An Extraordinary Statement.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3243, 29 June 1889, Page 3

An Extraordinary Statement.

pLa writer to, a Londoili periodical to tho.'oiroumstances atten- r Iping the abdication of King Milan of Obrvia, gives it as his opinion that fpie sovereign of tlio Servians had 5, Hibeen mesmerised, and was laboring ,t fjknlider the hypnotio influuncu • when V pie vacated the ' tlitono.: Tli6 : writer, ■ I®'support of his extraordinavy state- J Ifineht, i : which was > forwarded 5 from | ft-Belgrade, says that there is at present concensus'of testimony;!including ;; fftliat of His Majesty himself, thatthe flatter's iterves were entirely unstrung ffjjr otherwise in a high) stato .often- C Ifsion } that he ate little and. suffered i.- from insomnia and variousUyiiiptoms f r 'of: the hysterical ' temperament. £ IjiMadame Artemisia; Christioh. poa- ti . sessed, in the writer's opinion, a |?inost extraordinary and altogether " iunaccountable influence . over King v pan,' especially distorting in in ' astonishingly flagrant manlier ' all : his views regarding himself. Strange to say, although those who possessed the intimate acquaintance of Madame Artemisia considered her, intelleotuallyi beneath the average of women, the King'was wont to declare that 1 knowledge and grasp of all sub's jeots—political and greater than tlnse of all hi i Ministers , and court put togetheiv -Nobody ti arrive at a solution ofthe extra* p Bbrdinary. estimate put by Milan upon ( Tthis lady's accomplishments.- Again, 0 ■ in support of his contention, the | Ywriter states that Madame Artemisia q ■ arid her sister were perpetually <; Y engaged in hypnotic • and thoughtY reading experiments, both privately \ . and in the select company of the ' King and one or two others. . The ; i; King'was also referred to by Madame Y, Artemisia as a "good medium," • v who had obtained an unenviable notoriety among her acquaintances 'i-for her hypnotio powers. .Then the j ' King, when fairly, cornered in an ■ y argument regarding his then pro- ; ; posed abdication, would answer: jrMt is no.use of your talking; I 1 y mutt do it," in the'tone and manner familiar to those who have studied Y hypnotism. The "King's strange j ' behaviour on the morning of the " abdication, is also commented upon f ■ by the writer, who .mentions that an eyewitness said that the King came in briskly enough, and then suddenly Y stopped with his eye 3 .downcast. 8 : YWhen' he began speaking, one of his i iinust intimate friends standing by remarked. upon the extraordinary ' Tbange in his voice. "The King • " was Bpeaking like a ventriloquist," said the eye-witness, "and if I had n not seen his lips moyel should not ( have believed it : was Milan. His 6 eyes had ' a waMering, sleepy look, and hff seemed to me to be acting under compulsion." The writer concludes by stating that if it can be \ ' proyed that Milan was once mesmerised by Madame Artomisia, his r strange caprice in the, divorce, as in . the abdication will be explained by 1 v hypnotic suggestion, instead of being ■ the uritrammelled actions of a free c kin.g "The'secret,"he adds,"has t been well kept, and probably will * never emerge from the; region of, t conjecture,; but this statement 1 touches it closely." ■