A POWERFUL MESMERIST.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1702, 23 February 1888, Page 4

A POWERFUL MESMERIST.

One Professor T. A. Kennedy, from the United States, has made a great hit at the Opera House, Melbourne, where he is giving mesmeric performances. The power he has over his ‘subjects’ is apparently unbounded, and the Argus says the entertainment beats the best low comedy acting. A company of mountebanks and mummers was brought into being whose antics far surpassed those which usually find a place in farce or pantomime. Ho prank was too wild, too ludicrous, or too delusive for them to perform with alacrity at the bidding of their master. They were mere puppets in his hands, and they developed a dramatic and a vocal talent which at times left the onlookers in doubt as to whether they were acting impromptu, or were rehearsing well learned parts. Some of their sayings seemed too pat,and their songs too good, to have been hit upon by accident; but on the other hand the professor, to convince the house that his subjects were really mesmerised, used a needle with somewhat startling effect. In the presence of tie Committee, who were upon the stage to attest the genuineness of what was done, the needle, with apiece of cotton attached, was, to all appearance stuck through the cheek and through the ear ot one of the subjects, who never flinched while this was being done. The Committee certified to the punciur© having been made, and that no blood had appeared. The subject himself kept on whistling merrily while he was being pierced, and evidently felt no pain. A moment afterwards he was jumping nimbly all over the stage killing imaginary rats with a broom so desperately that the Committee tumbled over their chairs in their haste to escape his blows.