A STRANGE CASE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 200, 19 May 1920, Page 8

A STRANGE CASE

ATTEMPTED SUICIDE CHARGE

RESULT OF HOTEL BAR DISCUSSION ON HYPNOTISM

By Tolsrnwfli—Pro»a Apjoolatton.' Auckland, May 18. "It's an absurd charge," declared Franklvn .Tolm Smith, a vaudeville artist, who was charged before Mr. Wilson, S.M., to-day that lie attempted' to commit suicide by jabbing a knife into an artery of his left arm. The admitted circumstances were that on Saturday afternoon tho police got word that Smith was at the, hospital with n punctured wound iu his arm, a stitch having to be put in the wound which had bled copiously. As Smith was on bail awaiting trial at the Supremo Court on a serious charge, he was arrested. , The evidence of tho porter at the Metropolitan Hotel was that as he was cutting a pipe of tobacco in tho hotel Smith stepped up to him from a group of men, and asked fofl the loan of his knife, took it to a mantelpiece, crooked up his bared left arm on tho mantel and drove the small blado of the knifo into his arm. As the arm was straightened blood spurted from it. Men surged round excitedly to stop tlw bleedwir, but Smith laughed, and fended them off. declaring that things were all right. Eventually the licensee eaJne on the scene, and sent Smith by & taxi to the hosnital. The «xr>lanation made was that Smith and others, in the course, of fill ins in time between drinks, (rot info a d'seussion on hvpnotifliH, the siibjct be:ng iuttxiducod by the presence of Profnssor Da'maine. who protested to an unbeliever that he had come to dismiss a "spot, not to talk shop. Smith took up the cudgels for his showman business, and undertook to confound the sceptics by a demonstration of what he called hypnot-.Tnto-?ussPstiou. .will control, otc. Ho proposed to stick pins into his arm, but someone remarked in disgust, "Show us something new." Tie called for a and did the deed a* narrated. Smith, in the box. ridiculed the charge, bared his uniniured arm. and explained how blood was forced back from the veins of tlw forearm by muscular contraction. so that the wrick of a nned'c or rve-n ft knife would not draw blood. With the showman's inst ; nct bo waved one hvpnot'c hand over the arm. as if to onimiri* the Y.'tnl fluid IwrV and for».u. u-i>n r on Fsfristrntc irritably called "Enouffh!" AVitnesß said that vhei he hnd miseelculaicd his stnb h" declined to have tho flow, of blood. stopped at. first, for.fear that, if it were stopped too ■ soon there would l)e a danger of bloodnoi'onini? from the iobaeen-stained. blade. Afterwards. when Dalnnine went to nut on a tourniquet,/tho excited crowd in the bar prevented him from getting it on., ■ Claude Arthur Dnlmame. hypnotist, stated that wlien lie wished; to avoid a bar discussion •on the subject, ■ Smith, Who almost got annoyed ov»r the sceotiei'sm on the roint. jumped in. and did as stated. Without any of Smith's theatricalf'm, witness, explained that certain muscular contractions would force "the blood' back temporarily from the forearm, when a needle or knifeblade could be safeV wished into, the flesh, provided the rvrteri"S were avoided. Smith miscalculated, and cut an artery. buThe had two or three times, previously seen Smith sucreffully pierce his frm with a knife-blade, and had quite freouontly done it himself. He was ouite rertnin from Smith's demeanour that there was nothing else in the inci< • dent. . , The Jfnsistrato remarked that after hearing Dalmaine's evidence he was inclin»d to irive Smith th<- benefit of the doubt, and would dismiss tho case on condition .th"t the mnn pnid the costs of the jrroFPCution. Fis added h<i thought a tag should be put to Smith's bail bond to keen him out of hotels till he satisfied the law on the other charge.