THOUGHT-READING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7001, 24 July 1884, Page 3

THOUGHT-READING.

The Paris Correspondent of the Daily Newa gives an account of a "thought-reading" s&ince at the Hotel Continental, in which Mr Steuart Cumberland, who is exciting much attention on the Continent, was the thought--11 reader." The writer says: "About 300 persons were invited, most of whom came, and I never was at a first theatrical repiosen* tation at which there were inbfe distinguished persons. The thought-reader, or feeler—and 1 think tlje latter epithet more applicable to Mr Cumberland's pretensions—having been greatly fa.voured by the. Austrian, .Dresden, and Munich Koyal families, and in Canada by the Marquis of Lome and the Princess Louise, attracted the dlitc of the Viennese, Bavarian, Saxon, and English colonists here. Mr Cumberland, who is a ploasant-looking and rather handsome fair-haired man, beiDg unable to speak French, addressed the assembly in English. He declared that he set up claims to no supernatural power, but only to a natural gift which he had developed by assiduous practice. He was careful to say that he was not always successful, because those whose thoughts he wished to read should concentrate their minds upon the objects they wanted him to designate. When he bandaged his eyes President Vieville stealthily hid M. Daudet's cane and then gave his hand to Mr Cumberland, who, after laying it on his own fqrehead, started off with him to seek for it. M. Vieville afterwards said that his old practice as Judge of Instruction gives him great, self-possession and control over his muscles, so that when he was near the cane no muscular movement in his band betrayed consciousness of that fact. The cane was also passed to a person who was to hide it in such a manner that only intimate friends knew where it was. Mr Cumberland's search being vain, he complained through an interpreter that the mental stttontion of the president could not be concentrating oh the object ho thought of. A French journalist was theii experimented upon unsuccessfully, but he subsequently confessed that in passiog by a charming pink bonnot ho allowed his thoughts to wander to its wearer. Prince Hohenlohe was then asked to hide his breastpin somewhere. During a momentary absence of Mr Cumberland he came to the easy^cbair on which I sat and asked me to let him stick it in the back thereof. Mr Cumberland, on returning and being blindfolded, took the German .Ambassador's hand, and in a very short time laid it on the breastpin. The query is whether Mr Cumberland did lead Prince Hohenolhe, or whether the latter unconsciously led him, his Serene Highness being an impressionable man. The' thought-reader then proposed that somebody should think of the malady of an absent friend. The Princess Hohenlohe came forward at Mr Cumberland's request. She removed her mantle, and he felt her hands, arms, chest, shoulders, and then said she thought of a pulmonary affection, on which the Princes 3 cried out, 'No, it is a sore throat.' That distinguished international commercial advocate and law reporter, Mr Barclay, was then asked to hide a bunch of keys, and before doing so to touch two placeß with tfiem while Mr Cumberland was.out of the room. He did so, and Mr Cumberland found the places and the keys, which were shut up on the keyboard of the piano. Mr Barclay assured me that he did not lead the thought-reader, but that he was not certain he was quite master of his nerves and muscles and did not give involuntary indications when near the hidden object. An experiment on Count Hoyos was not quite successful, but a fan that the Abbe de Meissas thought of, and which was passed on to a lady he did not know, was found on her by Mr Cumberland. The ssance seemed to_ine liko a spiritless game of blindman's buff, and I must say that I have seen more intesting experiments of the kind at Neuilly and at gingerbread fairs. What was remarkable waß the quality of the people who were experimented on, their apparent faith and the soeming conviction of Mr Cumbsrland that he has a thought-feeling gift."

—Many of our greatest inventions were accidentally revealed or suggested. The telephone was discovered or invented by three persons about the same time. The phonograph was the result of an accident. The carelessness of a kitchen maid in allowing a pot containing brine to boil over led to the manufacture of common glazed pottery.