EXCHANGE HALL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1250, 13 February 1896, Page 18

EXCHANGE HALL.

MESMERISM AND LAUGHTER. There was a large audience at the Exchange Hall on Saturday night to witness Mr T. A. Kennedy’s opening entertainment. In fact, the now attractive hall was quite full. Relying on the promise held forth in the newspaper advertisements, and the striking pictorial posters which have blazed out on the street hoardings, the people had come to mystified and entertained. In both respects their hopes were abundantly gratified. Mr Kennedy prefaced his performance with a few explanatory remarks, and then addressed himself to business. He invited persons to come forward and allow him to try his powers upon them. Thirteen men of various ages responded with cheerful alacrity, and were accommodated with chairs ranged in a semi-circle from the wings to the back of the stage. They wt ’> directed to sit with their logs apart, to pla e their right bands over their left wrists, and to close their

eyes. All this they did, and then as the pianiste began playing a slow valse, Mr Kennedy went the rounds of the seated figures and passed his right hand several times down the forehead and nose of each. Several of them appeared to at once yfield to this treatment by lapsing apparently into slumber. A second time the performer went round, and the figures of half-a-dozen out of the 13 began gradually to manifest stronger symptoms of sleep. One man, in a lavender suit, canted over to the side and laid his head on the shoulder of his neighbour, who, in sympathy, drooped his head upon the one he was supporting. Another man tumbled off his ehair and curled himself up on the stage. A third slid forward and turned heels over head on to his back. Then the man in the lavender suit, whose figure had been slowly collapsing for some time, rolled on to the floor, bringing his neighbour down with him. Six of Ike human subjects came to the floor in various unstudied attitudes, and for the remainder of the evening these six, and only these six, under the will and direction of the mesmerist, furnished the staple of the entertainment. It may be doubted whether if they had rehearsed it they could have furnished it to much more ludicrous and laughable purpose.

At the invitation of Mr Kennedy Dr Faulke and representatives of the Times and Post went upon the stage to narrowly watch the next operations, in order to prove that the half-dozen recumbent figures were really unconscious, Mr Kennedy passed a strong needle and thread through one sleeping man’s cheek, the place to be operated upon being chosen by one of |the pressmen, through the lobe of another’s ear, and through the flesh on the wrist of a third, drawing the thread to and fro by the ends. In no case did the subject wince or betray any sign of sensation, and tiny spots of blood appeared upon the punctured skin to attest the reality of the experiment. Then the needle was stuck into the men’s shoulders, and more lightly into their scalps, and still they lay still and impassive. Finally Mr Kennedy announced that he would place one of his subjects in a state of catalepsy. The cataleptic subject was lifted up and laid across the backs of two chairs which were held in position, the heels resting on one chair back and the back of his neck resting on the other chair back with his head hanging downwards, the middle portion of the body remaining quite rigid, although without any support. 1 hen Mr Kennedy bowed the centre of the body, and to show its rigidity in this difficult position bestraddled and sat upon it. By passes of his hands he brought it into an arched position, and again rested his entire weight upon it, calling the doctor to witness that the man’s breathing was perfectly quiet and normal, thus showing that thero was no exertion on his part. Then the cataleptic patient was held in a perpendicular attitude, bearing his whole weight upon his tip-toes. The muscles of his arms were relaxed and flaccid, but his legs and trunk were entirely rigid. Mr Kennedy flicked the man’s head with his right hand, at the same time calling out “all right,” and immediately the cataleptic woke out of his trance with a great start and turned a somersault, dragging on to the floor with him the person who had been bolding him up. On the floor thoy wrestled and struggled for a few moments, to the great amusement of his audienco. The iloctor and the pressmen then l-etircd to their seats, and the funny part of the entertainment began in real earnest, and was kept up without intermission until the sides of tho audience must have ached with constant laughter. Mr Kennedy played all sorts of tricks upon his halt-dozen subjects. He afflicted them with imaginary pains which seemed to cause them such distress that a coloured gentleman who had taken a seat upon the stage, but had not yielded to mesmeric influence, suddenly took to his heels and bolted from the hall, without troubling about his hat; he darted at them imaginary electric shocks, which contorted their limbs in real or supposed agony; he persuaded them that their legs or arms were bound fast and could not be freed ; he made one young man play some queer antics ; he set another to rock a chair, and lie persuaded a third to wear Lis coat turned inside out in the belief that he was putting right a previous mistake.

Then under the eyes of Mr Ralph Levoi and Mr P. Nathan he concocted a drink composed of kerosene, vinegar, cod liver oil, mustard and cayenne, and having instructed one of his subjects that he was to impersonate a hotel waiter and serve out the drink to another subject, he suddenly invited the make-believe waiter to drink to his health, and the man obediently quaffed the greater part of the nauseous draught. How it agreed with him is a matter for speculation, for he gave no sign afterwaids of disgust. After this live of the half-dozen subjects were brought forward in turn as concert singers, and each in turn bent down to an imaginary pianist to direct how the music should be played, and then with one exception sang as if they were used to the platform. The exception was a big man with a very thin and discordant voice, which was completely drowned by the loud laughter of the audience as he wrestled with “ Napolitaine.” There was a comic singer, however, who had to respond to a double encore. The two concluding acts were the funniest of all. The man in the lavender suit and the individual with the coat turned inside out were helped to chairs placed upon a table and were persuaded into accompanying Mr Kennedy upon a pretended haloon ascent. They acted out the comedy perfectly. When told*that they were off, the Professor having gone aloft (so he said as he merely stepped down), they rushed to. the sides of the table, peered over on to the floor and gleefully waved their hats. They resumed their seats and asked for whisky to be passed down from aloft, but received strokes from a stick upon the head, and got angry because they thought the bottles were being clumsily dropped upon them. Then the man with the inverted coat was brought to his senses, and wanted to step down from the table, but his companion, in apparent terror, and the most vigorous fashion, repeatedly hauled him on board again. Finally he got off, and the remaining individual was' then accused by Mr Kennedy of throwing the other out of the car, whereat he first stormed, and then bellowed and wept and protested with all the vigour- of his lungs. More comical still was the last act. _ Two men were placed in a large cradle side by side, and told that they were babes, whose sole duty was to whimper for their absent mamma. Another man was_ hastily tricked out in a gown, wig and girl’s straw hat, and told he was the nursegirl of the cradled twins. As they began to sob and cry “ Mamma,” the ridiculous nurse started to violently rock the cradle, and then noticing two feeding-bottles full of milk on the table he gave one to each, and resumed the rocking. The mesmerist freed the babes from his spell, and they started to clamber out of the cradle.

to the seeming affright of the mock nursegirl, who, finding kisses of no avail, promptly turned up one of the babes and Bpanked him as if used to the business. The audience shrieked with laughter while the struggle went on between the two men, making violent efforts to get out of the cradle and showing anger at being kissed and mauled about, and the other man who was frantically exerting himself to quell the rebellion of the posverful infants. THE MAN IN A TRANCE. In an oblong wooden box with glass sides, like one of the cases used for the exhibition of natural curosities in museums, Frederick Keating (who was put to sleep on Monday night by Mr Kennedy) still lies entraced. His eyes are closed, his chest heaves slightly as he breathes, his features are fixed, the limbs are rigid, and but for the healthy colour of the skin and the regular respiration he might be taken for a corpse. At the time of publication the man has been sleeping for close on 50 hours, and lie is to remain in that condition till 10 o’clock on Saturday night next. Anyone may see him in the meantime; the glass case stands ixpon the stage of the Exchange Hall, which is open day and night. The management announces a small charge for admission, and 10 per cent, of the takings will be handed over to the Wellington Hospital. This method, it is considered, will be much more satisfactory from the public point of view, for crowds will visit the hall, and Mr Kennedy considers it better than the appointment of a watching committee, as it is impossible to “ square ” the whole public, and as anyone may go in at all hours of the day or at night what is going on is always under the public gaze. Many hundreds of people visited the sleeping man on Tuesday. Dr Faullce and Dr Pollen were among the number, and subjected the sleeper to severe tests, Dr Faulke burning the man’s finger with a match without causing any reflex action, and finding the respiration 20deg., pulse 76deg. and temperature normal.