A STORY OF MESMERISM.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2400, 26 November 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

A STORY OF MESMERISM.

At Cincinnati I went, one evening, with friends to the theatre. The play was the J-'i'ly of Lyons, and Mary Anderson wan at her best that night. As I sat. there entirely absorbed in the play, a peculiar sensation crept along the nerves at the back of my neck. .Several times, during the second act, I observed that peculiar, crawl}' sensation, but being much occupied by Claude Meluolte, I determinedly kept my mind away from mvs-lf. I felt constrained to turn around. 1 combatted the impulse fur it lime, but at last I looked, and took in at a glance the people behind me in the dress-circle. A blonde gentleman, with a quizzical smile on bis red lips, sat directly behind me. Next him sat a portly man, with iron-gray hair, whispering to a pink and white woman behind her fan. Two or three studious-looking young men were in my range, and a commonplace-looking lady, in a neat black dress and bonnet, with a bunch of heliotrope on her bosom. A man, in full evening dress, came next ; then another, with a sallow skin and the features of an East, Indian, sat at the end of the last row, almost directly behind me. “That is the man ! ” I said to myself. “He is doubtless an Oriental psychologist, and is trying to mesmerise me.” I had read a few books on mind over matter—“ Warren’s Vagaries,” “Mr Isaacs,” and a work on mental vampireism, written by a Hungarian—so I was, in a measure, prepared for anything of the sort. I determined to create a counter current of magnetism, which should annihilate his, and, if possible, to bring him within the circuit of aura which I should cause to emanate from my brain-nerves. So I placed my will upon the matter in band, forgetting all about Mary Anderson. By turning a little in my chair £ could look at my persecutor. I did so, and gazed at him unremittingly for the space of three minutes. He was a handsome man, with his straight, black beard, his long, white teeth and his olive skin ; tall and thin, and with a peculiar look in his eyes, which the Hungarian had referred to in his book on this mesmeric gift. Every nerve thrilled in me when the man deliberately arose and came toward me, and passing in by three other seats, sat down m the only empty chair near me, and directly behind me, with but one row intervening. He remained there during the entire day, and though I tried my best to command him to go away I could not, and the nervous sensation I had experienced increased until I felt almost inert, as though under the effect of the strongest opiate or an anesthetic. I felt impelled to get up and go toward the man, and still an invisible chain seemed to draw me a little to one side of him. I was angry at myself for having joined in this psychological warfare. We were unequally matched. It was playing with edged tools. How could I, a simple American girl, hope to combat the mesmerism of one of those Hindu savants, skilled as they are in this occult art. I thought the play would never be done ; and still I had always been wild to meet a scientific mesmerist. In this, as in most things, the attainable loses its desirability. The man vanished in the crowd at the close of the entertainment, but the sensation I experienced remained with me still. The next day I had ooeassion to go to the bank. As I stood at the teller’s window I knew that the- same influence was affecting me which I had encountered the night before. “It is imagination,” I said to myself. ‘‘ I am becoming a hypochondriac. I will not look around,” but I nevertheless did look, just in time to see the tall figure of a man pass through the outside door. I had but a glimpse of him, and could not swear it was ray Hindu, but of course it was he. Who else, in nil the world, could make me discern his presence by only au effort of will. A commonplacelooking woman, with heliotrope on the bosom of her black dross, stood modestly waiting for me to finish my business at the window. “ Was the man who ju-t went through here a blonde or dark 5” I asked her, a little brusquely. She started slightly, and said, in a low, melodious voice : “Pardon me, but I did not notice him particularly. I think he was dark, however.” I thought of him often, hut did not foci his uncanny presence for a couple of days, when, on entering the post oliiee, I said to my mental self; “There he is again 1” although I did not sec anyone at all like him ; hut I felt that creeping, nervous feeling in the region of the base of the brain. Standing near the door was a splendid, lady-likc-looking woman, reading a letter, and I noticed she looked at me strangely, ami I fancied she had observed some change in my face, and I began to wonder if I grew pale when under the influence of the Hindu. One day, at the Zoological Harden, I became separated from my companions, and sat down in the fernery to await their coming. Suddenly I was startled by that peculiar psychical influence near me. Several people had just entered, hut they were yards away—several gentlemen and two or three ladies. I felt a little frightened, and arose and left the place. I heard footsteps following me. Evidently the Hindu was determined on an interview. How foolish I had been 1 Why had I noticed the man at the theatre ? It was certainly injudicious, and I was now paying for my temerity. 1 turned an acute corner, and still the footsteps sounded behind me. “ I will speak to him,” said I, “and conjure him to withdraw his Satanic charm. We have had enough of this. It must cease, and perhaps speaking to me will break the spell.” So I turned deliberately to confront my evil genius, and so amazed was I that I uttered a sharp exclamation, for there, behind me, instead of my tall, sallow, Hindu psychologist, stood a commonplace-look-ing woman in a black dress, with heliotrope on her breast. “Wait,” she said. “ I have long wanted to speak to you. I was impelled to do so at the Bank, the other day, and again at the Post Office.” I gazed at her in much wonderment, and she resumed: “Great danger is approaching one you love. Had you not left me so abruptly at the theatre I would have told you, and yon could perhaps have averted the peril, hut it is too late now. The man yon love dearest on earth has met with an accident. I think he will die. I have the gift of divination.” Leaving me, standing dazed and horrorstricken, she went away before I could speak to thank her for strange warning, or to beg of her an explanation of her powers. When I reached the house that night the first thing which met my glance on entering the hall was a telegram lying on the table. I snatched it with trembling hands, and could scarcely control myself as I read these words from my father in Chicago : “ Have had your railroad pass extended till 00. Enjoy yourself.” The man whom I loved most on earth lias had several successors since theu, and the only accident any of them has met with has been a slight arrow wound in the region of the heart, from which they have usually recovered, with no deep sears. I saw the black-robed woman afterward in a lunatic asylum, and she wore the same placid expression on her ! slender face, with a bunch of heliotrope on her bosom. Mkdoka Clakk.