed the opinion that J_e would be "a go," as he was nothing | more or less than a mental rag, and in this ejKßicro the rest of the family and all of W-iwn's acquaintances acquiesced. He W—iwgbteen years old at the time, and as he had been questioned beforehand by the toesoerist, the latter knew just what W_—_i could do without undue exertion. He was put under the " influence" and ordered to dance. He danced. I asked hia if he ever danced before. He aid he had always been able to Mace. Then he explained that "subjects" who danced or sang had always been -hie to dance or sing. While they danced or sang on the stage in answer to the will of the mesmerist, they were honestly ander his influence, and did not know what they were doing, yet at the same time his influence would have been powerless to -take them dance or sing unless they had kno-w_ how to do so.

THIS SALARIES OF " SUBJECTS." William said that he had not cultivated a taste lor paraffin oil or candles from his up. He ate them when he was under the ««u-taence." He did not eat them knowingly. He could not sit down at any moment and make a meal off candles no matter bow hungry he might be or how fine the quality of the candles might be. He "bitter" to paraffin oil, but wb«_ he drank the latter he was unaware ct the fact, and as he knew nothing about drinking it and suffered no ill effects from it it was all in the way of business. The man wha put his feet into a bucket of cold water with his boots on thinking he waa giving his feet a hot bath Was "quite straight," William aaid, and hid no idea of what an idiot he waa tasking of himself until the "influence was taken off." Nearly every mesmeric subject, he said, waa a " professional." They knew each other, and they were known to the "professional mesmerists." •In a city like London th are might be several mesmeric exhibitions " under way at the same time. When this was so, few subjects *«re unemployed. The moment a. mesmerist came to town his apartments were invaded by aubjects. He tried them all, *nd engaged those who were most ■""fcervient to his "influence," and *®* rat the same time able to conduct wfca-elvea in such a way aa to be ac**P—Me to the public. A man who could under the "influence" was nearly ****ys sure of an engagement. A man P**e~»d of a hearty laugh and able to keep iMjP for several minutes was seldom idle. were always in demand. — profession was rather crowded now, "uli_m said, _s business was rather slack, *M long engagements were very scarce. He **« earned _3 much as £3 a week and as jpfeas £1 10s, m a regular engagement. *** " subjects'' were paid more than £53 a J?*» *-<! salaries ranged between £1 and S* He had travelled, he said, all over the Kingdom, and had also been in «_rS n parts. Many mesmerists carried i"** subjects with them, William said, ydoing this they saved time, he said, and jjwentei the public from being disap**d wat by an uneven display.