A SCENE AT A SEANCE.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 462, 6 February 1869, Page 3

A SCENE AT A SEANCE.

Mr Carr, phrenologist and electrobiologist, seems to have been rather unfortunate in his associations with residents of the West Coast. At Greymouth, on Saturday evening, says the Argus, there was quite a sceue at Mr Carr's mesmeric entertainment in the Volunteer Hall. Everything passed off quietly until the " subjects " under the influence of mesmerism were performing strange antics. The most of them were lads who had been on the stage ou previous nights, and who did what they were bid so readily and with so much demonstration as to lead a portion of the audience to believe that they were acting. Murmurs of discontent were first heard, then one after another several men offered Mr Carr from £1 to £5 if he would mesmerise them. One person, whose head had been phrenologically examined and lectured upon a few evenings previously, and who had been told by Mr Carr that one of the most prominent features of his character was that " he would rather run a mile than fight a minute," mounted the stage, and offered Mr Carr £5 to mesmerise him, or to give him a practical proof that the estimate which he had formed of his character, on the point mentioned, was a mistaken one. Mr Carr declined the first offer, because the gentleman had not come upon the stage to _ undergo the preliminary manipulation when volunteers were called upon in the early part of the evening. He also declined the " ocular demonstration," and adopted the strange course of abusing the man who offered it by such epithets as *' coward," " bully," &c. He then produced three of the "subjects", who were on the stage, and, in answer to his queries, they said they had never previously felt the " influence ;" but he did not

I question the lads already referred to. Two gentlemen who had been operated upon by him —one for disease of the eye, and the other for the excision of a tumor — stated that they had been greatly relieved by Mr Carr's mesmeric treatment. The performance was then permitted to proceed, and terminated shortly afterwards; but the affair is not yet ended.